Lucky Duckett's late reprieve sets up thrilling Lord's climax

England will require batting heroics even more profound than their Headingley triumph of 2019 if they are to prevent Australia taking a 2-0 stranglehold on the Ashes despite the sensational reprieve granted opener Ben Duckett in the final hour at Lord's today.

Facing a record Lord's run chase of 371 to level the series, England had crashed to 4-41 within an hour of their innings before rallying to reach 4-114 at stumps with Duckett leading a charmed existence on 50no and skipper Ben Stokes 29no.

Duckett had just reached his half-century when he miscued an attempted ramp off a Cameron Green bouncer that flew to fine leg where Mitchell Starc claimed a catch running low to his left, cleanly taking the ball in the air but steadying himself by placing the hand in which the ball was lodged on the grass as he slid.

 

The England opener was all-but off the ground when he was advised to wait, with batting partner Ben Stokes animatedly chatting with on-field officials before third umpire Marais Erasmus deemed it an unfair catch and the batter returned to middle, amid howling cheers from the crowd.

As commentators furiously debated Erasmus's interpretation, it seemed the understanding of what does and doesn't constitute a fair catch in modern cricket is now in question given Starc was clearly in control of the ball before his hand touched the ground.

While the sight of wounded warrior Nathan Lyon hobbling into the line of fire as England launched an extraordinarily prolonged bouncer blitz at their rivals will remain an enduring image of this campaign, it was the damage wrought by Australia with the new ball that looms as decisive.

After England's five-pronged seam attack sent down three hours of non-stop short balls, with 98 per cent of all deliveries aimed above the batters' chest, Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins responded with a masterclass in aiming at the stumps.

 

Image Id: 483C81D91FC644ADBE0B1754644F2778 Image Caption: The England seamers stuck to their plan // Sky Sports

 

Even allowing for Stokes's reputation for carrying his team across the line on the biggest stage, he will need to mastermind the greatest fourth-innings recovery in Test history given no team has lost their first four wickets for less than 50 to pass 350 in the fourth innings of a match.

That predicament might have been been even more dire had Duckett not been missed from what would have been a stunning diving catch at gully by Green (on zero), and reprieved on five when adjudged lbw to Starc only to have the decision reversed on review.

But either side of that moment, Starc landed two mortal blows by having opener Zak Crawley (3) caught behind wafting at a wide ball down leg side, and number three Ollie Pope castled by perhaps the ball of the series to that point which swung in late and flattened the right-hander's midde stump.

 

Regardless of the outcome of this Test, Pope must be a doubtful starter for the third Test starting at Headingley on Thursday given he has twice been forced from the field to spend lengthy stints in the dressing room after suffering shoulder injuries in the field.

If Starc's start was stunning, he was potentially upstaged when replaced by his skipper Cummins who produced one of the great Ashes overs with the first of his second spell this evening.

Cummins' first delivery rose brutishly and slammed into the forearm of England's best batter, Joe Root, with his follow-up just as venomous as it jagged from back of a length at the ex-England skipper who fended off the face of his bat to slip.

He then might have claimed England's exuberant number four Harry Brook for a second-ball duck as the 24-year-old drove in the air past the bowler's left shoulder for four, but had no answer to the next ball that angled in from wide on the crease and straightened to take the top of off stump.

In what is tipped to be a long and productive Test career, it's unlikely Brook will encounter too many better seeds than the one that brought silence to Lord's and exuberance to Cummins and his men.

 

The sight of stumps being rattled twice in the first hour of England's innings served as something of a salve after hour after hour of never-ending bouncers that did deliver them Australia's final seven wickets at a cost of just 94 runs on a pitch offering little to any bowlers but seemed at odds with their much-trumpeted 'Bazball' philosophy.

But that unprecedented preponderance of short stuff was not the day's major talking point, with Starc's disputed catch narrowly pipping Lyon's dramatic entry for that honour.

With Australia 9-264 and leading by 355 runs more than half an hour remaining before tea, Lyon defied all expectation and, quite likely, medical wisdom by completing the painfully arduous descent from Australia's dressing room and the pavilion steps to drag himself to the middle.

Having confirmed prior to play this morning that his torn right calf was so badly damaged he was unable to place his foot flat on the ground, he had summoned extraordinary courage to face what he knew would be an all-out assault on his person in the hope of adding a few extra runs.

Not that he could make any himself, unless he was able to find the boundary because his one attempt to complete a single – with Starc convinced he had clubbed a six only to see it acrobatically saved on the rope by England's substitute fielder Rehan Ahmed – left him in such a state there were fears he might have to be removed from the field by a medivac chopper.

But if the wisdom of Lyon taking to the crease in such obvious duress was questionable, it was dwarfed alongside England's cluelessness with their ongoing bouncer war ensuring a moment of high drama descended into 26 minutes of abject farce.

With Lyon unable to move and clearly only able to stand and swing, which meant balls aimed at his waist were among the few in his hitting zone, the tactic of targeting his torso seemed as mindless as it was pointless.

It ultimately achieved its aim – Lyon wafting a catch to Stokes at square leg as Stuart Broad narrowed his attack by aiming bouncers from around the wicket – but Australia had increased their total by 15 runs courtesy of the last-wicket pair.

It meant England's victory target eked out to 371 – nine more than Stokes famously and almost single-handedly chased down at Headingley four years ago – which will require the second-highest successful fourth-innings chase in their Test history.

Buoying England fans prior to the start of the pursuit was knowledge the biggest – 3-378 against India – came in the early days of 'Bazball', at Edgbaston last year.

Australia's innings had resumed in much the same manner it ended on Friday evening, with Steve Smith glancing the opening delivery of the morning from James Anderson to the fine leg boundary for four.

With sun shining after a late morning drizzle that delayed the start of day four by five minutes, Smith was quickly into stride taking three consecutive boundaries from Anderson's third over of gentle out-swing – two sumptuous drives through cover and mid-off, and a delicate dab to third.

But after Smith and Usman Khawaja took the total past 150, and then lead in excess of 250 the day's first drinks break brought a radical change of tactics and a similarly seismic shift in the game.

England's first indication the short-ball ploy might prove bountiful came shortly before the break when Ollie Robinson tempted Khawaja to try a pull shot, and the resultant bottom edge that crashed into the batter's shoulder also ballooned sufficiently to wrong-foot keeper Jonny Bairstow.

However, the deployment of Stuart Broad in place of Robinson after the break ensured Bairstow's muffed one-handed diving effort only cost England five runs as momentum of the day swung sharply.

Khawaja had fortuitously scooped one hook from Broad over the head of Duckett stationed at backward square leg to gather a rare boundary, but got more bat on the next one from Broad's following delivery and picked out a finer fielder set in the deep.

Australia were 3-187 at that point, 288 runs ahead and enjoying the best batting weather they had seen for the game.

By lunch, they were five down with a total advanced by just 35 with all three wickets to fall in the session victims of 'banging it in' rather than anything more nuanced.

Just as England's top-order imploded late on day four against an equally unsubtle tactic, the inability of Australia's batters to score against, or even withstand the bottomless buffet of bouncers suggesting the Lord's pitch was becoming increasingly two-paced.

 

That would surely account for Smith's demise, as he looked to paddle a half-tracker from Josh Tongue into the yawning infield gaps behind square only to get his timing so wrong he instead lofted to deep backward square as if hitting a fly ball at pre-game catching practice.

Playing just his second Test, Tongue finished with the wickets of both David Warner and Smith in each of Australia's batting innings making him just the second bowler across the 88 Tests the Australia pair have played together to have done so.

Coincidentally, the other is New Zealand left-armer Neil Wagner – widely recognised as the modern-day pioneer of the relentless short-pitched ploy – who managed it at the MCG in 2019.

England were suddenly back in the contest and cock-a-hoop with both set batters removed inside four deliveries, the only dampener to their mood being the straightforward catch Anderson shelled at gully that would have seen Travis Head gone for a first-ball duck.

Not that it mattered much, as Head's clear discomfort at the ball being aimed at his upper body soon saw him fend Broad to short leg where Root, co-opted into the unpopular fielding position despite his seniority because most others were scattered to the boundaries, clutched a stunning grad in his left claw.

Cameron Green and Alex Carey withstood the bombardment for half an hour before lunch, but forewarning of what awaited came when England skipper Ben Stokes took to the field minutes before his teammates and rival batters at the start of the second session to prepare for a bowling stint.

The champion allrounder remains severely hobbled by a left knee complaint that restricted him to just three overs in Australia's first innings (0-21) and ensures his ventures to the bowling crease require significant limbering and loosening.

But once he had ball in hand, Stokes charged in unchanged for more than an hour, sending down 12 consecutive overs with every one of those 72 deliveries thumped into the Lord's surface and rising above waist-height at his rival batters.

At the other (pavilion) end, Robinson undertook a similarly indefatigable stint mixing his 128kph bouncers with the very occasional 130kph yorker, and a far more regular stream of invective at the Australia duo who seemed largely oblivious to his commentary.

Given the reluctance of both Green and Carey to take on the short stuff, in stark contrast to England on day two when they swung at everything making it a genuine wicket-taking ploy, it seemed a negative strategy squarely at odds with the 'entertainment is king' Bazball ethos.

However, that refusal to engage meant Australia's score had also become totally becalmed so the Test entered into a phoney-war phase whereby neither side showed any intent, and even less discernible concern, the progress of the Test had ground to a halt.

Television viewers could have been excused for thinking their feed was forever buffering, as Australia added a soporific 17 runs from 13 overs in the hour after lunch during which 97 per cent of balls bowled landed six metres or more from the batters.

Like many among that audience, Green finally tired of the tedium and ill-advisedly tried to find a run, instead picking out one of three fielders hanging back on the boundary rope on the leg side.

Two overs later, Carey bunted to short leg in almost identical fashion to his close mate Head and Australia were down to their tailenders with a lead that had crawled from 221 overnight to 330 by midway through the day.

The arrival of the non-specialist batters did nothing to tempt England into tempering their tactics, and the bumpers kept raining down, with statisticians who keep track of such ephemera declaring this match to have hosted more short balls than any other played in England since 2005.

Cummins will surely face more of the same throughout the remainder of the series having struggled to disentangle himself from the barrage and he briefly decided the best counter-attack was to try and step back and swat into the vacant off-side field in front of the wicket.

It should have cost him his wicket on eight when he skied a catch to point, but Stokes had overstretched his dodgy left leg and his opposing skipper was granted a reprieve.

The stay was short-lived when he became the sixth batter of the day to fend a catch off his upper body, and when Josh Hazlewood became the seventh his batting partner, Starc, was so certain that was innings end he began sprinting from the field to prepare for his bowling stint.

Like almost everyone at Lord's, he then stopped in disbelief as the he saw the familiar shape of Lyon hobbling down the handful of steps and on to the field for quite possibly the final time in England.

2023 Qantas Ashes Tour of the UK

First Test: Australia won by two wickets

Second Test: Wednesday June 28-Sunday July 2, Lord’s

Third Test: Thursday July 6-Monday July 10, Headingley

Fourth Test: Wednesday July 19-Sunday July 23, Old Trafford

Fifth Test: Thursday July 27-Monday 31, The Oval

Australia squad: Pat Cummins (c), Scott Boland, Alex Carey (wk), Cameron Green, Marcus Harris, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis (wk), Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitch Marsh, Todd Murphy, Michael Neser, Matthew Renshaw, Steve Smith (vc), Mitchell Starc, David Warner

England squad: Ben Stokes (c), Rehan Ahmed, James Anderson, Jonathan Bairstow, Stuart Broad, Harry Brook, Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Dan Lawrence, Jack Leach, Ollie Pope, Matthew Potts, Ollie Robinson, Joe Root, Josh Tongue, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood