James Anderson led a demolition job on the Australian batting lineup as England took a stranglehold in the second Ashes Test at Lord’s. He starred in an inspired bowling performance compared to the home side’s limp showing in Cardiff as the tourists slumped to 8-156 at stumps on day two in reply to England’s 425.
Nathan Hauritz (3no) and Peter Siddle (3no) were unbeaten when play ended due to bad light after Australia lost 6-49 in 15.1 overs after tea.
Anderson (4-36), who captured five wickets at 82.60 in the 2006/07 Ashes series in Australia, answered lingering questions on Friday about his big game temperament by making great use of the overcast conditions.
He removed Phillip Hughes (4) and Ricky Ponting (2) to put Australia on the backfoot at 2-10 before returning later on to dismiss Michael Clarke (1) and Marcus North (0).
Mike Hussey (51) and Simon Katich (48) made starts but the rest of the batsmen struggled against a disciplined English performance in good conditions for seam bowling.
The home side do have one concern though over the fitness of Kevin Pietersen, who has a niggling Achilles tendon injury, as he spent time off the field during the final session.
Other than that it was all smiles after Anderson made the early inroads, giving the Queen good reason to smile from the stands before she met the players during the lunch break.
The right-armer had Hughes gloving a wide ball down the leg side to wicketkeeper Matt Prior in the third over of the innings.
Four overs later, Anderson claimed the scalp his side was craving in Ponting, South African umpire Rudi Koertzen ruling that Ponting had been caught at first slip.
Koertzen hesitated before asking for the third umpire’s advice but the third official could only rule on whether the ball had carried and Ponting was removed.
Replays showed Ponting missed the inswinging delivery and hit his bat hit his boot, the ball deflecting off his pad to be collected on the full by Andrew Strauss.
The captain looked less than impressed with Koertzen’s decision but Anderson otherwise had strong claims for an lbw decision.
Katich and Hussey pulled Australia out of deep trouble with a 93-run stand but the tourists collapsed after Katich top-edged a pull shot off Graham Onions with Stuart Broad taking a fine diving catch in the deep.
Departing allrounder Flintoff was then rewarded for his tight line with Hussey leaving a ball that clipped the top of off stump.
Anderson returned to the attack and Clarke fell to a well worked trap with Cook taking a sharp catch at midwicket after the right-hander flicked it to the leg side.
North and Haddin tried to steady the innings by putting on 28 but Cardiff centurion North failed to get going and fell inside-edging a pull shot back onto his middle stump.
Australia’s wickets continued to fall when Mitchell Johnson (4) miscued a pull shot off Broad (2-47) with Cook taking the catch in the deep.
The floodlights came on and the artificial light took over, that should have led to an early close but the umpires kept the players on the field.
Brad Haddin (28) then fell, his pull shot lobbing gently to Cook before the officials called it a day soon afterwards.
Rain caused two stoppages totalling about 80 minutes in the middle session and play was called off 24 minutes beyond the usual stumps time.
Build your own fantasy cricket team and put it to the test with Draftstars daily fantasy competitions. Pick your match, pick your team and watch the points roll in to take out cash prizes on each match. What are you really gambling with? Set a deposit limit.
New Zealand took 28 years to win a Test match, finally triumphing in 1956. There were plenty of skilled individuals before that but not a complete team.
In just under three weeks, the 2024 Men’s T20 World Cup will commence in Texas as the United States face off against Canada in…
After Rajasthan opener Yashasvi Jaiswal hit a boundary off the first ball, the Punjab player got revenge a few balls later - and ultimately…
"No cricketer that has ever lived hit the ball so often, so fast and with such a bewildering variety of strokes.” - HS Altham…
Featuring Aussie cricket star Usman Khawaja and taking inspiration from multiple horror films, Amazon Prime's promo for the 2024 T20 World Cup has certainly…
After a career that has spanned more than two decades, James Anderson leaves cricket as a legend of the game, up there with the…
