Heat is on for Oz to level series at Lord’s
Australia will be greeted by blazing sunshine and a venue where they lost only once in the last century when they arrive at Lord’s on Thursday for the second Ashes Test against England, determined to level the five-match series.
Britain is engulfed in a heat wave which is forecast to last throughout the match and conditions for the first Test at Trent Bridge were reminiscent of the Indian sub-continent. After heroic last-wicket stands in each innings, Australia eventually lost by 14 runs on Sunday. But they will be buoyed by the resilience and resource they showed at the midpoint of a horrible year in which they have been beaten 4-0 in India and failed to advance past the first round of the Champions Trophy.
Despite the narrow margin in Nottingham, England were ultimately deserved winners and James Anderson at the height of his powers produced the decisive deliveries of the game to account for two of his 10 wickets.
Australia will relish the sun and the surroundings at the home of world cricket. To recover from one-down and regain the Ashes, though, their top-order batting must fire and Usman Khawaja may come in at number three to replace the out-of-form Ed Cowan. Clarke failed in both innings after his build-up was hampered by a chronic back ailment. The only other Australian batsman of comparable pedigree is the highly gifted but perennially frustrating Shane Watson who contributed 46 to a second-innings opening partnership of 84.
Australia urgently need an innings from Watson of a stature to match his talent and Lord’s would be the perfect setting to shrug off the under-achiever’s tag. In contrast to Australia’s fragile top order, England’s key batsmen scored runs at critical times at Trent Bridge. The crucial innings came from Ian Bell, whose 109 in more than six hours was perfectly calibrated for a sun-baked pitch demanding intense concentration with its low, slow and sometimes unpredictable bounce.
England have named the same 13-man squad for the Test with the final decision again resting between the pacers Steven Finn, Tim Bresnan and Graham Onions.
Team unity no easy task: Cook
England captain Alastair Cook said team spirit couldn’t be taken for granted as Australia battled to present a united front after accusations of dressing room disharmony made by ex-coach Mickey Arthur.
‘I can only speak what happen in our dressing room and clearly last summer we had a bad experience. It shows how hard you’ve got to work at your team because a fully united team does help your cricket and we constantly have to work at it, said Cook.
Meanwhile, his Oz counterpart Michael Clarke said, ‘The team is as galvanised as I can remember any Australian team. All the boys are in a really good place and we’re looking forward to Thursday. We’ve got a fantastic group, with a great coach. He’s united us,’ he added.
