Smith answers back, while England wickets (and fans) fall...
Monday 3 August 2015 18:38, UK
The invisible chair
England batsmen weren’t the only ones to fall at Lord’s. A poorly-timed – or perfectly-timed, depending on your outlook – cutaway to the crowd captured the moment a fan fell to the floor after missing their seat.
The spectator had all eyes on her as she made her way down the Lord’s steps and back to her seat, only to fall at the final, and simplest, of hurdles, drawing chuckles from the crowd, commentary box, and even the players.
Rogers’ hundred
Chris Rogers loves batting at Lord’s. The Middlesex man has hit hundreds for fun there during his county cricket career, but his first-innings 173 for Australia was his first at the home of cricket in Tests and secured his name in history on the honours board.
Sadly the rest of the Test did not go as well for the 37-year-old as he had to retire hurt in the second innings due to dizziness. Recently ruled out of Australia’s Test in the West Indies for the same reason after being hit on the head in a warm-up game, we wish him a speedy recovery.
Stokes’ run-out
England had long lost the game by the time Ben Stokes was run out, but the manner in which he was dismissed was perhaps indicative of the scrambled brains of the England’s batsmen as they collapsed to 103 all out and a 405-run defeat in the Test.
Australia’s bowlers bounced them out inside two sessions on a flat pitch on the fourth day with Mitchell Johnson taking three wickets and accounting for the run out of Stokes, who avoided his throw much like England’s batsmen wanted to avoid his bowling. Stokes didn’t ground his bat as a result, meaning he departed in embarrassing fashion.
Smith double-ton
Steve Smith was a man with a point to prove after falling from first to second in the ICC Test batting rankings after two scores of 33 at Cardiff.
But maybe we were a little quick to judge. Smith didn’t quite soar to the heights he has hit over the past 18 months in the first Test, but he showed no signs he wasn’t up for the job at No 3 in the batting order. Many wondered if English conditions would be his undoing so high up the order, but his double hundred at Lord’s has emphatically put that notion to bed.
Australia level the series
Blink and you’d have missed it. Australia had been in the ascendancy at Lord’s ever since Michael Clarke won a crucial toss on the first morning, but they wrapped up the victory in rapid fashion as England crumbled in their second innings.
Either side of the tea interval on day four of the Lord’s Test, England lost seven wickets in just over 11 overs for 55 runs. Some old wounds from their 5-0 whitewash at the hands of Australia in the 2013/14 series were re-opened, leaving this year’s Ashes level at 1-1.
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