Nathan Lyon. (Photo Source : Gettyimages)
After a hard-fought win over England in the first Test, Australia would be high on confidence and now action moves to the Lord’s in London where both teams will face each other for the second time in the ongoing Ashes series. Australia are now two wins away from retaining The Ashes Trophy for the 35th time.
Speaking about how the first game panned out, England won the toss and opted to bat first on a flat Edgbaston track. The openers took them to a decent start and put together a 70-run partnership. Nathan Lyon picked Ollie Pope and ended the partnership. Fifties from Zak Crawley (61) and Jonny Bairstow (78) along with an impressive century from Joe Root (118) helped the host to post 393/8 before the England skipper Ben Stokes came with a surprise declaration.
In response, Australia’s top order did not live up to the expectations and the visitors were left reeling at 67/3. The duo of Travis Head and Usman Khawaja rescued Australia with an 81-run stand for the fourth wicket. Mooen Ali dismissed Travis Head for 50 runs. A brilliant century from Usman Khawaja along with a half-century from Alex Carey helped Australia to reduce the first innings deficit to 7 and Australia got bowled out for 386.
England started the second innings with a 7 runs lead. Valuable knocks from Joe Root (46 off 55), Harry Brook (46 off 52), and Ben Stokes (43 off 66) helped them score 273 and Australia were given a target of 281.
Chasing 281, Australia got a good start as the duo of Usman Khawaja and David Warner put together 61 runs for the first wicket, and soon David Warner got dismissed by Robinson. A calm & composed fifty from Usman Khawaja (65 off 197) and handy contributions from Pat Cummins and Nathan Lyon helped Australia beat England by the margin of two wickets
Meanwhile, here are some of the important stats and numbers ahead of the 2nd Test between England and Australia in The Ashes 2023:
Head-to-Head: Both teams have met each other 357 times in the history of Test matches, with England winning on 110 occasions and the Australians on 151 with 96 encounters ending up in a draw.
31– Steven Smith (8969) needs 31 runs to reach 9000 runs in Test cricket.
4 – Ben Stokes (196) requires four scalps to reach the milestone of 200 wickets in Test cricket.
84 – Smith (14916) requires 84 runs to complete the landmark of 15000 runs in international cricket.
49 – Moeen Ali (2951) needs 49 runs to get to 3000 runs in the longest format of the game
10 – Mark Wood (90) requires ten wickets to get to 100 wickets in Test cricket.
4 – Stokes (296) is four scalps away from getting to 300 wickets in international matches.
2 – Ali (198) requires two wickets to get to 200 wickets in the Test format.
3 – Stokes (97) needs three wickets to get to 100 wickets in Tests at home.
6 – Chris Woakes (94) requires six scalps to reach 100 wickets in Test matches at home.
9 – Josh Hazlewood (391) requires nine wickets to get 400 wickets in international matches.
1 – David Warner (199) is one grab away from reaching 200 catches across formats.
3 – Stokes (97) needs three grabs to complete 100 catches in Test Cricket.
5 – Nathan Lyon (495) needs five poles to complete 500 Test wickets.