ENG vs AUS

Pat Cummins, Australia Captain- It was wonderful game of cricket and went right down to the wire! Stokesy gave us a bit of a heart attack there as he went hard at it on either side of lunch. We worked on a couple of things from that Headingley game and one of them was to stay patient! We didn't loose our cool even when we were being hit for those huge sixes earlier in the session. Regarding the Bairstow dismissal, I  thought Carey did the right thing there and in my opinion that was fair play. Some people might disagree but they're entitled to their opinion! We lost Nathan Lyon and it was a big blow for us, but the rest of the bowlers stuck up for us and did phenomenally well. The batters did a great job too, under lights on day 1 and that gave us a major advantage. Lyon's injury seems to be pretty serious at the moment and we might as well loose him for the rest of the series, However, we do have Todd Murphy in the reserves and it will be a great opportunity for him to fill in.

Ben Stokes [England captain]: [On his innings in the fourth innings] Similar experience before, obviously you can look back and see things like that, game plan on how you want to do it, I did take things back from how I went about at Headingly into this innings but unfortunately, just wasn't enough today. It's got to a point, Australia changed the plans with how they wanted things with me, tried to take risks. Tough one to swallow but being involved in a fantastic game is awesome, we're two nil down, but there's there  more to go and we've done it against New Zealand, 3-0 and Pakistan, 3-0, we know we can do it. [About Bairstow's dismissal] There's a quite a lot of factors to take into that, got called over from umpire, end of the day it's out and I think if the shoe was on the other foot, we would've thought about with the spirit of the game like that, just got to move on, it's given out. [On first innings bowling] When you win the toss, and you bowl, you look to restrict below 300, we got a bit of criticism from people but we went past the bat plenty of times and it was frustrating, not going to lie. But, the effort and energies has been amazing, it's a tough one when you lose a test match but there's a lot of positives. [On their first innings batting] Reckless is easy word to use, what we've done in the dressing room is we've given clarity to each individual on how to go out and play, the message was clear. [About Josh Tongue] Tongue has been brilliant, first game against Netherlands, didn't knew very well but he's an exciting prospect, he has a role in the team but he runs and bowls for long, he's a great find for us and hopefully has an amazing future for England. It's a quick turnaround to Leeds, but as a I said, what we're think about is 3-2.

Steve Smith is the Player of the Match! Here's what he has to say: [About Ben Stokes' innings] He is a freak, there's a bit of a Deja vu from that Headingly game, the way he went about it, pretty much targeting one side, down the hill, it was the first shot he hit from the far end that he got out. [On the Stokes' spilled catch] There was an opportunity, I spilled it, was feeling for a bit there but he's a freak, unbelievable player. I didn't pick it up initially, it's quite hard when is going like that and I put it down, it's difficult giving lives for a guy like that, the way he plays and we've seen innumerous times and fortunately hit one out the chimney, incredible knock. [About his first innings hundred] It was important to put decent total on the board, we wanted to bowl on day 1, it helped us in the end putting up that kind of a total. It was a bit two paced, bounce mostly, wasn't easy and wasn't great deal on offer when you pitch it up and it was easy to get runs and was presenting wicket taking opportunities. Wasn't easy with the pace and bounce as the ball got older, try and build as many runs as you could. England play dangerous brand, and with not much from the surface, we wanted to get as many as possible and Nathan got us crucial runs.

Match Summary 
1st Innings
Australia 416 all out | England 325 all out
Second innings
Australia 279 all out | England 327 all out 

Session Summary - 24.3 overs | Runs 84 | Wickets 4 | RPO 3.45

Right so, we've had an incredibly exhilarating session of Test match cricket here at the HOME OF CRICKET and Australia have prevailed over England in the end. They clinched this really hard fought game by 43 runs and managed to go 2-0 up in the series. It wasn't so easy for them earlier in the session though as Ben Stokes and Stuart Broad gave them a major scare. 

Ben Stokes began the session in T20 mode as he hammered Hazlewood for two big sixes of the very first over. What followed was a prolonged period of play where Australia kept going with the short ball tactic to both Stokes and Broad, only to be whacked all over the park by the former. To make things worst for them , Steve Smith grasped an easy chance of Ben Stokes of the very first over of the session. They did change their strategy after the drinks break and started bowling wide outside the off stump to cut down on the scoring rate.

It paid dividends as a tiring Ben Stokes tried to go over the off side and ended up top edging one which was safely pouched by Alex Carey. The England captain had given every one present at Lords today a major Deja Vu moment of Headingley 2019, where he chased down 358. However, it was not to be for him this time as he perished and it led to the tail crumbling soon after him. Broad and Robinson were caught out hooking against the short ball and all of a sudden England became 302/9 from 301/6 in a span of 3 overs.

The last pair between Josh Tongue and Jimmy Anderson were battered and bruised but they managed to frustrate the Aussies for a while. The duo put on 25 for the last wicket before Starc cleaned Tongue up and won the game for Australia!

It was a long hard grind for Australia, but they will be remarkably proud of their seamers who took all the 10 wickets in the absence of Nathan Lyon, on a surface that had something in offer for the spinners going into the final day. Spare of thought for Ben Stokes, who played one of the all time great knocks but didn't manage to see his side home. Australia might have taken the all important lead, but once again, it's Test Cricket, that has emerged victorious here at Lords. This ASHES series is turning out to be one of the greatest ever.

81.3 Mitchell Starc to Josh Tongue, OUT! BOWLED 'IM! Done and dusted at Lords and Australia go 2-0 up in the series! Tongue's resistance come to an end! Full and on the leg stump line, Tongue has backed away and in the end, has to reach out for it. Fails to get any bat on it and the leg stump is sent cartwheeling! Was moving all around his crease and it just needed a full and straight delivery to send him packing. It is Starc who delivers the decisive blow and Tongue loses his leg stump! 

Josh Tongue b Mitchell Starc 19 (26b 1x4 0x6)

81.2 Mitchell Starc to Josh Tongue, short of a length and on the body, Tongue backs away and slaps it over Starc's head. The batters return for a couple as Cummins chases it down. 

81.1 Mitchell Starc to James Anderson, short of a length and outside off, Anderson gets onto his toes and opens the face of the bat to push it just past the silly point fielder for a single. 

This last pair have put on 20 invaluable runs now in the past 8 overs and suddenly the target is down to below 50 now. Australia decided not to take the new ball in that over. Will they take it from here?

80.6 Cameron Green to James Anderson, length ball on the leg stump angling in, Anderson tucks that through the backward square leg region for a single. 

80.5 Cameron Green to Josh Tongue, short and on the fourth stump line, Tongue gets onto his toes and pats that down into the off side for a quick single. 

80.4 Cameron Green to Josh Tongue, short and on the off stump line, Tongue Moges across a long way once again. Sees the line of the ball and decides to leave it alone. 

80.3 Cameron Green to Josh Tongue, short and well down the leg side, Tongue has shuffled across a long way and his attempted hook does not get anywhere near the ball. 

80.2 Cameron Green to Josh Tongue, on length and follows the backing-away Tongue, who somehow manages to flick it through the square leg region. Landed outside the pitch by the time he finished playing that shot. Gets it into the gap and the batters run a couple. 

80.1 Cameron Green to Josh Tongue, FOUR! SHOT! Back of a length ball on the middle stump line, Tongue shuffles across a long way and hooks that very fine! Beats the long leg in place. One bounce and into the fence!

Cameron Green [12.0-3-66-1] comes back into the attack.

Starc battered and bruised Anderson with the short ball in that over. He stood his ground though and managed to get through another over. Australia are due for the second new ball now and they will be looking to take it straightaway,