England would be thanking their stars for having a player like Joe Root, who just continues to rescue them whenever they find themselves in a tough situation whether with the bat or the ball. If not for those two strikes in the final hour of the set batter Travis Head and then Cameron Green in just one over, England would have been on the brink of a second straight defeat. They can still lose but England would believe going into the second day with Australia at 339/5.
Steve Smith and Travis Head, as they did against India a couple of weeks ago, were threatening to take the game away from England with almost a run-a-ball 118-run partnership. While Smith was solid as ever, Head was blasting away to another quickfire century before Ben Stokes pulled out his trump card in the form of Joe Root as they were playing without a spinner.
Root first tricked Head with an off-spinning delivery by pitching it wide as he got him out stumped. Cameron Green, the new batsman on just his third ball tried to play a lofted shot on a shorter delivery but mistimed it completely handing a simple catch to mid-off fielder James Anderson as Australia went from 316-3 to 316-5.
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Thankfully for the visitors, Smith and Alex Carey ensured that there were no other major hiccups as Australia ended the first day ahead of the game.
Earlier, England suffered from some lacklustre bowling as apart from Josh Tongue, none of the four seamers looked threatening despite helpful conditions at Lord's. Tongue removed both the openers Usman Khawaja and David Warner before Ollie Robinson found Marnus Labuschagne's edge three short of his half-century. England will hope to wrap up Australia in the first session on Day 2, otherwise the match could slip out of their hands rather quickly.
