Hello and welcome to Sportstar's Live coverage of Day two of the first Ashes Test match between England and Australia at Edgbaston, Birmingham.
Stumps on Day Two. England clearly in the driver's seat with Rory Burns remaining unbeaten on 125 and Ben Stokes batting on 38. England trails Australia's first-innings score by just 17 runs.
Runs continue to come for England. The partnership between Burns and Stokes is well past the 50-run mark. Six overs left in the day.
Second new ball's available now. Australia take it after the first delivery of the 82nd. Cummins with the new ball.
Signs of desperation from Australia? Matthew Wade to roll his arm. Now Travis Head. Aussies are going through the motions, waiting for the day's play to end. The new ball's due in two overs. Expect Cummins and Pattinson to have a crack as soon as Australia take the new ball. ENG 241/4 after 80 overs.
That's a maiden Test hundred by Rory Burn s. Top innings from the left-hander... he soaks in the applause as England continue to pile misery on Australia.
Burns moves to 98 with a tickle down fine-leg for four. He moves to 99 with a quick single. 200's up for the host as well.
GONE! Cummins gets the danger man Buttler, who is caught by Bancroft in the slips and Australia have snuck in a couple of quick wickets here. Ben Stokes joins Burns. ENG 194/4 after 65.4 overs.
Cummins bowls a terrific over to Burns, which ends in a maiden. Got the ball to move away from the left-hander regularly from just short of a length. Burns fished at a couple but luckily for him and for England, the ball didn't brush the edge. ENG 193/3 after 64 overs.
GONE! Pattinson gets Denly out lbw and the change of ball works for Australia. Wicket No. 3 falls for the host. Jos Buttler joins Burns. ENG 189/3 after 62.1 overs.
Burns moves into the nineties with a delightful drive off Cummins. The sun's out in all its glory as the Aussie bowlers continue to toil. Last 10 overs have gone for 31 runs. England now only 99 behind Australia's first-innings score with eight wickets in hand. ENG 185/2 after 60 overs .
Players walking back to the field for the final session. All eyes will be on Burns who is nearing his maiden Test hundred. Nathan Lyon to start proceedings.
=======================
Some respite for Australia at the fag end of the second session, with Peter Siddle getting rid of Joe Root courtesy with a brilliant one-handed catch on his followthrough. Meanwhile, Denly has joined Burns, who is nearing his maiden Test ton. What an occasion it would be if he gets there! Session honours to England . ENG 170/2 after 56 overs.
ONE HANDED STUNNER from Siddle and Root's got to go. He drives but drives uppishly and Siddle's plucked a brilliant catch to get a much-needed breakthrough. Root falls for 57. Joe Denly comes to the crease. ENG 154/2 after 50 overs .
Root, too, gets to his fifty with a boundary. The 150 also comes up for England and there's worry writ large on skipper Tim Paine's face, and rightly so. The partnership between Root and Burns is now 130. ENG 152/1 after 48 overs.
100-run stand comes up between Burns and Root courtesy a boundary off Root's willow. These two are now piling the pressure on Australian bowlers as Pat Cummins returns into the attack, searching for that elusive wicket. ENG 122/1 after 42 overs.
Root and Burns have started to score freely, as Australia continues to persist with the Siddle-Lyon pair. Wonder if they're missing Starc, yet? Runs are coming thick and fast with Burns looking solid in his maiden Ashes outing. Root, as always, showing no signs of discomfort. The visitor needs to conjure a wicket from somewhere! ENG 107/1 after 40 overs .
Root's been given out lbw, again. He reviews, again. The replays show an inside edge, again. He survives. 10th wrong decision of the match. The umpires are not having a field day.
Fifty up for Rory Burns . Well played. He gets there with a boundary to fine leg off Lyon, and England's now pressing the advantage.
Burns and Root walk out to the middle. Burns to take strike. Siddle to start proceedings. Four slips for him. Three runs from the over. Nathan Lyon to continue from the other end. He's getting appreciable turn off the pitch. Burns, meanwhile, is growing in confidence as he plays a confident cut shot off the backfoot for four. ENG 78/1 after 31 overs.
======================
That's Lunch on Day Two.
England take the honours in the first session on day two courtesy an unbeaten 49-run stand between Joe Root and Rory Burns. Root and Burns negotiated a testing passage of play where Pat Cummins and James Pattinson asked questions of the two batsmen. But the subsequent introduction of spin in the form of Nathan Lyon and third seamer Peter Siddle, seems to have made life easier for the left-right combination. Burns, of course, had a stroke of luck going his way when Australia chose not to review a lbw decision against him - the replays showed three reds. All things said, England will be the happier of the two sides going into lunch. ENG 71/1 after 29 overs.
Joe Root's been given out caught behind off Pattinson. But he reviews and replays show no edge and the England skipper survives. The hosts have gone past 50, with Root and Burns putting on a stodgy stand in the middle. Less than 30 minutes to go for lunch. Interesting passage of play coming up. ENG 53/1 after 21 overs.
Short-leg, leg-slip and a slip for Nathan Lyon. Lyon could've had his first wicket of the match had Australia reviewed a lbw decision against Rory Burns. The replays show three reds : Burns gets a life. Can he make it count? Meanwhile, there's plenty of turn on offer here, as evidenced by the sharp spin Lyon got off his first ball. He's bowling in tandem with Peter Siddle. ENG 42/1 after 15 overs.
Cummins and Pattinson have done their jobs so far. Yes, they were taken for a few runs at the start but Pattinson's wicket of Jason Roy will force England to go on the defensive. It'll be interesting to see how Tim Paine uses his other two bowlers — Peter Siddle and spinner Nathan Lyon. You would imagine the duo will try and prise out the batsmen by containing the scoring while Cummins and Pattinson will be the attacking options. Important one hour before lunch coming up. ENG 31/1 after 11 overs.
GONE! There's the wicket and it's Pattinson, who gets the breakthrough on his Test return and Smith who completes a sharp catch in the slips. Jason Roy has to depart and England have lost their first wicket! Joe Root in at 3 for the first time since the Test match in Southampton last summer. ENG 22/1 after 7.2 overs.
Rory Burns and Jason Roy resume action on Day Two. Overcast conditions in Birmingham. Pat Cummins to continue. He has three slips in place. Cummins starts with a maiden. Pattinson runs in from the other end. A boundary for Roy in that over. Four from it. ENG 14/0 after 4 overs.
=============================
Match Report: Ashes 2019: Stunning Smith century rescues Australia
Steve Smith scored arguably the finest century of his Test career to rescue Australia from the brink of collapse in the first Ashes Test against England side facing an anxious wait to learn the extent of an injury to pace spearhead James Anderson.
Having won the toss and opted to bat, Australia twice looked in deep trouble despite England only being able to get four overs out of leading Test wicket-taker Anderson, who was sent for a scan due to "tightness" in his calf.
Australia was reduced to 35-3 and then 122-8, but on each occasion former captain Smith performed a rebuilding job and was rewarded for anchoring the innings with a hundred on his first Test appearance since serving a 12-month ban.
Ashes 2019: England hoping for good news on Anderson injury, says Broad
He thrived amid the predictable boos that greeted him, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft following their suspensions for ball tampering in the South Africa series last year and, having successfully reviewed an lbw decision on 34, racked up 144 to guide Australia to 284 before Stuart Broad bowled him to claim his fifth wicket and 100th in Ashes cricket.
England survived two overs without loss before the close, reaching stumps on 10-0.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ashes 2019: Smith moving on from ban with 'one of best hundreds'
Steve Smith relished the opportunity to quickly put his Test lay-off behind him with one of his best Australia centuries in the longest format.
Australia was rocking on the first day of the Ashes opener at Edgbaston either side of Smith's arrival at number four, reduced to 122-8 as Stuart Broad dominated for England.
But former captain Smith, playing for the first time since his 12-month ban for his role in the ball-tampering scandal, kept plugging away.
A magnificent knock of 144 off 219 went a long way towards silencing the boos in the England crowd and Smith acknowledged it would have to go down as one of his greatest Test innings, dragging Australia back to 284 all out.
"It's got to be one of my best hundreds definitely," he said. "It's the first Ashes Test match and the ball was doing a far bit out in the middle, so I had to work really hard.
"I got beaten a few times but let that go and concentrated on the next ball and kept digging in.
Comments
SHARE