Watch: Steve Smith became the second Australia batter to fall for the short ball trap on the fourth morning of the second Ashes Test at Lord’s as he pulled one straight to long leg moments after Travis Head was dropped after Usman Khawaja was dismissed in a similar fashion.
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Australia started the fourth day on 130-2 with a 221-run lead. While Smith and Khawaja safely negotiated the first hour of play, scoring 57 runs in the first 16 overs of the day, they suffered a mini-collapse soon after, much like England did – albeit less dramatically – on the morning of day three.
As the English bowlers kept bowling short with several catching fielders on both sides of the wicket for horizontal bat shots, the Australia batters, although playing with more restraint than England earlier in the game, also succumbed to the short-ball ploy
Khawaja went first, hooking a bouncer off Stuart Broad’s first over of the day straight to fine leg. Then Head half-heartedly cut a short ball outside off that went straight to Jimmy Anderson at gully. Luckily for Head, Anderson misjudged the pace of the ball and shelled the catch.
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Australia fans would have heaved a sigh of relief, but it wasn’t to last long as Smith perished the very next ball, attempting another pull shot that went straight to one of the fielders at the boundary.
To Smith’s credit, he had been playing the short ball with good control all morning and was mostly hitting his pull shots into the ground. Not on this occasion though, as he was unable to keep it down, gifting Josh Tongue his fifth wicket of the match, falling to him for the second time in this Test.
Smith’s wicket left Australia at 190-4.
Watch Smith pull it straight to the fielder right after Head is dropped by Anderson:
🤩 Another wicket… and it’s a big one!
Steve Smith departs for 3️⃣4️⃣#EnglandCricket | #Ashes pic.twitter.com/E6j6qENQR6
— England Cricket (@englandcricket) July 1, 2023
