Steven Smith continued to pile on the runs for Australia in the second Ashes Test against England at Lord’s after Chris Rogers’ marathon innings ended yesterday.
Australia were 424-3 at lunch on the second day, with Smith 168 not out after Rogers had fallen for 173.
Adam Voges was out shortly after lunch for 25.
Photo: Reuters
England, led by fast-medium bowler Stuart Broad, restricted Australia to a session run-rate of less than three an over for the loss of both Rogers and captain Michael Clarke.
However, the bulk of the damage had been done on the first day, when Australia posted 337-1. Rogers and Smith’s stand of 284 was Australia’s highest partnership for any wicket in a Test at Lord’s.
Then, as often happens after a lengthy wait, the new batsman fell cheaply with Clarke out for seven.
Veteran left-handed opener Rogers had already bettered his previous highest Test score of 119, made against England in Sydney last year, after batting through the whole of Thursday for 158 not out.
The 37-year-old, who spent several seasons at Lord’s with county side Middlesex, had a worrying start yesterday.
The very first ball of the day’s play saw him struck flush on the side of the helmet as he turned his head away from a James Anderson delivery that did not bounce as much as he expected.
Rogers, who missed Australia’s preceding Test series win in the Caribbean after suffering concussion while batting in the nets, needed several minutes’ of on-field treatment before batting on.
It was Broad, Anderson’s new ball partner, who eventually pierced Rogers’ defence with a delivery that nipped back to take the inside edge and pad before crashing into the stumps to leave Australia 362-2.
Rogers batted for more than six-and-a-half hours and struck 28 fours.
His stand with Smith topped the previous Australia record Test partnership at Lord’s of 260 shared by openers Mark Taylor and Michael Slater in 1993.
At press time last night, Australia were 472-5.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier