Second Ashes Test. Lord's.

[K]

Cummins starts after lunch with a bouncer.

Botham says bowlers starting with a bouncer as a loosener first up started with the WIndies.

Taylor reckons Smith will miss the next Test. Botham reckons he'll play.

Sangakkara: "A lot of Australians don't look in the best nick."

That's putting it politely.

Botham: "Someone like Warner... woefully out of form."

A little less politely.

[K]

A ball from Lyon lobs over the short gully... Bye...

Replays show it got there by deflecting off Paine's glove.

The broadcast tells us the last two balls of that over had 39rps and 38rps.

(There's online chat asking what technology is used to measure that, but I haven't seen a definite answer.)

[K]

Sangakkara repeats how keen he was to see a gully for Stokes when he came out yesterday.

..............................................


And Cummins gets Buttler, holing out to deep square leg.

England 5/161.

Sangakkara: "Great direction. Great height."

Lisa: "No surprises it's Pat Cummins."

Botham: "Hazlewood barely has to move an inch... two feet."

Sangakkara: "Here, one keeps low, another one rushes through. You're always in two minds. Batsmen get hit on pitches like this..."

[K]

Botham says Bairstow is a bad starter.

Right on cue, Head misfields and gives him an easy single to get off strike.

The Oz fielding this match has been sloppy.

Lyon appeals for LBW. Not out. They talk. Paine reviews!

No edge, it looks like... but surely down leg?

Ultra Edge shows no spike.

Ball tracking. It's frozen!

The fielders are all laughing (about the ball-tracking delays), but I reckon it's down leg.

Yep, missing. No reviews left.

You can hear in the effects mic a fielder saying: "It definitely spun." I guess that must have been Paine. It was Lyon to Stokes, so spin would have helped it back towards the stumps.

[K]

Botham: "The pitch is dying a slow death... pace-wise."

Bairstow is getting umpire Gaffaney to help fiddle with his helmet.

Sangakkara asks Botham about bowler rotation.

Botham: "I'm totally against it."

Sangakkara wants Mitch Marsh, it sounds like... Golly, Kumar, the batting is already so feeble that unless MM is in the best six batsmen you're asking for trouble. Can you imagine MM coming in for a concussed Smith next Test??

And if it's genuinely hard to decide between bowlers, then why not rotate them instead of weakening the feeble batting even more?

[K]

Bairstow comes down the pitch and hits Lyon for 6.

And next ball he reverse sweeps.

"Yes, yes," he says in his weird voice.

Next ball, Stokes edges past slip.

Botham: "Is that another catch?" No, but "the bowler won't be happy".


Another reverse sweep. They appeal for catch behind. Aleem says no. There are no reviews left!

It looks out to me. Grrr....

Ultra Edge shows "nothing whatsoever", says Botham.

[K]

Sangakkara says there's an urgency to score runs now.
Yep, there's no doubt they are trying to lift the pace.

The lead is 190.

Stokes has a wild swing and miss at Cummins bowling from around the wicket.

Sangakkara: "Quick runs will make for a very exciting Test match."

[K]

Minimum overs left is already down to 60.

Lloyd: "Still wicketless, Nathan Lyon. 24th over."

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Lyon continues for his 25th over.

Athers: "He's had two men out on the sweep all innings for Stokes. I can't remember him sweeping all innings."

And right on Cue, Stokes sweeps for 6.

Stokes moves to a lucky 74.

Make that 80, as he repeats the shot and the result next ball.

Oz are not good enough to throw away wicket opportunities with dropped catches and botched reviews.

[K]

Siddle now.

I doubt Labu will bowl now, because they'd try him to get a wicket, not to control the scoring rate, and now it's about the scoring rate.

Bairstow with his defective technique (look at where that left elbow is!!) gets a leading edge as he tries to play on the on side, but it falls short of the mid off.

Stokes advances down the pitch to Siddle and hits it for 4. He's approaching a century.

Next ball is stopped by Khawaja. Wow, Khawaja is unathletic.

This feels like ODI cricket now.

[K]

Lloyd: "Nathan Lyon out of the attack now."

Lloyd sounds like he thinks England have worked him out, by playing on the back foot.

Athers talks about the four-man attack.

Stokes charges Hazlewood but misses with the swing.
If he keeps charging, why not try a bouncer?

Next ball, Stokes stays back and almost swings himself off his feet. He misses again.

He's hit in the groin next ball.
You can hear on the pitch mic someone yell: "On the d**k!!"
Replays suggest that's not accurate.

Last ball, Stokes smokes a cut to the boundary and moves into the 90s.

[K]

Broadcast predictor:
England 5%
Oz 0%
Draw 95%.

Odds:
Draw 86%
England 12%
Oz 2%.

[K]

It's almost down to 50 overs now.

The lead is just under 230.

It'd be disappointing if they cannot even bat out 40-45 overs.

[K]

Lloyd on the pitch: "It hasn't misbehaved at all."

Someone in the England camp shows three fingers...

Three overs more?

Stokes is aiming for the short leg-side boundary. He's on 93.

Lloyd: "He has two overs and three deliveries."

He heaves it for 4 to get to 97. That was almost a Roy shot in its wristiness.

Root is holding the dressing-room glass door.

[K]

The lead is 240. We think there are two overs before the declaration.

Stokes gets a single... but does not try for two. He moves to 99.

The crowd is cheering every run now.

Just one man at fourth slip. Bairstow is still on strike.

Roy pouts in a hoodie in the dressing room. Golly, he looks like a thug.

Root chats to Trevor B.

Warne: "England have done well to get into this situation. ... Very well."

Bairstow plays out the over, leaving Stokes on strike next (last?) over.

[K]

It's Lyon! Stokes on 99*.

Holding: "Has not done as well as expected... or hoped."

Dot ball.
Dot ball. Stokes tried for a reverse paddle. Nope.
Dot ball. Defends with the straight bat.
Single.

Stokes 100*.

There's applause and cheers...

Hmm...

And Bairstow slog sweeps for 6 to bring up Lyon's 100.

Holding provocatively talked about dropping Lyon. He says they dropped Moeen when he didn't take the wickets expected and he's a bowling all-rounder, not a specialist bowler.