Moeen Ali's all-round performance gives England an edge at the end of Day 2

Published - 09 Jul 2015, 23:45 IST | Updated - 09 Jul 2015, 23:45 IST

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Moeen Ali’s all-round performance gives England an edge at the end of Day 2: With the aid of the brilliant partnership between Gary Ballance and Joe Root, England were on the path of making a competitive total against the mighty and fierce pace attack of Australia. They were poised at the score of 343 runs for the loss of 7 wickets at stumps of the first day with Moeen Ali batting on 26 and Stuart Broad unbeaten on 0.

It was no wonder that the Aussies would gear up the ante on the second day of the first test at Cardiff to bundle England’s first innings with minimum damage. The day started off well for the English side and Moeen Ali looked to add plenty to the score alongside Stuart Broad. On seeing the pace attack getting pretty much ineffective, Clarke decided to slow things down and Lyon was introduced into the attack and it paid off well.

Broad tried to slog sweep a delivery and it hit the bottom of his bat which eventually was caught by Haddin behind the stumps and thus England were reduced to 395/8. Mark Wood came in next for England. Meanwhile, Moeen Ali completed his half century off 69 deliveries to ensure the home side cruise control in the game. But it did not go on for long as he fell in the trap of the brisk pace from Starc and was dismissed at the score of 77 runs. England was now at 419 for the loss of 9 wickets.

Finally, Starc wrapped things up by taking the final wicket in the form of James Anderson. England were bundled for a total of 430 runs and it was yet another fifer for Mitchell Starc.

Then came in the time for the Australian’ to bat. Chris Rogers and David Warner opened the innings for them and on behalf of the English side, it was James Anderson to start the bowling. At lunch, Australia were poised at the score of 26/0.

In the second session, things resumed with pace bowling from the English side. Both the left handers seemed to cope up well with the attack. Finally in the 14^th over of the innings, on a delivery that swung a bit from Anderson, Warner edged and it ended with a sensational catch from Alastair Cook in the first slip to complete the dismissal and, Australia lost their first wicket at the score of 52 runs. The Australian vice captain, Steve Smith came into bat next. Smith looked solid into the crease and did not seem to take the minimal amount of risk in his batting.

Rogers carried on with his good work and completed his half century in the process. Things were looking good for the Australian side as the partnership for the second wicket contributed to 50 odd runs. But things did not end well for the Aussies in the second session. Just at the brisk of the tea break, Australia lost their second wicket in the form of Steve Smith.

It was the conventional spin from Moeen Ali that did the trick for England. On seeing Smith glancing down the track, Ali pushed the ball into the leg side and Smith edged it and was caught by Cook. Australian charge was stopped to an extent at 129/2. Clarke came in next and at Tea, Australia were poised at 145/2.

In the third session of the day’s play, Clarke and Rogers carried on with the momentum of scoring. Rogers was well set onto the crease and looked to play freely. He was assisted well by the skipper, Michael Clarke who was also quite much comfortable at the middle. Rogers was slowly progressing towards his century. But the nervous nineties proved too tough for him to survive. Mark Wood was introduced into the attack and Rogers edged a ball sliding towards the off which was caught by Jos Buttler. And thus, Rogers missed his ton by a margin of just 5 runs. He would have been the first Australian batsman to have scored 5 test tons after reaching 35 years of age, had he completed his century.

Adam Voges came in next for the Aussies. Then came in another twist when Clarke ended up getting caught and bowled of an ordinary delivery from Moeen Ali and Australia was reduced to 207/4. Voges and Watson were next to the step of building yet another partnership. Watson was surely under pressure as he failed to convert much with the bat in the recent past. Still the pair was poising on nicely until Voges was dismissed from a good length delivery from Ben Stokes.

The third day of the test will be pretty crucial for both the teams.