Ashes 2023: Steve Smith's landmark & Josh Tongue's broken stump
- Published
Smith leads Australia dominance at Lord's
Australia seized the initiative on the opening day of the second Ashes Test at Lord's.
Despite England winning the toss and putting Australia in to bat, the Aussies ended the day on 339-5, helped by half-centuries from David Warner, Steve Smith and Travis Head.
England bowler Josh Tongue took two wickets on his Ashes debut, with Joe Root adding two more late in day.
Here is your Ashes digest from day one of the second Test.
Stat of the day - Smith wins race to 9,000
Watch the best shots of Smith's 85 not out
In an impressive knock which saw Australia batter Smith end the day on 85*, along the way he reached a career landmark in Test cricket, moving past the 9,000 career Test runs mark.
Becoming only the 17th player in history to reach the feat, and in his 99th Test match, Smith became the only player to reach 9,000 runs before playing in 100 Test matches.
Smith is currently in his 174th Test innings and only Sri Lanka's Kumar Sangakkara has reached the landmark in fewer innings, doing so in 172.
Smith is also only 22 runs shy of overtaking Steve Waugh as the fourth highest run-scorer in Ashes history.
Essential day one reading
Image of the day - Bairstow keeps protests to a minimum
Jonny Bairstow carries a protester off the pitch at Lord's
After just one over on the opening day, play was briefly interrupted when protesters wearing 'Just Stop Oil' t-shirts ran on to the ground and let off clouds of orange smoke.
While the ground staff at Lord's were quick to stop those who ran on to the pitch, someone equally quick to keep disruption to a minimum was England wicketkeeper Jonny Bairstow, who picked up one of the protesters and carried him about 50 metres before handing him to the authorities at the boundary rope.
Quote of the day - 'You have to walk the walk'
With England largely failing to impress throughout the day, the side captained by Ben Stokes came under some rather scathing criticism during and at the end of day one.
Among those to voice their opinions was 2005 Ashes-winning captain Michael Vaughan, who said that if England's players are going to make big statements off the pitch, they must back it up on it.
"Young players coming out with bold statements, I was always told to say nothing in an Ashes series," Vaughan told BBC's Test Match Special.
"Don't give the media any headlines whatsoever. The casual approach came out, I have to say, today, they bought it out in to the middle. If you are going to talk the talk, you have to walk the walk."
And finally...
Tongue removes Warner for his second wicket
In what was a largely flat display from England on the opening day at Lord's, one plus point for Brendon McCullum's side was the bowling of Tongue in his second Test match and on his Ashes debut.
He picked up the prized wickets of Australia openers Usman Khawaja and Warner early in the afternoon, the latter of which showed the express pace he adds to England's attack.
As he disturbed Warner's leg stump, not only did the bails clatter, but so did part of the leg stump, with captain Stokes showing Tongue his unique piece of match memorabilia shortly after the dismissal.