England will be chasing history on the final day of the second Ashes Test at Lord's Cricket Ground on Sunday, July 2. England have been below-par in the ongoing Ashes series and they have gotten the best opportunity to turn their fortune around not just in the second game but also in the series with Australia 1-0 ahead.
For that England will have to pull off the highest successful chase in Test cricket history at home of cricket - 371. After they put Australia in to bat first, they posted a challenging first-innings score of 416 before short-pitched bowling resulted in the undoing of both teams. England were bowled out for 325 before Australia scored 279 runs in their second to take a lead of 370 runs.
The previous highest successful run-chase at Lord's was 342 by West Indies nearly 40 years ago. However, last year, this very England team chased down 277 runs against New Zealand. But that was New Zealand and this is Australia and the target is 100 runs more. But Ben Stokes and Co. will definitely take some confidence from pulling off all those run-chases last year.
Highest successful run-chases in Test cricket at Lord's
342 - West Indies vs England, 1984
282 - England vs New Zealand, 2004
277 - England vs New Zealand, 2022
216 - England vs New Zealand, 1965
191 - England vs West Indies, 2012
After being reduced to 45/4, England staged a remarkable comeback riding on Ben Duckett's unbeaten half-century and skipper Ben Stokes' measured knock. England will want all three of Duckett, Stokes and Jonny Bairstow, who is yet to come, to go big because there are still 257 runs to be made. Australia may be without a frontline spinner Nathan Lyon, who was ruled out of the match because of a calf injury but they still have enough quality seamers to do the damage.
