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Australia held on on Day 4 of the second Ashes 2023 Test at Lord’s on Saturday (1 July) reducing England to 114-4 after setting a target of 371. England needed 257 more runs for victory on Day 5.
Earlier, on the same day, England’s bowlers took inspiration from their Australian counterparts and shocked the visitors. The Australians went from 187-2 to 279, but were back in control of the proceedings.
In pursuit of 371, England got off to a disastrous start, losing their first four wickets for 45 runs. Zack Crowley (3) was caught in the leg off a full, swinging delivery from Mitchell Stark. Then, Aussie-arm-left pacer took out Ollie Pope’s middle stump (3) with a quick swinging delivery from the outside.
Australia’s captain Pat Cummins produced two camels to dismiss Joe Root (18) and Harry Brook (4). Root held up the back of a length that had become too big to slip off first. Brock was comprehensively beaten by Kahn’s wide-angled delivery from the crease and straightened to breach the batter’s defense.
Ben Duckett (50*) and Ben Stokes (29*) appeared for a fifth unbroken wicket stand of 69 to lift England. On the second over by Travis Head, Stokes sprinted down the field and raised the timer aloft for a six.
Duquette seemed in control and kept finding the boundaries to keep the scoreboard moving. He brought up the England opener his second fifty of the Test by drawing a short delivery from Starc for one.
Immediately after reaching his half-century, Duckett hooked his bat on a short delivery from Cameron Green. The ball went towards fine leg, where Stark took a good sliding catch, or so he thought.
Despite this, the third umpire concluded that the catch was not clean, as the player dragged the ball along the lawn when he completed the catch, and Duquette escaped.
England learns from Australia, building the short ball’s stratagem successfully
Taking a leaf out of the book of Australia, England’s bowlers also adopted the short ball stratagem and tasted stunning success. The Australian, who resumed his second inning at 130-2, was bowled out for just under 280.
Steve Smith looked in good shape again and smashed James Anderson to a triple four early in the first session. But Stuart Broad (4-65) troubled Usman Khawaja (77) with a series of bouncers and got him to edge a short ball to secure a penalty. The header would have been dismissed off the first ball when he chipped one off Josh Tong into the groove, but Anderson put his second ball to the test.
Tongue and England had reason to celebrate the next ball, though Smith (34) drew another rising delivery to deep square leg. Header (7) also fell to the English keeper’s trick, as he made a one-handed reach from Broad to minute leg, where he took a fine alert Root with one hand as the visitors went to lunch at 222-5.
England stuck to the successful scenario in the second over as well as Green (18) joined the list of Australian batsmen who have died at the short ball. He holed deep square leg off Ole Robinson. Alex Carey, 21, snarled for 73 balls but also slashed a similar punch with his teammates, slicking Robinson at short leg.
In the 8th, Cummins escaped the top to signal that his opposite number Stokes had been over. He eventually fell for 11, cutting another short from Broad to Gully.
After Josh Hazlewood (1) had tickled Stokes with a short leg, the injured Nathan Lyon came out to mid and in almost heroic fashion pulled a tongue to the curb. Broad was soon decimated for four, mistaking the delivery to midwicket.
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