Australia Living On the Edge Of Follow-on, Day 2 closes at 152-8

The picture tells the story, Ponting needs a much bigger palm to hide his face after the day ended due to bad light leaving Australia on the verge of a follow-on. England celebrates at the end of the day after pocketing 8 Aussie  wickets.

Australia has been very careless in the second Ashes Test at Lords. Its 75-year unbeaten record at Lord’s is facing its greatest threat. Five of their batsmen fell to hook shots, they could have simply swayed out of the way.

The bowlers have already let England get to a pretty good score. Anderson turned in a performance befitting his recently-acquired mantle of England spearhead, maintaining a threatening line and swinging the ball just enough to create angst among the opposing batsmen.

With Flintoff conceding runs at barely two-per-over at the other end, and Stuart Broad and Graham Onions constantly probing the outside edge, England created a pressurised atmosphere in which the Australians spectacularly cracked. The tourists lost six wickets for the addition of just 49 after tea, and must now hope for more of the rain periods that interrupted the second day’s play if they are to emerge from this match unscathed.
The teams seemed to have revered roles in this match. In the first test was playing catch up all the time and in the second test its Australia’s turn to play catch up.

The Ashes 2009  - 2nd Test