Aus get a slender lead on 1st innings of 5th Ashes test , Eng have the edge

 



In keeping with this gripping Ashes series , the 2nd day of the 5th test saw England bounce back after an ordinary day one for the hosts. Some fine line & length pace bowling combined with lack of intent by the Aussie top order before lunch helped England to claw back in the 5th test in an effort to square the series .


Starting the day at 61/1 , under cloudy conditions,  Usman Khawaja and Marnus Labuschagne batted defensively the whole of first session , leaving a lot of balls but not showing any intent to rotate the strike . Finally Mark Wood produced an unplayable delivery that moved away to take the edge of Labuschagne's bat and  end his laborious knock of 9 off 82 balls .


After lunch Broad had the stubborn Khawaja (47) lbw and soon Australia lost wickets of Head (4) caught behind of Broad , Marsh (16) played on to Anderson and Carey (10) dismissed by Root .


Starc (7) did not stay long either caught while pulling  Mark Wood as Australia slumped to 185/7.


Smith was batting well , rotating the strike and putting away any bad balls and he had a productive partnership with Cummins of 54 runs . He also had a close run out shave when Bairstow knocked the stumps bail before collecting the ball . However just when it looked that Smith will get a big score , he played a poor loose shot off Woakes and skied the ball to Bairstow for a well made 71 .




Pat Cummins then had a fruitful stand with Todd Murphy who surprised everyone with 3 blistering pulled 6s off Mark Wood to finally score a rapid 34 before he was lbw to Woakes . Murphy batted like a proper batter, showed good defence and hit powerful shots .


Cummins (36) after a long vigil was the last man out hitting Root almost for a 6 but Ben Stokes took a fine catch on the boundary flicking the ball back into play and safely pouching it to end Australia innings for 295 on the end of day two .


For England,  Woakes took 3 wickets and 2 wickets each shared by Broad, Wood and Root .


As things stand after 2 days , it has virtually become a one innings shootout after Australia were not been able to take a bigger lead . Currently England definitely have a slight edge after restricting Australia so well at the end of day two

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