The Ashes 2023

‘Ozball 2, Bazball 0’ -Fans react as Australia beat England by 43 runs to win Lords Ashes Test 2023

Ben Stokes scored 155 off 214 balls with nine fours.
Lords Test 2023
Lords Test 2023 (Source: Twitter)

Australia beat England by 43 runs at Lords to take a 2-0 lead in the Ashes. England were in the hunt on Day 5 when Ben Stokes was going all guns blazing, the England skipper almost did a repeat of Headingley in 2019 as he smashed the Australian bowlers with disdain and made his way to 155 off 214 balls with nine fours. There was a lot of uproar over Jonny Bairstow’s run out by Alex Carey and Stokes took the attack to the Australians.

Stokes did receive support from Broad who batted for more than 104 minutes and took a lot of body blows as he made 11 off 36 balls with two fours. But After Stokes miscued one and Smith took a redemption catch, it was just a matter of when for Australia. The last three wickets of Stuart Broad, Ollie Robinson and Josh Tongue fell rather quickly after that. This gave Australia a 2-0 lead in the series.

England lost their last six wickets for 47 runs in the first innings at Lords

Australia scored 416 runs in the first innings. On the back of a wonderful ton from Steve Smith who made 110 off 184 balls with 15 fours. Travis Head struck a stroke-filled 77 off 73 balls with 14 fours. Tongue picked 3-98 in his 22-over spell. England were in a great position being just four wickets down but the Three Lions lost their last 6 wickets for 47 runs in a dramatic batting collapse. They ended up with 325 and gave the Kangaroos a valuable 91-run lead.

In the second innings, Usman Khawaja hit a watchful 77 off 187 balls with 12 fours. The Kangaroos made 279 in the second innings. Broad picked up 4-65 in his spell of 24.5 overs. In the second innings, England were off to a bad start as Starc picked up the early wickets of Zak Crawley and Ollie Pope. Then Pat Cummins landed the double blow by dismissing Joe Root and Harry Brook in one over.

Just as it looked gloomy for England, Stokes and Ben Duckett made some good rearguard action. Duckett scored a quickfire 83 off 112 balls. But in the end, the Australians proved to be too hot for England as they won the match. This match also witnessed a long, short ball barrage from both sides.

Let us take a look at the reactions on Twitter:

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