Second Ashes Test Finely Balanced

England go into the fifth and final day of the second Ashes test of 2019 at Lords on a score of 96-4 in their second innings with a lead of 104 over Australia. Ben Stokes (16) and Jos Buttler (10) are at the crease and will need to stick around and build on the total if England are to stand a chance of winning the match tomorrow, with only Jonny Bairstow, Chris Woakes, Jofra Archer, Stuart Broad and Jack Leach yet to bat.

A lead of anything less than 200 and failing to last through the morning session on Sunday would give Australia ample time to pick off the runs to go two up in the series, having already won the first test at Edgbaston last week. Earlier in the day England finally managed to dislodge Australian captain Steve Smith for the first time in the series as he fell for 92 (lbw to Woakes) whilst top-scoring in the Australian innings of 250 all out in reply to England’s first innings score of 258.