What those 15 minutes of play overshadowed was quite staggering. The contest between bat and ball was very rich over the entirety of five days. Stokes won the toss and put Australia in under the clouds on a juicy pitch in London. English bowlers were completely anonymous in such bowling-friendly conditions and Steve Smith was outrageously good yet again in England. Australia scored well over 350 in the day and finished on 416 on the second morning. English top 3 found batting relatively easy on a sunny afternoon before throwing away three wickets for 34 runs towards the close of play. Familiar frailties resurfaced as England succumbed to another batting collapse to gift Australia a 91-run lead. After a couple of unfruitful sessions, England resorted to the short ball ploy and stayed with it for the next two entire sessions. An astonishing 98% of the deliveries were short and Aussies couldn't find a way to tackle it. A target of 371 was always going to be tough and the last thing England would have wanted was the top order to crumble. They found themselves at 47-4 thanks to a couple of crackerjack deliveries from Starc and Cummins. Though Duckett had looked good in both innings, everyone knew it all hinged on one man and that man was Benjamin Andrew Stokes. Duckett mistimed a pull and was soon followed by Jonny Bairstow which left England needing 178 runs short. The majority of the crowd was fuming and so was Ben Stokes. This was probably the best individual batting display witnessed by most of us who were present at Lord's. The control at the start was commendable, the acceleration was staggering and the ball striking was stunning. He scored 155 before finally mis-hitting one against Josh Hazlewood. It was very similar to Headingley 4 years ago. He probably would have needed to score in excess of 200 if England were to get over the line but if he had, it would have been bigger than Headingley for sure. Some of the sixes he hit at Headingley were mis-hits but not one out of the nine sixes at Lord's teased the boundary riders. He just kept doing it for more than 15 overs and put on 108 with Stuart Broad. There wasn't much left once he was gone and Australia wrapped up the innings fairly quickly to win the match by 43 runs.
Pat Cummins and his team have now won two close tests and buried some ghosts along the way. There is no doubt that Stokes' presence did make them nervous and Smith dropping a straightforward catch was perhaps the evidence of it. But despite of all the drama and the talk surrounding BazBall, Australia find themselves 2-0 up. It has not been comfortable by any means and England under a leader as inspirational as Ben Stokes can definitely turn up at Headingley a better team. For me, the concern for England is the pitches. Australians have not won in the UK since 2001 so England didn't need BazBall to beat Australia. More often than not the Aussies have been beaten by the movement and these flatter pitches are bringing Australia into the game more than it should. For two test matches in a row, James Anderson and Stuart Broad, 41 and 37 respectively, have been forced to bowl 20 overs in a day on dead and slow pitches. If they decide to play both of them again at Headingley on a similar pitch, they would be basically going on a hunt with blind dogs. I still think England's best chance against this extremely experienced and skilled Australian team is by producing wickets conducive to seam bowling. History tells us that when Australia gain the upper hand, they generally bury the opposition and it will be extremely difficult to stop this Australian side who just want it more than the English do. The narrative is so much in favor of Australia but if England somehow manage to win in Leeds and keep the series alive, it could end up as one of the greatest test series we have ever seen.
