Second defeat for the team England in the Ashes series on their home soil. The first test was played on 16th June – 20th June at Birmingham where Australia defeated England by two wickets. In the first innings, England declared at 393-8 while Australia managed to score 386 where the lead goes to England by 7 runs. In the second innings, Australia all out England at 273 runs with a target of 281 for them. A fine and classic inning from captain Pat Cummins led Australia to their first victory in the series.
In the second test match, played at Lord’s Cricket Stadium England were to chase 370 but Aussies overplayed them. A fine innings from Smith in the first innings of 110 runs with Warner scoring 66 runs led them to a total of 416 runs. The second innings was quite interesting as England required 257 runs to chase and Australia needed 6 wickets to win. Stokes played some good cricket and scored a ton but eventually Aussies got him out at 155. That was good fighting from both ends & Australia managed to win by 43 runs and took the lead of 2-0 in the 5-match test series.
AUSTRALIA GO 2-0 UP IN THE MEN'S ASHES!#ENGvAUS | #Ashes pic.twitter.com/gQ1X2P5999
— ESPNcricinfo (@ESPNcricinfo) July 2, 2023
Stokes Falls After Extraordinary Fourth Innings Knock 👏#ENGvsAUS | #Ashes23 pic.twitter.com/GvmPNpHEnE
— CriviewPoint. (@CriviewPoint) July 2, 2023
The next match will be played from 6th July at the Leeds Cricket Stadium.
Virat Kohli applauds Ben Stokes' magnificent knock at Lords🙌#Ashes2023 #ENGvsAUS #Ashes #Ashes23 #BenStokes #Cricket #Tweets #ViratKohli #viral #AUSvENG pic.twitter.com/0EZI6ukNyv
— Vikrant Yadav (@Ahir_vikrant_) July 2, 2023
England’s ‘Bazball’ didn’t work out against Aussies
After Brendon McCullum took the role of head coach for the team England, he with the captain of England, Ben Stokes introduced the term ‘Bazball’. They meant to play fearless and aggressive cricket. They did well against top teams like Pakistan, New Zealand, and Ireland but in this Ashes series, their plan didn’t work out. Aussies with the top-pace attack overplayed the English batsman.
However, they might come up with better plans and options in the 3rd Test Match and stay in the series else another loss to be the end of the test series.
