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Ruthless Australia demolish England in Ashes Test

Australia annihilated England by a whopping 405 runs in the second Test at Lord’s to level the Ashes series 1-1. Inspired by Mitchell Johnson’s fiery pace bowling, the visitors crushed England in just four days, with the latter’s second innings folding for just 103 runs in 37 overs.

England's Ben Stokes is run out in the second Ashes Test against Australia.
England's Ben Stokes is run out in the second Ashes Test against Australia. Reuters / Philip Brown
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Australia had already tightened their grip on the match after taking a significant 254-run lead in the first innings. They added another 254 runs in their second innings to give England an imposing 509 run target to win. The English batsmen were never at ease while facing the pace trio of Johnson, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazelwood.

Opening batsmen Adam Lyth and Alastair Cook managed to put just 12 runs together before Lyth fell caught behind to Starc. Cook, who had anchored England’s first innings with a solid 96, followed soon as he was out in identical fashion to Johnson.

Gary Ballance and Ian Bell tried to stitch a partnership and managed to weather the Starc-Johnson storm. However, Ballance fell to all rounder Mitchell Marsh who has developed a knack of providing crucial breakthroughs. In the first innings Marsh took the two key wickets of Cook and Ben Stokes.

Ballance was soon followed by Bell who scored just 11 runs before becoming off-spinner Nathan Lyon’s first victim.

First innings hero Stokes got out in a bizarre fashion. Trying to take evasive action while taking a single, Stokes forgot to ground his bat in the crease. A direct throw by Johnson resulted in his run out, with both bat and his feet in the air when the stumps were disturbed.

Johnson returned to the attack cleaning up Joe Root and Moeen Ali in quick succession. Lyon took his second wicket of the innings after removing Stuart Broad who provided some entertainment by scoring 25 runs from 21 balls. England’s woes could be gauged by the fact that Broad, who bats at Number nine, was their highest scorer.

Hazelwood completed the formalities by bowling Jimmy Anderson out to give Australia a resounding win.

The third Test will be played in Birmingham from 29 July.
 

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