Ashes 2019: Jonny Bairstow and Chris Woakes limit the damage for England before tea
Written by News on 15/08/2019
Jonny Bairstow and Chris Woakes put on 63 for the seventh wicket to halt an England middle-order collapse before tea as the second Ashes Test got under way at Lord’s.
After day one was washed out, Australia captain Tim Paine won the toss and put England in to bat. It looked like an inspired decision when Hazlewood removed Jason Roy with his third ball and even more so when the hosts slumped to 138-6.
Josh Hazlewood (3-42) made an instant impact on his return to Australia side with two wickets in a fantastic opening spell before England’s batsmen proceeded to get themselves in and then out after lunch.
A stand of 66 between Rory Burns (53) and Joe Denly (30) either side of lunch had given the home fans, many of whom were decked out in red on Ruth Strauss Foundation Day at the home of cricket, something to cheer and the intervention of Bairstow and Woakes took England to 201-6 at tea.
Following the toss, the five-minute bell was rung by Sam and Luca Strauss, sons of Andrew and Ruth, before the players came out wearing red caps that will now be auctioned off to raise money for the foundation.
Once the action began, Australia were quickly on top as Pat Cummins started with a maiden to Burns and three balls into the next over, Roy pushed at one he could have left from Hazlewood and edged behind for a duck.
Cummins and Hazlewood continued to build the pressure with some excellent new-ball bowling, a pair of perfectly executed cover drives from Joe Root (14) and an expensive over from Peter Siddle eased it somewhat but Hazlewood soon struck again.
He nipped the first ball of his fifth over back up the slope to beat Root’s inside edge and him plumb in front. Up went the umpire’s finger and out went the England captain after quickly deciding a review would be futile.
There were no real demons in the surface, but the partnership between Burns and Denly was not without incident. Burns drove at Siddle on 16 and sent a thick edge to Usman Khawaja who dropped a routine chance at gully.
Nathan Lyon then spun one past Denly’s inside edge and when the umpire turned down the initial appeal, Australia reviewed, only for ball-tracking to show the ball would have missed leg stump.
From there, the England pair played determinedly through to lunch and beyond before Hazlewood came back and got Denly with a full delivery that moved late and took the edge through to Paine.
Burns had another life on 47, Siddle again the unlucky bowler as Paine went one-handed to his left but shelled the catch. The left-hander reached his third Test fifty from 119 balls but his luck ran out soon after as Cameron Bancroft took a stunning catch at short leg off Cummins, clinging on at the second attempt with his left hand with the ball just centimetres above the turf.
Jos Buttler (12) and Ben Stokes (13) soon followed, the former feathering behind off Siddle and the latter lbw to Lyon to bring Bairstow and Woakes together as England fought their way up to 200.
Watch continued live coverage of the second Test between England and Australia on Sky Sports The Ashes and Main Event.
(c) Sky Sports 2019: Ashes 2019: Jonny Bairstow and Chris Woakes limit the damage for England before tea
