Australia maintained their 1-0 winning streak for the Aus vs Eng Ashes Test series after the last game at the Lord’ that had to be tied off between the teams due to rain. With the cancelled first match for the day, the team’s spirits were quite dampened as the torrential rains carried on into the week. Steve Smith secured tremendous batting innings with his 92 runs and brought down the deficit scope for the first innings to just 8 runs.
Unfortunately, an unavoidable concussion caused him to abandon the game. Marnus Labuschagne then took his place to carry on with the final match. With a massive contribution of 111 runs from Ben Stokes, the team unleashed a strong target of 267 runs in 48 overs. Australian team stood at an initial 154/6 during the opening ceremony with anthems and handshakes, and emerged victorious, nonetheless.
So it was a draw, for more updates on Aus vs Eng vs 2nd test you need to scroll down.
The first change:
1 : In the history of International matches in cricket, Marnus Labuschagne was now the first substitute to replace a player who suffered a concussion. A strategy known as Super Sub has been prevalent among the matches of 81 ODI cricket and one T20I, in which a 12th player gets to join in randomly during the match. The Lord’s Test match had become the first of its kind to host more than 22 players during a game.
A seldom draw:
20 – England found itself tied with the opposing team, which was a first tie for England in 20 matches; an accomplishment ranked as 3rd for its remarkable progress undeterred by any drawn match. England’s previous tied Test match was in the year 2016 with Sri Lanka at the Lord’s. Sri Lanka hosted 25 Test matches, all of which concluded with a result. During the years 1882/83 , 1946 in Australia, none of the successive 87 Tests ended up in a draw, not even in timeless Tests.
Smith with one more award:
7 : In the Ashes series, Steve Smith is known for his consistent score of at least 50 runs in his seven innings, making him the first cricket player to have scored seven fifty-plus runs one after the other. This outshines Mike Hussey’s achievement of six innings between the years 2009 and 2010.
England’s good totals:
1 : England concluded with exactly 258 runs in both innings: 258/10 and 258/5 dec. This was a first-time competitive coincidence for England’s score. With two innings covered in 809 Test matches before, England had never ended a game with the same total until now. This is the 11th occurrence where a team has claimed the same runs for both Test innings.
England’s identical pair of the 258-run score is actually the 4th highest of its kind. Similarly, India had reached the same target of 407/10 and 407/9 in the 2005 Test match of Kolkata vs Pakistan, whereas Sri Lanka tallied up 306 runs both times during the 1998 Test of Cape Town vs South Africa. In Hamilton, India bowled out New Zealand at 279 during the 2009 Test, which was the last time a team stood at the same score.
Paine @ 100:
23 : Wicketkeepers Tim Paine and Mark Boucher dismissed 100 batsmen in just 23 matches, a record quickly surpassed by Adam Gilchrist (22) and Quinton de Kock (22).
Paine achieved this milestone in 44 innings, the same as South African keepers David Richardson (44) and Mark Boucher (44), which is the 3rd fastest after De Kock (39) and Gilchrist (43).
A first for Root:
1 : Joe Root was out at the first ball – his first golden duck in Test matches. This was his 6th dismissal in 153 Test innings.
1981 : The last time an English captain got a golden duck in an Ashes series at the Lord’s, was in the year 1981. Ian Botham had gotten two golden ducks; he was out at 3 balls in the first innings and on the first ball in the second inning.
