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LONDON: England fast bowler Jofra Archer marked his Test debut with a wicket as Australia suffered a top-order collapse before rain cut short play at Lord’s on Friday.
Australia lost three wickets for 11 runs en route to slumping to 80-4 when rain forced an early lunch on the third day of the second Test.
That left Australia 178 runs behind England’s first-innings 258.
The 24.1 overs that took place in the morning session represented the only action on Friday, with persistent rain leading the umpires to eventually abandon play for the day at 5:22pm local time (1622 GMT) in a match where Wednesday’s scheduled first day had already been washed out without a ball bowled.
Archer, on the ground where he bowled the Super Over that saw England seal a World Cup final win over New Zealand last month, had fine figures of one wicket for 18 runs in 13 overs.
Stuart Broad led the way with 2-26 in 13 overs, while fellow seamer Chris Woakes chipped in with 1-27 in nine.
But Australia star batsman Steve Smith was still there on 13 not out, with Matthew Wade unbeaten on nought.
Australia, 1-0 up in the five-match series after their 251-run win in the first Test at Edgbaston, resumed on 30-1 having seen Broad dismiss David Warner cheaply for the third time in as many innings this series.
Play resumed under gloomy skies, the floodlights on at full beam, with conditions difficult for batting.
Cameron Bancroft was five not out and Usman Khawaja 18 not out following a lively opening spell by Archer, in for the injured James Anderson, England’s all-time leading Test wicket-taker, late on Thursday.
Khawaja struck two offside fours in as many balls when first-change Woakes dropped short.
But England altered the momentum with two wickets for no runs in four balls as Australia’s 60-1 became 60-3.
Archer, topping speeds of 90 mph, had his first Test wicket when he nipped one back sharply to have Bancroft lbw for 13.
The 24-year-old Sussex paceman’s celebrations were put on hold as the struggling opener reviewed.
But replays showing the ball would have clipped the top of the stumps meant Aleem Dar, equalling Steve Bucknor’s record of 128 Tests umpired, saw his decision upheld.
There were some boos as Smith, fresh from twin hundreds at Edgbaston in his comeback Test following a 12-month ball-tampering ban, came into bat.
He could only watch as Woakes, with England at last bowling over the wicket to Khawaja, induced an outside edge to wicket-keeper Jonny Bairstow that saw the left-hander caught for 36.
Australia were 71-4 when Broad had Travis Head lbw for seven, although England had to review Aleem’s original not out verdict, with technology indicating the ball would have smashed into the left-hander’s middle and leg stumps.
All-rounder Ben Stokes thought he had Edgbaston century-maker Wade lbw for a duck but the batsman’s review revealed the ball had pitched outside leg stump.
Australia’s fast start to the second Test was slowed on Thursday by Jonny Bairstow’s half-century that pushed England to 258 all out and the latest cheap dismissal of David Warner early in the reply.
The Australians were 30-1 at stumps on an intriguing day two that helped to make up for the washout on the opening day of the test.
With England stuttering at 138-6 after being put in to bat, Bairstow put on 72 for the seventh wicket with Chris Woakes (32) before overseeing more valuable runs from the tail which nudged the team to a respectable total.
Bairstow was eventually dismissed for 52, giving Nathan Lyon a third wicket of the innings to move the spinner to 355 in Tests tying paceman Dennis Lillee in third place on Australia’s all-time list. Quicks Josh Hazlewood (3-58) and Pat Cummins (3-61) also took three wickets apiece.
Scoreboard
ENGLAND (1st Innings):
R.J. Burns c Bancroft b Cummins 53
J.J. Roy c Paine b Hazlewood 0
J.E. Root lbw b Hazlewood 14
J.L. Denly c Paine b Hazlewood 30
J.C. Buttler c Paine b Siddle 12
B.A. Stokes lbw b Lyon 13
J.M. Bairstow c Khawaja b Lyon 52
C.R. Woakes c Paine b Cummins 32
J.C. Archer c Khawaja b Cummins 12
S.C.J. Broad b Lyon 11
M.J. Leach not out 6
EXTRAS (B-12, LB-5, W-6) 23
TOTAL (all out, 77.1 overs) 258
FALL OF WKTS: 1-0, 2-26, 3-92, 4-116, 5-136, 6-138, 7-210, 8-230, 9-251.
BOWLING: Cummins 21-8-61-3 (2w); Hazlewood 22-6-58-3; Siddle 13-2-48-1; Lyon 19.1-2-68-3; Smith 2-0-6-0.
AUSTRALIA (1st Innings, overnight 30-1):
C.T. Bancroft lbw b Archer 13
D.A. Warner b Broad 3
U.T. Khawaja c Bairstow b Woakes 36
S.P.D. Smith not out 13
T.M. Head lbw b Broad 7
M.S. Wade not out 0
EXTRAS (B-4, LB-4) 4
TOTAL (for four wkts, 37.1 overs) 80
FALL OF WKTS: 1-11, 2-60, 3-60, 4-71.
TO BAT: T.D. Paine, P.J. Cummins, P.M. Siddle, J.R. Hazlewood, N.M. Lyon.
BOWLING (to-date): Broad 13-3-26-2; Archer 13-6-18-1; Woakes 9-3-27-1; Stokes 2.1-1-1-0.
Published in Dawn, August 17th, 2019
