Lord’s Test, Day-1: Broad, openers put England in strong position against Ireland

London [UK], June 2 (ANI): Stuart Broad picked up a five-wicket haul before an aggressive opening stand between Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett put England firmly in the driver’s seat on day one of the one-off Test against Ireland at Lord’s.

England kickstarted their summer with a dominant bowling display at Lord’s against Ireland, bundling the visitors out for 172 closely after tea. Crawley and Duckett then put on a century stand in no time to take England close to a lead.
Crawley fell close to stumps to debutant Fionn Hand, but England are only 20 runs away from Ireland’s total after batting 25 overs, scoring at a rate of 6.08.

Earlier, the quicks brushed aside concerns around England’s depleted bowling attack with a strong bowling performance headlined by Broad’s brilliant five-wicket haul, the 20th in his Test career.

With the new ball moving around, Broad was all over the Ireland batting line-up, reducing them to 19/3 with key batters Andy Balbirnie and Harry Tector departing for ducks in the same over.

Broad returned later to remove the resilient opener James McCollom, the only Ireland batter to play more than 100 deliveries and added another to walk away with a five-for.

Matthew Potts picked up two wickets as did Jack Leach, who came into the attack early. On Test debut, Josh Tongue bowled probing spells but went wicketless in the innings.

With concerns around the injuries to James Anderson and Ollie Robinson, England needed a good start with the ball in the summer ahead of the Ashes that begins later this month. The bowling attack gave them just that with a dominant display, in north London.

At stumps, Duckett remains unbeaten on 60 with Ollie Pope on 29.