London, England (GenevaLunch) – England are in a dominant position after three days of the second test at Lords: the first test ended in a draw. They lead by 515 runs with two days to play. The Australian tail enders held up the English attack but fell just in time for England captain Andrew Strauss to have the chance to enforce the follow-on. However he prefered to bat again, possibly influenced by the easy batting conditions, the fitness of Andrew Flintoff or simple cowardice.
Strauss and fellow opener Alistair Cook scored rapidly before both falling to the off-spin of Nathan Hauritz. There followed a strange session where Kevin Pietersen and Ravi Bopara, normally attacking batsmen, had trouble making any progress despite both being let off by fielding mistakes by Ricky Ponting. Paul Collingwood, Matt Prior and Flintoff then picked up the scoring rate to end on 311 for 6.
Details, Guardian
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News story, GenevaLunch, 19 July 2009.
Filed under: Sports
Tags: Alistair Cook, Andrew Flintoff, Andrew Strauss, Australia, cricket, England, Kevin Pietersen, Lords, Matt Prior, Nathan Hauritz, Paul Collingwood, Ravi Bopara, Ricky Ponting