Live Report: England vs Australia, 2nd Test, Lord's

The England has gone past 150 and the century stand with Stuart Broad came up off 93 deliveries. The second new ball is available in 10 overs. Australia haven't gone back to any spin, and that moment has probably passed. Cameron Green sent down two good overs. Incredible scenes.

A spokesperson has responded to the scenes at lunchtime

"Australian management has requested the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) investigate several incidents involving spectators in the members area during lunch on day five of the Lord’s Test.

"It is alleged players and staff from the Australian team were verbally abused, with some being physically contacted, as they made their way to lunch through the members area."

And the MCC have responded:

“The Long Room is unique in world cricket and the great privilege of players passing through the Pavilion is very special. After this morning’s play, emotions were running high, and words were unfortunately exchanged with some of the Australian team, by a small number of Members.

“We have unreservedly apologised to the Australian Team and will deal with any Member who has not maintained the standard we expect through our disciplinary processes. It was not necessary to eject anyone from the ground and I am pleased to say that there was no repeat of this as the players resumed the field for this afternoon’s session."

This is epic stuff playing now as Stokes and Broad take the runs required down into double figures. We've not seen Mitchell Starc bowl since lunch. A few yorkers might be handy right now? And there's been no further spin in this innings

We are back in the middle. Don't look away, anything could happen. Ben Stokes has already cleared the ropes again and been dropped by Steven Smith at deep square leg. Plenty of verbals also flying around.

Has lunch come at a good time or not? Gives everyone some time to take stock, at least. Plenty of words between Stuart Broad and David Warner as the players walked off. The series has been played in good spirits until now. Will that change?

A angry Ben Stokes as charged to an astonishing century by taking Cameron Green for three consecutive sixes over the leg side. Lord's has seen some incredible scenes over the years, but this is something else.

What a few minutes we are having at Lord's. "Shame old Aussies, always cheating," ringing around the ground. Ben Stokes is tonking boundaries. This one will run-and-run.

Matt Roller has been watching closely: "Broad is absolutely rattled. Accentuated tapping his bat in at both ends, lots of words exchanged with anyone who will listen."

Ok, this will be massive. Jonny Bairstow has been stumped in what will be one of most replayed and talked about moments of the Ashes. He ducked a bouncer and then, having tapped his back foot, walked out of the crease as Alex Carey under-armed the ball at the stumps and Bairstow was out of his ground. The Australians appealed, it was checked by the third umpire and ruled out. Massive boos ringing around Lord's.

Here are the Laws when it comes to dead ball (20.1.2 seems the key one in this case):

20.1 Ball is dead
20.1.1 The ball becomes dead when
20.1.1.1 it is finally settled in the hands of the wicket-keeper or of the bowler.
20.1.1.2 a boundary is scored. See Law 19.7 (Runs scored from boundaries).
20.1.1.3 a batter is dismissed. The ball will be deemed to be dead from the instant of the incident causing the dismissal.
20.1.1.4 whether played or not it becomes trapped between the bat and person of a batter or between items of his/her clothing or equipment.
20.1.1.5 whether played or not it lodges in the clothing or equipment of a batter or the clothing of an umpire.
20.1.1.6 under either of Laws 24.4 (Player returning without permission) or 28.2 (Fielding the ball) there is an offence resulting in an award of Penalty runs. The ball shall not count as one of the over.
20.1.1.7 there is contravention of Law 28.3 (Protective helmets belonging to the fielding side).
20.1.1.8 the match is concluded in any of the ways stated in Law 12.9 (Conclusion of match).
20.1.2 The ball shall be considered to be dead when it is clear to the bowler’s end umpire that the fielding side and both batters at the wicket have ceased to regard it as in play.

20.2 Ball finally settled
Whether the ball is finally settled or not is a matter for the umpire alone to decide.

Shortly after drinks and Josh Hazlewood has settled Australia with a huge wicket, removing Ben Duckett from top-edge that was superbly grabbed by Alex Carey, one-handed above his head. Carey is having an outstanding series and his glovework has already pulled off some pivotal moments. It was a fine game for Duckett, although he'll ponder two near-misses to make a match-defining score.

This pair continue to chip away steadily at the required runs. Australia won't be too concerned yet given that Stuart Broad is carded at No. 8, but they are being made to work this. And that's drinks

Don't mention the H-word. Ben Stokes has just got to his half-century, the first time he has reached the mark since the Old Trafford Test against South Africa last year when he played his best innings as captain. Australia are persisting with a short-ball plan although it's not as extreme as England's - they have not entirely given up on the outside edge.

Ben Stokes and Ben Duckett have got through the early exchanges with Stokes playing a couple of especially nice strokes, although he needed the DRS on 40 when Ahsan Raza (who has had seven of the 13 decisions reviewed from him overturned) gave him lbw to a Mitchell Starc yorker but there was a thick inside edge. It left Stokes hobbling even more than he was before. The century stand was brought up by a Stokes edge along the ground down to deep third.

England's sustained short ball plan created much debate yesterday with, for periods, the game grinding to a halt although in the end it brought 8 for 92.

Michael Holding, who knew a thing or two about bowling short, has had his say on it overnight - and there's one great line amongst his response.

"I can see both sides of the argument," he told the Indian Express. "Yes, it works but it can also be a bit boring. But essentially what they are doing is trying to find a way to win a Test match. As far as I am concerned it’s legal and not against the spirit of the game, I don’t have any foibles with it. Don’t interfere with more rule changes.

“And by the way, at no stage in my West Indies career, did we bowl bouncers for hours like this. At one point in this Lord’s Test, 98% of the bowling was short-pitched. We never did that. The hypocrisy of it stands out. When West Indies were bowling with four fast bowlers, and bouncing out the batsmen, the cricketing world was up in arms. You think there is going to be any real uproar about this tactic now? I doubt it. It’s England and Australia playing; not the West Indies.”

Then, when asked if he thought the tactic is intimidatory, he added: “What? With 70mph-plus mickey mouse pace bowling like England did? No way it’s intimidatory!”

Talk around Mitchell Starc's catch last night continues to rumble, although it's all pretty clear cut.

Fraser Stewart, head of cricket at MCC, has explained it further on the BBC this morning.

"It was pretty clear. Marais Erasmus only needed one look at it. A catch is not just a quick moment in time, it's a passage of play from when the fielder first touches the ball to when they have complete control over the ball and their own movement.

"In Starc's case yesterday, he was diving, he took the ball very cleanly but as he dived, he had his palm facing down and the ball quite clearly scraped along the ground. The ball clearly touched the ground, so the only question is: did he have control of his movement by then? And the fact that he was still sliding and diving suggests that he quite clearly didn't."

We are expecting confirmation either today or tomorrow that Nathan Lyon is out of the tour. That will mean an opportunity for Todd Murphy, who made an impressive start to his career in India.

Lyon is confident that Murphy is ready to step in.

"I sat with Todd in the last session there and spoke about spin bowling as we do. I have a lot of confidence in Todd," he said. "He is a great kid. He is willing to learn along the way. His stock ball is good enough in international cricket. We have seen that in India...it will be a different challenge with the England batter.

"If they do come at him, it provides Todd with a decent challenge. But a chance to leave his footmarks here in England. It is a big Ashes series, he is excited by the opportunity.

"I have told him my phone is always on, it doesn't matter if I am sitting in the changeroom with him or I am sitting at home watching it in bed."

Good morning, welcome to the final day at Lord's. What does it have in store for us?

After bringing up his second half-century of the Test, Ben Duckett looks to have given it away to a flapped catch to fine leg once again ... but he's most of the way back into the pavilion before the dismissal is overturned in sensational fashion!

First up, it's a well-directed short ball from Cameron Green, one that gets large on Duckett as he hops back and across as he attempts an uppercut through deep third. Somehow, the ball deflects off the back of his bat and flies quickly to a very alert Mitchell Starc at fine leg, who slides into the chance, grabs it with ease, and celebrates with a shake of his fist.

But no! After some word on the field that the umpires are checking for a no-ball, a whoop from the Australians confirms that Green's foot is behind the line. But the issue is the status of the ball after the catch is taken. Starc slides along the turf, with the ball deep in his palm but clearly touching the grass, and according to Law 33.3, that's enough to rule it out:

It's the control of his/her movement that's at issue here. Starc had given his team-mates a very clear raise of the finger to indicate he was confident it was out, but the third umpire, Marais Erasmus, wasn't so convinced. Huge let-off... is it enough to save England's bacon? On the balance of the close-of-play scoreline, 114 for 4, probably not...

England are folding against some top-quality fast bowling. Joe Root was worked over by Pat Cummins then edged to slip and Harry Brook got a delivery to match the one Cummins bowled to Root at Old Trafford 2019, nipping away to clip off stump. Australia are surging and there's a chance they could wrap this up tonight. England have a long tail.

The question before the series was, can England do it against this Australia attack? Not when they are bowling like this

Mitchell Starc has got it going. The ball to dismiss Ollie Pope needs a content warning against it. After the yorker from Pat Cummins at Edgbaston it's the second beauty Pope has received this series.

Certainly not the ideal start to the chase for England with Zak Crawley caught down the leg side against Mitchell Starc. He nearly had a second, too, but the ball which saw Ben Duckett given lbw had actually swung too much. It was a magnificent delivery and very encouraging for Starc to be getting that early movement. He is having a big impact on his return to the side.

Let's take stock. That final-wicket drama with Mitchell Starc and Nathan Lyon added 15 runs. Could they decide the game? You never know. Australia's last eight wickets fell for 88 against England sustained short-ball plan, one of the most sustained ever seen. You have to say it worked. We are now into the final act of this game: England need 371 to level the series in four sessions. Don't think the draw is on the table here. Australia clear favourites and you'd imagine there will be a fair amount of short bowling.

Just on England's approach today: we've logged 86% of deliveries on the fourth day bowled either short or short of a length. In some places it's even higher than that.

We are seeing one of the more extraordinary periods of Test cricket here...but Australia's lead continues to edge upwards as Mitchell Starc finds the boundary.

Mitchell Starc thought the innings was done when Josh Hazlewood fell to Ben Stokes (in the 12th over of his spell) but Nathan Lyon hopped down the Lord's steps and hobbled to the middle. He played his first ball nicely, a pull off the hip to deep square leg, but couldn't run the was able to evade the final delivery of the over. Is it worthwhile him being out there? Suggests he's done for the series.

Pat Cummins the latest to fall to the short ball, then we get a shot of Nathan Lyon hobbling down the steps inside the pavilion, seemingly ready to bat at No. 11. There's no runners in international cricket.

Ollie Robinson has added another, getting Alex Carey to fend to short leg. He is now the leading wicket-taker in the series. Meanwhile, Ben Stokes has bowled a nine-over spell. Will Australia's bowlers now consider throwing the bat?

Well, would you know it, England have their fourth wicket of the day with the bouncer - Cameron Green has run out of patience and pulled Ollie Robinson to deep square leg. The game really had come to a halt, so maybe the tempo will change now, although you imagine Australia's bowlers will get a few short ones. Can England keep this chase to around 375? Remember, they chased 378 against India last year.

45 out of the 67 balls that Green faced were short, per our BBB data (67%), and a further 13 were back-of-a-length. He scored 14 off the 58 short or back-of-a-length balls he faced in total - a strike rate of 24.1.

Ben Stokes has bowled himself since lunch, and there's no surprise that it's been consistently short. He insisted the knee was feeling pretty good before the match although only sent down three overs in the first innings. The game isn't actually moving very far at the moment, but Australia won't mind, there's still a lot of time left. Cameron Green and Alex Carey are focusing on getting through this phase and a likely dart with the second new ball from England. They'll want a 400-run lead if possible.

It's also interesting to note, while all these short balls are going down, what the umpires judge to be the two bouncers for the over. It feels a fairly liberal interpretation.

Even James Anderson was flinging down bouncers by the end of the session. England have just about kept themselves in the contest with those three quick wickets but Australia's lead is now over 300. Cameron Green and Alex Carey had some uncomfortable moments heading into lunch.

Here's the length numbers from the session as we have recorded them.

Well, that earlier post about how Australia have played the short ball nicely hasn't dated that well. Travis Head has followed Usman Khawaja and Steven Smith back to the sheds. The delivery to Head was a superbly-directed delivery at the chest from Stuart Broad when was then brilliantly held at short leg by Joe Root, standing in for Ollie Pope under the helmet. With that catch, Joe Root has become England's most prolific fielder.

Is this the end of the pitched-up delivery?

Just in case you needed a reminder of what England did chasing targets last summer:

277 vs New Zealand, Lord's
299 vs New Zealand, Trent Bridge
296 vs New Zealand, Leeds
378 vs India, Edgbaston

Josh Tongue right now...that's three in three for him against Steven Smith this season. It came the ball after James Anderson had dropped Travis Head first ball at backward point.

Usman Khawaja has ticked to 300 runs for the series. And he's done it at his own pace...but now he's been caught at long leg hooking Stuart Broad. Guess you could say the short-ball plan has worked.

Meanwhile, England are getting frustrated with Spider-cam.

It's been pretty comfortable progress for Australia so far today with both Usman Khawaja and Steven Smith looking in their 'zones'. They each played some very pleasing drives off James Anderson - you have to start to wonder how much more the England great has in him.

Now Ollie Robinson and Josh Tongue are trying a short-pitched approach to both batters but, in a revolutionary tactic which surely won't work, they are happy to duck underneath most of them. Will never catch on.

UPDATE: Steve Smith has just ended up flat on his back trying to swat away a short ball.

**

England hope that Moeen Ali’s spinning finger has healed sufficiently for him to play a full part in the third Ashes Test at Headingley, which starts on Thursday.

Moeen split the skin on the top knuckle of his spinning finger during the first Test at Edgbaston, his first red-ball appearance in 21 months after Jack Leach’s lower-back stress fracture prompted England to send him an SOS call. He returned figures of 3 for 204 in 47 overs.

His omission for the second Test at Lord’s owed in part to a green pitch at a venue that rarely suits spinner, but Ben Stokes admitted: “It would have been a completely different conversation if Mo hadn’t had his finger issue that he did last week.”

Along with Rehan Ahmed, who was added to the squad for the second Test as cover, Moeen bowled on a practice strip on the edge of the square on each of the first three days of the Test, watched closely by England’s spin-bowling coach Jeetan Patel. “It’s the best I’ve ever seen him bowl,” Patel said.

“Fingers crossed that in the next couple of days, he gets to rest it and he gets to Headingley and he’s ready to go,” Patel said. “It was pretty disgusting at the end of the Test… we’ve tried to look after it as much as we can. It’s looking in really good shape; it’s healed really, really well.”

Moeen’s injury owed to the prouder seam on the red Dukes ball than the white Kookaburra used in limited-overs cricket, as well as the sharp spike in his workload. “Mo hasn’t bowled 30 overs [in a day] in a while and that was always going to be part of the risk of bringing him in,” Patel said.

“But we knew that and he knew that – and he still said yes, and we still asked him. Is there a way to look after your fingers? Just bowl. It’s probably the only way to do it: bowl regularly. He bowls four overs a game so he’s probably not used to it and he hasn’t bowled with a Dukes for two years.”

Josh Tongue has bowled well in this Test, but England's attack has looked pretty one-dimensional. They desperately need to inject Mark Wood's pace and will hope, having had another week, that he will be ready for Headingley.

On the subject of England's dwindling pace stocks, there appeared to be more bad news last night. Olly Stone could only send down three deliveries on his return in the T20 Blast for Nottinghamshire.

Jofra Archer is a long-term absence and Saqib Mahmood has suffered another back injury. Not for the first time, England's hopes of being able to take on Australia with pace have not come together.

Morning everyone and welcome to the fourth day from Lord's. Australia in complete control at the moment and unless England strike early and often it could just be a question of how many Pat Cummins wants. It may not be a simple decision, he will have to factor in the absence of Nathan Lyon and England do have a history of some big chases last summer - although could well have to out do themselves here. The other fascinating point is whether England would be willing to play for a draw if the target was impossible. Ben Stokes has said he doesn't do draws, but it would be a long way back in the Ashes from 2-0 down.