The Ashes 2nd Test day 2: Anderson takes charge

What a day for England.  Australia belonged to Jimmy Anderson today, he owned them with both bat and ball.  Despite Strauss lasting only two balls, Anderson and Onions produced a vital partnership to get England beyond 400.

With the ball, Anderson quickly did for Phil Hughes, and then removed Ponting to leave Australia 10-2 in reply.  Ponting being given out caught having hit his boot rather than the ball was even better, and he was far from happy.  But in fact, he might have been out lbw anyway, so we won’t worry too much about that.

The stand between Katich and Hussey, who coped well with the rain delays, was starting to look threatening as they reached tea at 87/2.  Then came Fred.  He bowled a spell reminiscent of his very best, and in the process prompted a collapse of 53/6.  If the speed guns are to be believed, he was reaching 95mph at times, including the ball which bowled Hussey for the 4th wicket.

Before that Broad took a great catch off Onions to get rid of Simon Katich.  He strikes me as the most likely Australian to score a stack of runs in this series, as he looks very hard to dismiss once set.

Anderson claimed the wickets of Clarke and North, for 1 and 0, and then Broad was able to get both Haddin and Johnson to leave Australia staring at the follow on.

Almost everything went right for England today, and they are in a great position to beat the Aussies at Lord’s for the first time since 1934.

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