London [UK], June 29 : Half-century from Ben Duckett and his partnerships with Zak Crawley and Ollie Pope put England in a solid position in their first innings of the second Ashes Test in reply to Australia's 416.
England were 145/1 at Tea with Duckett (62*) and Pope (32*) unbeaten at the crease.
England started the second session of the second day of the Test at 13/0, with Duckett batting at 7 and Crawley at six.
England reached 50-run mark in 10.1 overs with Crawley being the main aggressor. He looked in a good touch and smashed some elegant shots.
In the 17th over, Nathan Lyon struck for Australia. Crawley was stumped for 48 by wicketkeeper Alex Carey. His knock consisted of five fours. England were 91/1 and reached the 100-run mark in 20.1 overs.
Ollie Pope also was looking in sublime form and smashed Mitchell Starc for three successive fours in the 27th over.
Duckett brought up his sixth Test fifty in 84 balls and the innings included five fours.
Pope-Duckett completed a fifty-run stand and helped England get through the session without further loss of wicket.
Earlier, Steve Smith led Australia to a comfortable position in the second match against England with his 110 runs as the visitors lost five wickets by adding only 77 runs to their overnight total.
Australia resumed Day 2 on 339/5 with Steve Smith batting on 85*.
England pacers were in good form from the start of Day 2 in the second Ashes Test being played at the Lord's with Stuart Broad dismissing Alex Carey for 22. James Anderson removed new batter Mitchell Starc for 6, leaving Australia at 358/7.
Steve Smith kept scoring from the other end and slammed his 32nd Test hundred with a classy four off Anderson's delivery.
He was finally out for 110 as Josh Tongue provided his team with a big breakthrough.
Australia kept losing wickets at regular intervals. In the 99th over of the innings, Ollie Robinson bagged the wicket of Nathan Lyon, who had made 7 runs. Josh Hazlewood then came out to bat and could make only four runs. He also became a victim of
Robinson's bowling and Australia were restricted to 416 runs. The visitors lost the last seven wickets for 100 runs.
Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett started the England innings and Mitchell Starc opened the Aussie attack.
Brief score: Australia 416 (Steven Smith 110, Travis Head 77; Josh Tongue 3-98) vs England 145/1 (Ben Duckett 62, Ollie Pope 32*, Nathan Lyon 1/28).
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