Smith sniffs 100 as England’s bowling ensures Australian batters get the best of day one at Lord’s

On a day when England celebrated the fact wicketkeeper Jonny Bairstow caught ... and didn’t drop ... a climate protester, it was business as usual for Steve Smith as his Lord’s love affair continued.

Steve Smith drives for four past Josh Tongue on day one of the second Ashes Test at Lord’s. Picture: Getty Images

Australia batted well with elements against them, England bowled poorly with them in their favour and the balance of the first day of the Lord’s Test was firmly in favour of Pat Cummins’ side despite a few quick wickets in the hour before stumps shifted the dial slightly.

Australia begins Thursday on 5-339 in the second Test of the Ashes series.

Smith (85no), Head (77) David Warner (66) and Marnus Labuschagne (47) all deserve credit after England won the toss and asked the opposition to bat in conditions that favoured the bowlers.

Smith and Head looked as hungry for runs as their opponents looked fed up with conceding them in the last hour, the latter going at faster than a run a ball before he busted a boiler trying to hit Joe Root into the expensive seats.

The batter whose captain is hopeful will become an all-rounder tossed one high and wide to Head, who charged … only to find the ball out of his reach, leaving him back-pedalling against gravity for the safety of a crease that was also beyond his grasp.

Jonny Bairstow, who had earlier caught and disposed of a Just Stop Oil protester, was not exactly elegant in his execution but did manage to glove the ball and remove the stumps before Head could find safety.

Jonny Bairstow carries a Just Stop Oil pitch invader from the ground. Picture: Getty Images

Three balls later Cameron Green (0) blundered a half-tracker off the top half of his bat straight into mid off’s mitts.

And there was the highlight of England’s day.

Smith is 15 short of his 32nd Test century; Alex Carey (11no) will hope to be there with him at the time.

For Warner, the opening day was further confirmation that the adjustments he has made to his approach have him in a far better place in 2023 than in 2019. In fact, he is in a far better place than he was in the last few summers where he was edging back and away in his trigger movements.

Steve Smith celebrates his half century. Picture: Getty Images

For Smith this is a return home — the place where he made his speculative debut as something of a start-up project against Pakistan in 2010.

Lord’s brings out the best of him. He passed 200 for the first time here in 2015, knocked up a half century in the second innings and was on 92 when he was dismissed batting in a concussive fog in 2019.

Smith loves the big stage and probably reckons he is owed one after that encounter with Jofra Archer saw him ruled out of the rest of the match and the game that followed.

It is, or course, also the venue where Labuschagne was offered the opportunity he has gripped so firmly since in the 2019 series.

When he was dismissed during a brief burst of intensity following the tea break Australia was 3-198 and the game still in the balance.

They fancied themselves a sniff with Head apparently susceptible to the short ball and the opposition knowing you have to get him early or he’ll hurt you.

Hurt them he did. Racing to his half century from 65 balls, too many of them cracked fearfully through the off side for four as is his wont.

Jonny Bairstow stumps Travis Head. Picture: Getty Images

The batters moved at a good clip and the innings moved along at more than four runs an over.

England has batters who have embraced the Bazball style but its bowlers Bazbleed runs. They miss Jofra Archer and Mark Wood who have the airspeed to attack; they also miss Jack Leach who has held up an end while the seamers rotate in short sharp spells from the other.

And they miss too many tricks.
Perhaps England will count themselves unlucky not to have got more wickets or even comfort themselves that at least it was entertaining, but truth is they put down opportunities which, had they taken could have changed the complexion of their day.

Usman Khawaja escaped a half chance early that Bairstow did not go for and Root couldn’t quite hold one at first slip early in his innings. Warner was put down by Ollie Pope at fourth slip on 20, the ball flying to his right hard and late, jarring out of his hand.

For their part the bowlers offered too many four balls through either searching for wickets or simply straying from good areas.

At times they looked, simply, listless.

Ollie Robinson embodies the best and worst of the attack. His delivery to dismiss Labuschagne in the third session was a peach, but he serves up so many pies batters would be well-advised to have their cholesterol checked at the end of every innings.

England paceman Ollie Robinson. Picture: AFP

The innings was littered with no balls, five served up among Robinson’s pastries, as captain Ben Stokes dug deep to deliver three painful overs. Two of his first three deliveries were illegitimate.

His inability to contribute puts pressure back on the seamers who seem to be sagging beneath its weight.

Warner’s innings at Lord’s almost guarantees that his career will end according to his plans. It was not a chanceless 66: he was dropped once, nearly chopped on a couple of times, but such is the fate of opening batters in conditions like these.

To be asked to ply your trade on a green strip cramped beneath a low-ceiling sky is no fun. No coincidence that Cummins offered that he too would have bowled had the coin fallen his way was proof, if any was needed, that such a scenario is a seamer’s sandpit and an opener’s quicksand.

Contributions at the top of the order could, then, be worth more than they count in the scorebook.

Khawaja did well to get almost all the way through to lunch, but his was a slow going; 17 runs from 70 deliveries.

Warner, by contrast, had shown the intent that characterised the best years of his career. His IPL coach Ricky Ponting noted a crispness at the crease that was the Warner of old. Glenn Maxwell offered at a function recently that he’d never seen the 36-year-old look so sharp.

Warner was 53no in the same number of deliveries as Khawaja when the latter was dismissed for 17. He’d attacked the loose ball, brought up his half century by putting Josh Tongue into the stands and just not allowed the England bowlers to settle into a rhythm.

Khawaja left one from the same bowler that swung in and came back down the slope into his stumps right on lunch. It was the sort of (non) shot played by somebody ensuring they did not get out before a break, but credit is due the quick who managed to repeat the delivery and trouble batsmen with it through the early exchanges.

Tongue’s first three overs went for 24, but he proved his worth in the next four by dismissing both openers either side of lunch.

He comes highly-rated from the first class circuit, bowled well here earlier in the month in a four-day Test against the Irish and created problems from a nursery end.

Tongue’s ability to bend the ball back into the left hander down the slope was too much for Warner in the 30th over. The opener was cut in half by one, got an inside edge onto the next that flew past the stumps before the same ball, perfectly pitched, cut back inside the opener and took out his leg stump.

Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me, fool me three times and it’s time I packed up and left.

Tongue had only taken 11 wickets for Worcestershire in the Championship’s second division but when he got Smith for 10 during one of the Australian’s games with Kent that no doubt had the selectors sitting up and taking notice.

Labuschagne arrived with a new set up after nicking off twice in the first Test. His attitude, however, had appeared not to have been adjusted in the break between matches. While he was not wandering as far outside off stump in search of the ball, he still threw his hands at a couple of full, wide, deliveries early in the innings.