Steve Smith recaptures ominous form as England toil at start of second Ashes Test

The Australia batsman put down a reminder of his 2019 form with unbeaten 85

Steve Smith hit ten fours at Lord’s and James Anderson failed to take a wicket (Getty Images)

Steve Smith reclaimed the form that saw him terrorise England back in 2019, with an unbeaten 85 as the hosts were left to toil in the field on the first day of the second Ashes Test.

The Australian great tore apart England four years ago, scoring 774 runs at an average of 110.54, and there was a glum feeling around that he might have rediscovered that vein of form, after hitting just 22 runs across two innings in the first Test at Edgbaston.

He will resume tomorrow, with Australia 339 for five and fully in command of the match, despite Ben Stokes’ positive reaction to winning the toss and electing to bowl.

There was a moment for the meme-makers when, after just one over, some Just Stop Oil protestors invaded the Lord’s pitch holding orange paint.

One was stopped by Ben Stokes holding out an arm, and another, to the delight of the internet, was lifted into the air and carried off by England wicketkeeper Jonny Bairstow.

It was a moment that will be held in the memory far longer than the rest of the day’s play, which from an England perspective, was a toil in the field for very little reward.

“Bit of a hero to be fair, if he didn’t stop him, they could’ve got on the pitch and done something to the pitch,” Josh Tongue, who was making his Ashes debut, said.

Jonny Bairstow carries a Just Stop Oil protester off the pitch (Getty Images)

From an England perspective, Tongue was one of very few bright sparks, when he took two scalps for 88 including the wicket of David Warner for 66.

Warner was also present for the Just Stop Oil pitch invasion, and said after the game: “Me and Stokesy didn’t really know what to do. We’d been warned beforehand that it might happen and for us we wanted to protect our wicket. We saw that at the [snooker] a month or so ago, we just wanted to protect the wicket to be honest.

“It’s a touchy situation, you don’t want to be involved in that but we wanted to stop them getting onto the wicket. It was quite confronting because you don’t know what to do in that situation, you usually let those people run their course but because they could potentially damage the wicket we felt like we had to intervene.”

When it came to the cricket, however, it was a largely uneventful day for the most part, something that is more likely to please the tourists than England’s new aggressive outfit.

Again problematic for Stokes’ side was the fact that their costly fielding errors from Edgbaston crept into their performance in the second Test as well.

Warner was dropped by Ollie Pope in the slips when he was on just 22, at a period where England were searching for their first breakthrough, and it could have been a crucial inroad.

Ollie Robinson took the wicket of Marnus Labuschagne, caught behind for 47, but at times struggled to reach 80 miles an hour.

Ollie Robinson celebrates taking Marnus Labuschagne’s wicket (Getty Images)

Anything wide or short was picked off expertly by the Australian batters, and despite him taking two key wickets, Tongue’s first over went for 10, and he continued to be expensive.

James Anderson was surprisingly and rarely off the mark, and Stuart Broad, who had bowled expertly at Edgbaston, lacked the same threat yesterday.

There was a glimmer, in the final part of play, when Travis Head went for a wild swing and fell out of his crease, with Bairstow just taking the stumping as the Australian batter fell over, to bring the fourth wicket for 316, with Joe Root just getting a hint of spin on his wide delivery.

As it can so often do in cricket matches, one wicket brought two, and Australia’s position of pure dominance was slightly under threat when Cameron Green was out for a duck, trying to hit Root for four and just picking out Anderson at mid-off in the same over.