Starc, Cummins put Australia within touching distance of Lord’s victory

Australia inched closer to taking a 2-0 Ashes lead on day four of the second Test at Lord’s after a sensational new-ball burst from Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins rattled the English top order in their chase of 371. The hosts recovered nicely in the morning to bowl Australia out for 279, but their hopes of drawing the series were dashed as they stumbled to 114 for 4 at stumps, needing 257 more to secure an unlikely win on day five.

Brendon McCullum’s England have already completed some miracle fourth innings chases in Test cricket over the past 18 months, including taking down India’s target of 378 last year. However, the hosts collapsed to 45 for 4 in their second essay on Saturday as Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins ran riot. Starc kicked off the proceedings for the visitors with the wicket of Zak Crawley in the third over, who tickled an innocuous delivery down the leg side into the palms of a diving Alex Carey.

The left-armer found generous swing throughout his opening new ball spell and delivered a peach to remove Ollie Pope in his next over, getting the ball to tail back in sharply and uproot the middle stump.

Pat Cummins followed up Starc’s breakthroughs with a sensational 13^th over that brought the wickets of Joe Root and Harry Brook. The Australian skipper troubled Root with the short ball and had him fending one to David Warner at first slip before producing a phenomenal ball to remove Harry Brook, beating his outside edge with one that seamed away and crashed into the top of off-stump.

Ben Stokes and Ben Duckett led England’s recovery after the top-order collapse, as the opener brought up his second fifty of the game to keep England’s hopes alive alongside his skipper. The pair added an unbroken 69-run stand to see the hosts through till stumps, but not before some late drama in the day, with the third umpire ruling Mitchell Starc didn’t take a clean catch off Duckett at fine leg.

Earlier in the day, Usman Khawaja and Steve Smith stretched Australia’s lead past 250 before the visitors were caught off guard by England’s short ball tactics, losing their final eight wickets for 92 runs. Smith and Khawaja top-edged bouncers to fielders stationed behind square for the hook, while Joe Root took a fantastic one-handed catch at short-leg to remove Travis Head.

Cameron Green and Alex Carey temporarily steadied the ship to extend the lead, but Robinson removed both set batters in quick succession before Stuart Broad cleaned up the tail, dismissing an injured Nathan Lyon to complete his four-fer. The off-spinner walked out to a standing ovation at Lord’s after coming out to bat despite injuring his calf and added 15 for the final wicket to set England a 371-run target to level the series at 1-1.