England took the first day's momentum forward into the second day with a clinical show in the morning session at Old Trafford against Australia. The hosts were off to the perfect start in the session with James Anderson removing Pat Cummins off the very first ball of the day. The Australian captain drove lazily and found his English counterpart to perfection at cover. The innings should have ended soon when Josh Hazlewood nicked one off Chris Woakes to second slip, only for the English pacer to overstep.
Mitchell Starc, who had watched all this unfold at the other end, played a handy knock himself and added some valuable runs for the last wicket with Hazlewood. Woakes wasn't to be denied though as he eventually got his maiden Ashes fifer, removing Hazlewood in near identical fashion to the no-ball fiasco earlier on. The total of 311 appeared to be a tad underwhelming from Australia's point of view, particularly given that many of their batters had got a start.
High on confidence from his batting exploits, Starc gave Australia the much-needed early breakthrough when he had Ben Duckett nicking through to Alex Carey in just the third over of the innings. The left-arm seamer bowled a probing new spell even as Hazlewood struggled for rhythm at the other end despite the odd good ball. Cummins surprisingly held himself back from taking the new ball and only came on as first change at the fag end of the session.
Through all this, Zak Crawley managed to stitch an unbroken stand with England's makeshift no.3 Moeen Ali. Both batters had their moments of luck at the crease, particularly Crawley who had to review successfully to overturn an LBW call off Cameron Green. However, they managed to ride through the session together to ensure that England held the advantage at the lunch break. There is still a long way to go, of course, and Australia will be raring to bounce back in the second session, like England did on day one.
