Aussies take the upper hand, but Archer impresses
JOFRA Archer offered a tantalising glimpse of his Ashes potential as England attempted to bowl their way back into the second Test having been dismissed for 258 at Lord’s.
After a washout on day one, visiting captain Tim Paine made the brave call to field first in what appeared welcoming batting conditions, the first Australian captain to insert the opposition since February 2016.
The gamble largely paid off, England’s innings subsiding shortly before 6pm, but battling knocks from Rory Burns (53) and Jonny Bairstow (52) provided a foothold in the game.
Stuart Broad removed David Warner with a beauty as the tourists reached 30 for one at stumps, but Archer, England’s most eagerly anticipated debutant since Kevin Pietersen, turned in a compelling six-over cameo that hinted at plenty more to come.
His second ball in Test cricket almost flattened Cameron Bancroft’s off stump, his third topped 90mph and his 10th appeared to claim an edge that went unnoticed by everyone on the field.
The buzz around the 24-year-old masked a good day for Australia, for whom the recalled Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins took three wickets each as they preyed on a fragile top six.
Any apprehension Paine harboured about his decision evaporated midway through the second over, with Jason Roy dismissed for a brief, but torrid, duck.
Hazlewood’s first ball drew an uncertain waft of the bat, his second beat the outside edge and his third grazed the bat on the way through. Roy has just 43 runs in four innings as a Test opener and the suspicion that he may need to drop down the order to thrive is only growing.
Hazlewood was only getting started, though, reeling off three succes
sive maidens on a consistently challenging line before nipping one back into England captain Joe Root and thumping the knee roll in front of leg stump.
Having surrendered some of their momentum Australia reset during the interval and took the next four wickets for 62. Joe Denly was the first, taking another nasty blow on the arm before becoming Hazlewood’s third victim of the day courtesy of a thin edge.
Burns fell to a memorable grab at short-leg, Bancroft staying low, springing sideways and gathering one-handed at the second attempt.
That brought Jos Buttler and Ben Stokes together at Lord’s for the first time since their game-changing partnership in the World Cup final, but there was no encore.
Buttler fiddled outside off stump to give Peter Siddle his first success and Stokes fell lbw sweeping Nathan Lyon. Between them they had eked out just 25 runs and conjured a pair of soft departures. Ben Stokes is dismissed by Nathan Lyon
At 138 for six the game – and possibly the series – was slipping from England’s grasp. That they did not lose their grip entirely was down to Bairstow, coming in on the back of four successive failures.
He put on 72 with Chris Woakes, driving crisply and correctly whenever invited and building up enough confidence to unveil a deft reverse sweep off Lyon.
Woakes had batted with impressive care and attention for 32 but it took only one well-directed bumper from Cummins, thudding the back of the helmet as the all-rounder ducked, to undo him.
Woakes passed a concussion test but was rattled, lasting just a couple more balls before gloving another ribtickling delivery through to the wicketkeeper.
The barrage of bumpers continued for the rest of the innings, Archer succumbing after one flamboyant cut for four. Lyon wrapped things, bamboozling Broad before Bairstow holed out chasing late runs.