England vs Australia – The Ashes LIVE: Stuart Broad and Ben Stokes carve through visitors’ top order on Day Two of the opening Test at Edgbaston

Follow Mail Sport’s live blog as England and Australia go head-to-head on Day Two of the first Ashes Test at Edgbaston. 

Host commentator

As the players head off for a spot of lunch, so might I. Mail Sport’s coverage will continue after the break – and if the afternoon is anything like the morning, you’d be wise to stay tuned. 

See you in a bit.

Turns out we did get an extra over in before the lunch break, and Stokes turns to yesterday’s centurion for one over of Root magic.

Khawaja is not in the mood to risk a big shot and leaves the majority – in what emerged a busy over for Bairstow.

That concludes the morning. And what a great one for England.

Head crashes Moeen’s second ball through the covers for four but the spinner responds brilliantly. 

He gets the better of the batsman with two excellent deliveries, which both fly through to Bairstow, and he closes out the over with a couple of dots on to Head’s pads.

Very solid over from Stokes, who leaks two runs at the end of the over. Khawaja punches a full delivery through the off side, and Broad can’t quite stop it in the in-field.

Looks like one more over until lunch.

Head certainly won’t hang about like the others. As soon as Moeen drags one down the leg side, he swipes it away for an impressive boundary.

An otherwise decent follow-up over from the spinner.

Stokes bowls a vicious in-swinger to start and Khawaja gets thumped on the pad, but it’s miles too high for an LBW shout.

Another front foot no ball from the England captain is followed by a clipped single from Khawaja, who gives Smith two to face at the end.

And Stokes strikes gold with the final delivery, dazzling Smith with a great ball on to his pads. He and Edgbaston roar as the finger goes up – and Smith’s review is wasted.

Huge wicket for England!

 

Stokes gets Smith LBW! The batter instantly reviews but it’s a wasteful one… that’s absolutely plum! He departs for 16.

Moeen keeps things tidy in his fifth over, keeping Smith quiet. Broad fields well to prevent the only possible single, and the spinner picks up a maiden.

Knee strapped, the England captain gets ready to charge in from the Pavilion End. Stokes feels his introduction now can produce a breakthrough.

His first delivery results in a front foot no ball, perhaps suggesting he’s a little rusty, and the ball is replaced after morphing out of shape.

Smith didn’t fancy attacking Stokes too much on his first over but managed to push a single through square leg. The England captain leaks a couple off his first.

Bairstow’s getting more and more vocal behind the stumps by the over. The wicket-keeper is doing everything he can to get under Smith’s skin.

Smith tries his best to beat the in-field, demanding some excellent fielding throughout the over. He eventually gets his single off the final ball.

Australia are starting to build up a good partnership. A nice drive down the ground from Smith is well fielded by Broad, who limits the shot to three runs.

Khawaja blocks out the rest of the over. Slowly but surely, Australia are starting to recover from their poor start.

An easy single gets Smith off strike again, and Khawaja dances down the wicket on Moeen’s fourth ball, aggressively striking the ball comfortably over mid-off for four.

Smith stays patient off Robinson and eventually pulls a short delivery down to fine leg, picking up a single.

Khawaja ups the tempo with a crashing four off the back foot through mid-wicket, taking his tally to 32.

The opener’s looking good here.

That four was coming. Throughout the over, Khawaja looked desperate to dance down the wicket and punch the in-field, and he finally manages to, piercing the off-side with a well-timed cover drive.

Just four from the over. 

Smith’s eyes light up as Robinson gifts him a half volley on the leg side, but his drive goes straight to the fielder at mid-off.

It marked his best chance for runs from Robinson’s over. The bowler keeps things tidy with a solid line and length, forcing Smith into nothing more than blocks and leaves.

Another maiden for England.

Moeen and Bairstow appeal as Khawaja appears to nick the ball on the way through to the keeper, but the umpires have none of it. Stokes doesn’t seem interested.

Khawaja then slices one to fine leg, which falls short, and he picks up a couple.

Good start from Mo.

Robinson gets his first over of the day, taking over from Brook. He bowls a couple off dots but his third delivery is a little full, and Smith runs two after a well-timed drive between mid-off and cover. 

Anderson’s over ends with three dots.

Anderson continues, and Smith swiftly takes a single at square leg. England’s bowler continues well against Khawaja, who calls for a repair of his bat.

On the hour, the umpires decide to take drinks midway through the over, as Khawaja takes a look at the bat.

Well, this is unexpected. Ricky Ponting simply says: ‘What is going on here?!’

Harry Brook, not a natural bowler, comes in for Broad to show off his box of tricks. I’m sure Smith and Khawaja weren’t expecting to face England’s No 5 today.

A loose ball down the leg side forces an excellent grab from Bairstow, whose begun the day superbly. 

Smith picks up a run off the last ball of the over, as Brook goes for one.

Jimmy comes round the wicket to Khawaja, who continues to thrive off his pads – clipping a single down to fine leg.

England’s paceman targets the corridor outside Smith’s off stump, but the batter blocks and leaves well before nudging a shot on to the on-side to claim a run.

Looks like Khawaja is going to be the shot player here, if any. Smith more than happy to soak up the pressure and take his time.

 

 

Right, what’s the plan for Smith then? Well Broad is mixing it up a lot more than he did with Warner, launching the odd delivery down the leg side before immediately shaking it up with an out-swinger on off stump.

The strategy brings a wry smile from Australia’s stalwart, who comfortably survives the over. Broad continues his great spell with a maiden.

 

A good recovery over from Australia. Smith rotates the strike smoothly with a single early in the over, and Khawaja capitalises on a short ball from Jimmy, clubbing it for four on the leg side.

Khawaja ticking over nicely here.

Broad you beauty! The veteran ignites Edgbaston and narrowly misses out on a hat-trick after dismissing Warner for 8 and Labuschagne for a golden duck.

He baits Warner into a poor shot with his first of the over, and then forces Labuschagne to poke at a swinging delivery on the off side. But Bairstow had plenty to do. 

The keeper dives to his right and sensationally keeps the ball in his gloves. Edgbaston goes absolutely bonkers. 

Smith comes in to settle things, and flicks one off his pads to get off the mark, running three.

Labuschagne – the ICC world number 1 – is out FIRST BALL! Brilliant bowling from Broad, and an even better catch from Bairstow. Pure theatre here at Edgbaston.

Broad gets Warner again! The opener is baited into a shot and catches an inside edge, dragging the ball onto his stumps.

Warner gets off strike with a quick single from the first ball, and Khawaja capitalises on Anderson’s next delivery, clipping his poor leg-side ball off the pads for four.

After a dot, the opener drives twice – grabbing two runs from each shot – and takes his tally to 17. A good over from Khawaja and Australia.

Broad goes round the wicket to Khawaja unlike Jimmy and gets a huge amount of swing, forcing Bairstow into an excellent stop behind the stumps.

Khawaja crashes a pull shot off his back foot through mid-wicket for four, marking the first boundary of the day.

In response, Broad goes over the wicket and nearly catches the opener out. Khawaja dances down the wicket and the ball crashes off his pad – and there could have been an inside edge.

It doesn’t carry and is called a no-ball by the third umpire.

Anderson gets a noticeable bit of swing from his second delivery, but Khawaja keeps his eye on the ball and blocks it well. 

But he makes a meal of the next ball! Another sumptuous bit of swing and carry, which outfoxes the batsman as he nibbles at it with the bat. No edge for England this time…

Khawaja recovers to block out the next few deliveries and clips the final ball off his pads to fine leg, bringing up the first run of the day.

He’ll take the strike next over. A break from Broad for Warner!

Warner punches Broad down the ground but Anderson does well to stop the ball at mid-on. The opener looks hungry for runs today.

Two balls later, he uncharacteristically advances down the wicket but the ball flies through to Bairstow.

Gameplan from Broad is clear. Just keep attacking Warner’s off stump. Third maiden on the bounce.

There were only three maidens in England’s entire innings yesterday!

‘Oh Jimmy, Jimmy’, the Edgbaston crowd sings as England’s leading wicket taker steps up for his first ball of the Ashes.

He goes over the wicket to Khawaja with the first ball and forces the opener into – you guessed it – a block. Khawaja uses his hands well to deal with Anderson’s deliveries in and around his stumps – and also leaves a couple past his off stump.

Another maiden.

It’s Broad vs Warner to start the day as England’s paceman charges in and forces the opener into three blocks from his first three deliveries.

Warner nudged the fourth ball to mid-wicket and looked to sneak a run, but Khawaja was having none of it.

A tidy maiden to start for England. And a classic over from Australia’s patient openers.

The players, staff and umpires lead an applause for Bob Willis after the legendary cricketer passed away from prostate cancer aged 70 in 2019.

Today, Edgbaston has turned blue for Bob, with money being raised for prostate cancer.

The national anthem follows – and the first ball is coming up. Stay tuned!

It’s been confirmed that play will start after just a five minute delay, which is excellent news considering the slight rain earlier.

The players are heading to the crease ready for Day Two.

The covers are off at Edgbaston, which means we’re likely to get underway shortly!

It seems as though the rain won’t affect the start of play too drastically. We’re moments away from what promises to be another great day of Test cricket.

Harry Brook (top), Jonny Bairstow (middle) and Stuart Broad (bottom) get ready to attack Australia in the field ahead of Day Two at Edgbaston.

‘At the start of this Ashes series everyone was looking to see how Australia would react to England’s style of cricket: whether they would actually say ‘you can’t do that against us,’ set normal fields and wish them the best of luck.

In fact, by posting a deep point as early as the first over it looked like they were admitting ‘we know you can do that against us, and we are going to have to set the field accordingly.’

They were reacting before anything had happened in effect and it was a surprise in some ways to see Australia blink first.’

Read Mail Sport columnist Nasser Hussain’s reaction to Day One at Edgbaston below…

With Warner and Khawaja at the crease, Australia have a lot of talented batters to come in their line-up. But it isn’t necessarily as deep as England’s.

Labuschagne, Smith and Head make up the core of Australia’s threat with the bat and breaking those partnerships will be crucial to England limiting the visitors to a low score.

Green, Carey and captain Cummins will protect the tail at six, seven and eight respectively – but with Cummins predominantly in the side for his bowling, the hosts will hope to take his wicket quickly.

Finally, Lyon, Hazlewood and Boland will bring up the tail.

Right, where are we at then?

Stokes called Root and Robinson in on 393/8 with around half an hour of the day left to play, giving Robinson and Broad a few overs to have a crack at Warner and Khawaja. The openers did their job a stood firm, Warner picking up eight runs and Khawaja grabbing four.

The enthralling day of cricket ended with Australia on 14/0, and England will be desperate for a couple of early breakthroughs.

Warner’s well-covered weakness against Broad will be an interesting talking point this morning, and the three that follow the openers are ranked one, two and three in the world rankings.

It’ll also be interesting to see how Moeen performs with the ball after Lyon’s four-wicket triumph yesterday…

Three major errors from the umpires were saved by the DRS system yesterday, England were given a giant good-luck card from the ECB and there was no first ball heroics from Starc this series, with the Aussie quick left out.

RICHARD GIBSON takes a look at finer details of the first Test…

No more than an hour until the first ball, and the covers are on. Rain has started falling.

It’s not expected to impact the start of play and it could be good news for England.

A few clouds in the sky means the likes of Anderson and Broad should be able trouble the Aussie openers with a bit of swing. 

When Jonny Bairstow got the call to put his gloves back on, he was given quite a shock. The wicket keeper wasn’t expecting to go out and field until the morning.

‘We didn’t know anything about it,’ said Bairstow after his 121-run partnership for the sixth wicket with Root rescued England from 176 for five to 297 for six before Bairstow was stumped for a run-a-ball 78.

‘I’m sure he (Stokes) had a couple of conversations with Brendon (McCullum) and the relevant bowlers but one of them was out in the middle so there can’t have been too many that knew about it and I definitely wasn’t one of them.’

Read everything that Bairstow said below…

 

Zak Crawley’s cracking drive through the covers on the very first ball yesterday set the tone for what promises to be an enthralling Ashes series in England.

Friday’s action brought a handful of promising knocks from England’s top and middle order, but only Root went on to claim the big score. Meanwhile, Nathan Lyon did the business with the ball, claiming four wickets, and proved just how important a spinner can be on this wicket. Stokes must be pleased to have called up Mo…

Mail Sport’s OLIVER HOLT takes a look at the significance of that first ball at Edgbaston…

Hello! 

We’re back with more live Ashes coverage this morning after a thoroughly entertaining day of Test cricket on Friday.

The twists and turns of the historic series continued yesterday as England made a positive start before collapsing in the middle order, and Joe Root’s unbeaten 118 helped Ben Stokes’ side to a respectable score of 393/8d at the end of Day One.

The hosts will be looking to make a fast start with the ball on Day Two after David Warner and Usman Khawaja survived late in the evening on Friday, and with world top three Marnus Labuschagne, Steve Smith and Travis Head to come, Australia will be eyeing up a big total.

Stay tuned for what promises to be an important day in this Ashes series.

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