England's Stuart Broad, left, celebrates taking the wicket of Australia's David Warner during the second day of the second Ashes test match between England and Australia. Photo / AP.
England's Stuart Broad, left, celebrates taking the wicket of Australia's David Warner during the second day of the second Ashes test match between England and Australia. Photo / AP.
England limped along with the bat but found its fire with the ball as it gave Australia a searing examination under lights late on day two of the second Ashes Test at Lord's.
After rain washed out all of day one, the hosts were sent in to bat and struggledfor much of their innings as they scraped their way to 258 all out in a disappointing display.
But with the Aussies given the task of surviving a tense final hour, grey clouds closed in and Test debutant Jofra Archer had the crowd rocking. It took the hugely hyped fast bowler just two balls to send fans into a frenzy, beating Cameron Bancroft's inside edge with an amazing delivery that pitched outside off stump, jagged back a mile and beat a diving wicketkeeper down the leg side as it raced to the fine leg boundary for four byes.
The deviation was so extreme you thought Bancroft must have edged it – or the ball hit a pebble on the pitch – but it was all Archer. Spectators went wild and the gasps of astonishment from journalists in the press box only got more pronounced with each replay as they could barely believe what they were seeing.
England's Jofra Archer fields the ball during the second day of the second Ashes test match between England and Australia at Lord's cricket ground in London. Photo / AP
Archer was providing the entertainment as the atmosphere reached its most electric levels of the day but his partner in crime Stuart Broad did the damage where it counted, bowling David Warner for three.
It's the third time this series Warner has fallen for single figures and the third time Broad has got him out.
Bancroft and Usman Khawaja safely navigated their way to stumps as the tourists finished at 1/30 and they will hope to build a first innings lead when they return on day three.
England's Jason Roy bats. Photo / AP
The target they're chasing isn't overly daunting thanks largely to the work of Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon, who both took three wickets. Hazlewood was excluded from the first Test but replaced James Pattinson at Lord's and bowled like a man possessed as he made the most of an opportunity he wanted to prove should have been given to him earlier in the series.
He took the first three wickets of the innings and hit an immaculate line and length all day, regularly threatening with movement away from the right-hander in the air and off the pitch as he reminded everyone just how classy he is.
By taking a trio of scalps himself, mopping up the middle and lower order, Lyon moved into equal third on the list of Australia's all-time leading Test wicket-takers alongside legendary fast bowler Dennis Lillee with 355 wickets.
Pat Cummins unsettled the tail with some hostile short stuff, taking on the role of enforcer as he peppered England's bowlers with a bouncer barrage The strategy worked as he also finished with three wickets while Peter Siddle took one.
Hazlewood looked like a man on a mission from the moment he got his hands on the ball. He beat Jason Roy with his first two deliveries then with his third, a lovely leg-cutter had the opening batsman edging behind to Tim Paine for a duck.
Joe Root was his usual classy self, striking a couple of sweetly-timed boundaries through the off side off both front and back foot but Hazlewood crashed the England skipper's party by trapping him LBW for 14.
The returning New South Welshman was going full steam ahead and a fearsome bouncer crunched into Joe Denly's helmet. But the Test rookie shook off the blow to consolidate alongside Rory Burns, guiding England out of a position of peril.
The pair had put on 66 for the third wicket before Hazlewood struck again after lunch, hitting the perfect length and nipping the ball away just enough to catch Denly's outside edge and send him on his way for 30.
Burns continued his impressive form, backing up a maiden Test ton at Edgbaston with a half century before a brilliant catch from Bancroft ended his stay at the crease when he fended a Pat Cummins short ball to the on side. Fielding under the helmet at short leg, Bancroft dived full length to his left and clasped the ball millimetres above the turf.
Jos Buttler and Ben Stokes fell cheaply before Jonny Bairstow (52) enjoyed a timely return to form, sharing in a valuable 72-run seventh-wicket stand with Chris Woakes (32).
Woakes was clocked on the head by a Cummins bumper then gloved down the leg side to Paine later in the same over and Archer was another victim of a short ball, scooping a catch to gully before Lyon finished the job.
