Sport
England v Australia Second Test preview
England will be looking to overturn a 1-0 Ashes deficit after slipping to a dramatic two-wicket loss at Edgbaston last Tuesday.
Can Ben Stokes’ men drag their way back into the series, or will Australia take a commanding 2-0 lead at a ground they historically love playing at? We preview Wednesday’s action below.
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First Test Errors Cost England
It’s an old cricket trope to blame a loss on shortcomings within your own ranks, rather than admitting the opposition were better on the day, but in England’s case, it really feels as if they gifted Australia that first Test victory.
From risky declarations to missed stumpings, and dropped catches to unnecessary dismissals, it always seemed as if Ben Stokes’ men were ahead of the game as soon as they won the toss and decided to bat on Friday morning, but were unable to put the match out of Australia’s reach.
Pat Cummins’ side simply stayed in the game for long enough, despite being somewhat passive and “under-par” for most of the five days (Marnus Labuschagne’s words; not ours), and were able to snatch victory at the very death from an admittedly brilliant ninth-wicket partnership between Cummins and Nathan Lyon.
Aggressive strokeplay is obviously expected with England’s ‘Bazball’ approach, but does it really necessitate the likes of Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow and Moeen Ali dancing down the wicket to take on Australia’s best ever off-spinner and seeing Alex Carey remove the bails when the opportunity was there to take the game away from the visitors? Lyon didn’t look overwhelmingly threatening for most of the match yet finished with 8 wickets – how many of those came from pre-empted expansive strokeplay?
England may find such an approach more difficult on a Lord’s surface that will definitely aid seam bowling more than the benign Edgbaston pitch that rendered the likes of James Anderson ineffective for most of the five days, so they would be wise to choose their moments more selectively on Wednesday.
They are slight underdogs in the betting at 6/4 to roar their way back into the series. From an individual perspective, Joe Root predictably leads the top run scorer market at 11/4, but watch out for Ben Duckett (11/2), who was quiet at Edgbaston, but hit a brilliant 182 against Ireland in his only other Test at Lords earlier in the month.
Australia still have more to offer
Despite the brilliant manner of a first Test victory that will live long in the memory of Australian cricket fans, the visitors will know they need to improve if they are to secure a first Ashes away victory since 2001.
Their bowling attack did well enough to take 18 wickets on such a flat surface – even if most of those were gifted to them by England’s approach – and the likes of Usman Khawaja, Travis Head and Alex Carey all certainly held their end of the bargain when chasing down England’s first and second innings totals.
The tourists were surprisingly sold short from the usually flawless Marnus Labuschagne and Steve Smith, who amassed 35 runs between them across both innings. This will in many ways encourage the visitors, who know they can win games without their star batsmen firing on all cylinders. The duo are 7/2 and 5/2 respectively to turn their form around and be their side’s top run scorers in the first innings
Australia are the narrow 6/5 favourites to take a 2-0 series lead at a ground where they’ve lost just seven of their 39 Ashes tests, with a draw priced at 4/1.
