Australia, with the help of Marnus Labuschagne and Steve Smith, scored 190 runs for two wickets till tea against England here on Wednesday on the first day of the second Ashes Test. Australia lost only the wicket of opener David Warner (66 runs) in the second session and added 117 runs. Labushen is at the crease scoring 45 and Smith 38 runs. Josh Tongue became the first England bowler since 1968 to dismiss an Australian opener on his Ashes debut. England’s number three batsman Ollie Pope left the field after lunch after injuring his shoulder while diving to stop the ball, raising concerns for the team. Labushen and Smith have played an unbeaten 94-run partnership so far. On a slow pitch, both of them started at a rate of five runs per over. However, the run rate slowed down before tea.
During this, both the batsmen were successful in changing the decisions of Pagbadha from the review. Australia were 73 for one at lunch amid a stiff challenge from the English fast bowlers and obstruction by ‘Just Stop Isle’ protesters. Warner extended the innings by 53 runs after lunch but was bowled on a personal score of 66 off the ball of the tongue. He will have to wait for the second innings to become the 18th Australian to reach 2000 runs. He has 1999 runs now. Earlier, Warner and Usman Khawaja got life initially. England won the toss and elected to bowl, and Usman Khawaja was bowled by young fast bowler Tong just before lunch. Khawaja got out after scoring 17 runs in 70 balls. The floodlide had to be kept running due to bad weather in the first session.
Khawaja was given a life on the score of one when Joe Root dropped his catch at first slip off James Anderson. At the same time, Warner was playing on 20 when Ollie Pope dropped his catch in the fourth slip off Stuart Broad. Earlier, within five minutes of the start of the match, two protesters from the group ‘Just Stop Isle’ entered the ground and play was interrupted for about five minutes. These protesters working for the environment tried to sprinkle orange powder on the field but Players of both the teams stopped. England wicket-keeper Jonny Bairstow carried a protester 50 meters and handed him over to security personnel near the boundary. The second was sent out by England captain Ben Stokes and Australian batsman David Warner.
