Ben Stokes and Harry Brook will aim to help England into a first-innings lead on the third morning of the second Ashes Test at Lord’s.
England punched back on an absorbing day two, with Australia losing their last seven wickets for 100 runs as they collapsed from 339 for five overnight to 416 all out.
Steve Smith still brought up his 12th Ashes century, but the hosts quickly set about eating into the deficit and Ben Duckett led the charge with a fine 98.
Australia’s tactic of bowling short produced a gripping final session and accounted for Duckett, Ollie Pope and Joe Root.
But Stokes calmed the storm with a mature unbeaten 17 from 57 balls and will hope to push England on from 278 for four alongside Brook (45no).
View from the dressing roomComparisons to 2005 you say?
Nathan Lyon’s calf injury may not just be match-defining, but could have a significant say on who wins the series.
In his 100th consecutive Test, Lyon raced in from the boundary rope to try and catch Duckett’s lofted pull shot in the 37th over of England’s innings, but halted his stride. He immediately felt the back of his right calf and had to be helped off by a member of Australia’s medical team.
Lyon limped back to the pavilion and there are fears about his future involvement in the rest of the Ashes.
It brought back memories of Glenn McGrath’s busted ankle on the eve of the second Test in the 2005 series.
Harry hanging high
Brook was one of several England batters to walk into the face of a barrage of short-pitch bowling during an entertaining evening session on day two.
Runs followed, but so did wickets with Duckett, Pope and Root all picking out fielders on the boundary rope.
It sparked debate over whether a more conservative approach should be taken, especially given the extra load now expected of the Aussie seamers in Lyon’s anticipated absence.
Brook kept up the aggressive ‘Bazball’ mantra and enjoyed one life when Marnus Labuschagne put down a sharp chance, but Stokes was surprisingly more measured.
It was the type of captain’s knock England needed to ensure they did not lose their momentum.
Smith loves Lord’s and England!
Smith produced another superb Ashes innings of 110 and reached three figures with a gorgeous cover drive. Records tumble when the idiosyncrasies of the Test great are on display at the crease.
This effort was not only his second century at Lord’s, after hitting 215 in the 2015 series, but also the eighth time he has scored a Test hundred in England. His tally of 12 in Ashes Tests has moved him up to joint-third on the list of most centuries against one team.
But Don Bradman’s mark of 19 hundreds against England remains a little out of reach though.
Creepy crunches another
Smith had a couple of contenders for shot of the day but Zak ‘Creepy’ Crawley deserves the honour for his sumptuous drive straight after lunch.
It was not punched away like his first ball at Edgbaston, but was played with the pleasing sight of a straight bat and helped the Kent batter make 48.
However, fellow opener Duckett stole the show with arguably his best Test innings for England.
There would be no crowning century, after he pulled Josh Hazlewood to David Warner at fine leg on 98, but his array of square drives and cuts backed up his desire to continuously get bat on ball.
Home of cricket turns red for Ruth
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It was another hugely successful ‘Red for Ruth’ Day with more than £400,000 raised for the Ruth Strauss Foundation. Ex-England opener Strauss set up the charity in memory of his wife Ruth, who died in 2018 from a non-smoking lung cancer.
The foundation supports thousands of families that deal with the impact of a terminal cancer diagnosis. More funds will be raised with items to be donated, including the match-worn clothes of both England and Australia.
Strauss and his sons Sam and Luca rang the bell before day two and witnessed a Lord’s covered in red.
“A tough day, an emotional day and a beautiful day,” Strauss reflected. “It is great to have my boys with me to see everything Ruth stood for. It helps to know we are helping so many families.”
Babar's captain's innings leads Pakistan to victory as series drawn with New Zealand
Babar Azam top scored as he led his Pakistan team to a nine-run victory over New Zealand in Lahore that saw the five-game T20I series end in a draw.
Babar hit 69 runs off 44 balls before being bowled by Ben Sears, smashing six fours and two sixes to take his team to 123/3 at the time of his dismissal.
Fakhar Zaman (43 from 33) and Usman Khan (31 off 24) also chipped in with important innings as Pakistan ended on 178/5.
With a target of 179 to secure a 3-1 series victory, New Zealand's run chase faltered almost immediately as opener Tom Blundell was removed within the first over with his team having managed just five runs on the board.
Blundell's fellow opener Tim Seifert steadied the ship with a vital 52-run innings off 33 deliveries before being bowled by Usama Mir, but Shaheen Shah Afridi led the way for Pakistan, finishing with figures of 4-30 to stem the New Zealand run chase
Josh Clarkson's 38 off 26 set up a nervy conclusion, but Pakistan held on to avoid defeat in the T20 series as the teams share the spoils at two wins apiece after the first game was abandoned.
Bayern star Kane scores 400th senior goal
Harry Kane surpassed the 400-goal mark for his senior career as his double helped Bayern Munich beat Eintracht Frankfurt 2-1 at the Allianz Arena on Saturday.
Kane moved within one of the milestone as he put Bayern 1-0 up after just nine minutes, coolly finishing from close range after Konrad Laimer's pass had set him up.
Then, after Frankfurt levelled through Hugo Ekitike, Kane slotted home a penalty with typical aplomb following a foul on Thomas Muller to move himself onto 400 career goals and ultimately lead Bayern to victory.
Kane scored 280 of his goals in 435 appearances for Tottenham, overtaking Jimmy Greaves to become the club's all-time leading scorer when he netted for the 267th time in Spurs colours against Manchester City last February.
His tally of 213 Premier League goals, meanwhile, puts him just 47 behind the competition's all-time leader Alan Shearer, who scored 260 times for Blackburn Rovers and Newcastle United.
Kane is also the most prolific player in England's history, his 62 goals for the Three Lions coming in 89 international appearances.
He memorably missed the chance to surpass Wayne Rooney's previous record of 53 when he blazed a penalty over the crossbar in the Three Lions' quarter-final defeat to France at the 2022 World Cup, only to clinch his place in history in a Euro 2024 qualifier against Italy three months later.
The very first goal of Kane's senior career came in League One during a loan spell with Leyton Orient as they thrashed Sheffield Wednesday 4-0 in January 2011.
That was the first of five goals Kane scored in O's colours, while he also netted nine times in a loan spell with Millwall in 2011-12 and twice during a stint with Leicester City the following season.
IPL: Fraser-McGurk leads the way as Capitals hold off Mumbai
Delhi Capitals withstood Mumbai Indian’s late surge and held on for a 10-run victory at Arun Jaitley Stadium.
Jake Fraser-McGurk top-scored with 84 – hitting 50 off just 15 balls – while Tristan Stubbs (48) and Shai Hope (41) also chipped in with important contributions as the Capitals set a target of 258.
Mukesh Kumar (3/59) and Rasikh Salam (3/34) did their best to halt Mumbai’s revival, but they turned up the pressure to require 25 runs from the final over.
However, despite Luke Wood and Piyush Chawla’s best efforts, Delhi held out for a second successive win.
Data debrief
Wood almost made amends after conceding 68 runs during the opening innings – the joint-most in the IPL this season, matching Reece Topley’s tally against Sunrisers Hyderabad.
Tilak Varma led Mumbai’s attempted revival with 63 for his sixth half-century in the IPL, though they have all come in defeats
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