Ashes: 2nd Test fascinately balanced after Day 2

It may have contained 75% more chaos than any of the five at Edgbaston, but England and Australia once again served up an absolutely engrossing day of Ashes cricket on Thursday.

Day 1 at Lord’s had felt almost exclusively one-sided, Australia’s success with the bat all the more galling for England given they had won the toss and were expected to make the most of helpful bowling conditions.

By contrast Day 2 was altogether more egalitarian with its successes and failures, England no doubt the happier of the two sides with their performance but imperfect enough to leave the fate of the match still fascinatingly undecided.

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The day started with England desperately needing to make better use of the second new ball than they had with the first. With Steve Smith eyeing a hundred and Australia an imposing first innings total, quick wickets were the order of the day.

Stuart Broad soon obliged, Alex Carey LBW in the second over – a judicious use of DRS ensuring England did get the early breakthrough. Pat Cummins’ 22 ensured the Australian tail wagged just a little, but to go from 316/3 in the final session of the first day to 416 all out before lunch on the second, marked a big reversal in fortunes.

Opening partnerships have not been a bringer of great joy for England fans in recent years, but Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett soon picked up the English fightback where the bowlers had left off.

First the textbook cliched ‘tricky little session’ before lunch was negotiated, then after the break it was England’s turn to make the opposition attack look toothless. Well, at least for a bit – the overwhelming compulsion to miss the ball coming down the track to Nathan Lyon eventually proving just too hard to resist – Carey producing another excellent stumping to remove Crawley.

As Ollie Pope and Duckett batted together either side of Tea, Australia looked increasingly out of ideas, eventually settling on trying a short ball trap. England obligingly decided to fall straight into it.

Pope holed out to deep back square, Duckett fell two agonising runs short of an excellent hundred, caught at fine leg, Joe Root survived gloving an attempted pull shot on 1 through to the keeper – from a Cameron Green no ball that incorrectly felt crucial at the time – only to swat another short ball in the air to Smith nine runs later. Harry Brook might have joined the procession had he not been dropped when pulling to Marnus Labuschagne at square leg.

It is tempting to rage and despair at the folly of some of England’s shots in the later part of the day, but it is easy to be wise after the event and not perhaps as simple as that.

Yes the manner in which England lost their wickets was by and large incredibly frustrating, but equally a fairly unproven top three – staring down the barrel of significant scoreboard pressure – put on 200 against the world’s best bowling attack on a pitch that was still offering something for the bowlers. The fact that they have been given the license to, at times, play stupid shots is not just crucial but perhaps the cornerstone of it. To some degree you have to accept the rough of ‘Bazball’ with the smooth.

That said you feel that as time goes on England will learn when perhaps to insert a little more brain into proceedings – in the end it took the entrance of Ben Stokes to calm things down for them, the captain showing the merits of adapting their approach with a calming 57-ball 17 that saw England through to 278/4 at the close.

However on a thrilling day, that saw nine wickets fall and 355 runs scored in total, it was an innocuous event in the field that could prove to be the most crucial in the eventual outcome of the series. Nathan Lyon pulling up with what appeared to be a calf strain, his participation in the rest of the match and perhaps the series, seemingly seriously in doubt.

So all in all just another regular day in this Ashes series, make sure to follow the next one, anything might happen really.

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