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Updated July 2, 2023

The Ashes: Australia takes 2-0 lead against England

TL;DR

Once again, Australia beat England in the five-match Ashes. After winning the first match, Australia also beat the host today in the second match

The Ashes: Australia takes 2-0 lead against England

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Once again, Australia beat England in the five-match Ashes. After winning the first game at Edgbaston, Australia faced England at the historical Lord's. However, The Aussies continue dominating the series. They defeated the host in the second test to go 2-0 up in the five-match Ashes.

Match Report

As we reported , Australia scored 416 runs in the first innings of the 2nd test. The host couldn't chase them in the first innings as England's 1st innings ended with 325 runs. As a result, Australia were in the lead of 91 runs after the first innings. In the 2nd innings, Australia had a slow start. David Warner and Usman Khawaja added 63 runs in the opening partnership. But Warner couldn't play like the first innings. He lost his wicket after scoring 25 runs. However, Usman Khawaja didn't miss the half-century. He was heading forward to the century, but Stuard Broad picked his wicket in 61.6 over. Khawaja added 77 runs before leaving the crease. English bowlers were comparatively better in the 2nd innings. Especially, pacer Stuard Broad was ruthless against the Aussies. He picked up four important wickets of Australia. Josh Tongue and Ollie Robinson were also brilliant. They both got two wickets for each. Due to their aggression, Australia became all-out in 279 runs. Therefore, England needed 371 runs to win the match. Chasing the target, England were very poor. They struggled a lot facing the Aussie pacers. Pacer Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, and Pat Cummins maintained a very tight line and length with the new ball. Their ruthless bowling spells turned England four men down in just 45 runs. However, Ben Duckett tried to handle the disaster with the captain, Ben Stokes. They were slowly building a partnership in the 2nd innings. Both batters got half-centuries, respectively, and were heading toward the century. Unfortunately, Ben Duckett lost his wicket after scoring 83 runs. After that, England started losing wickets again. But captain Ben Stokes remained very determined to win the game. He continued picking runs. The skipper played a heroic innings, scoring the highest 155 runs for England. Relying on his bat, England were dreaming to win the game. But Josh Hazlewood got the most important wicket as he picked up Ben Stokes in the 72.1 over. After that, the remaining batters failed to contribute enough. They lost all their wickets in 327 runs. As a result, Australia won the match by 43 runs, and have taken a 2-0 lead in the series.

Ben Stokes believes in a comeback

After losing the first two games, English captain Ben Stokes still believes they can win the series. He said, "Having experienced something similar, you are able to look back at it. Did take a lot out of Headingley but unfortunately not to be. Definitely felt we had a shout, but Australia changed their plans and that changed things for me. I had to take my risks to the longer side of the ground. Tough one to swallow, but it was a fantastic game. We are 2-0 down, but we got 3 games to go. We have won 3-0 against Pakistan, 3-0 against NZ, so we have the belief that we can do it."

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