Bairstow helps England rally to prevent Ashes disaster
Jonny Bairstow’s 52 helped England battle back to prevent what was looking like a disastrous spell at the crease on day two of the second Ashes Test at Lord’s.
England rallied from 138-6 to 258 all out before taking the early wicket of David Warner to stay alive in the series.
After persistent rain saw no play on day one, further adverse weather may yet decide the outcome of this test.
However, the hosts will need to be looking at something of an improvement in performance to give themselves a chance at levelling the series should the rain clouds stay away.
Australia put England in to bat with a recalled Josh Hazelwood chomping at the bit in attack.
Just nine balls later, Hazelwood removed Jason Roy and England we were one down without a run on the board.
As England attempted to stabalise with a rapid succession of boundaries, Hazelwood was soon at it again trapping captain Joe Root lbw to leave England 26-2 in just the tenth over.
Joe Denly and Rory Burns dug in to bring England up to 72-2 at lunch but their partnership came to an end early in the second session as Denly was caught behind giving Hazelwood his third wicket of the day.
Burns, England top scorer of the innings with 53, soon followed after a sensational catch by Cameron Bancroft who showed incredible reflexes at short leg.
Holy hell that was one heck of a take by Bancroft! Of all the catches the Aussies chose to take... #Ashes
— Dimitri Kondonis (@dkondonis) August 15, 2019
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England were now 116-4 and potentially staring down the barrel of another horrendous innings in the series.
Things went from bad to worse as Jos Buttler and Ben Stokes went in quick succession to leave England 138-6.
However, Jonny Bairstow and Chris Woakes managed to stem the flow, adding 72 either side of tea before Woakes went for 32 after Cummins’ delivery nicked his glove for Tim Paine to take the catch.
Bairstow eventually brought up his half century but not before Cummins took the wicket of Jofra Archer.
Broad was next to go and when Usman Khawaja took the catch of Bairstow that was all she wrote as far England were concerned.
In response, Australia made 30-1, losing the wicket of Warner to Stuart Broad who remarkably, has dismissed the left-handed opener for the third time in three innings this series, conceding a mere 11 runs from 29 balls bowled.
With more rain scheduled for tomorrow, both teams could be left waiting as far as the rest of the match is concerned.
The tourists will certainly believe the they can chase down the total but England might take encouragement after clawing their way back into a match that almost looked like getting away from them early on.
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