London: England beat Australia by a huge margin of 347 runs in the second Test of The Ashes series at the Lord's here on Sunday. Some sensational batting by Joe Root and Ian Bell, followed by the brilliant bowling from Graeme Swann helped the hosts taking a comprehensible 2-0 lead in the series.
Australia, set a mammoth 583 for victory, were dismissed for 235 on the fourth day.
The final session started off on a good note for Aussies as Ashton Agar smoked away a few boundaries but was unfortunately dismissed by a doubtful decision of the third-umpire for 16. Thereafter, James Pattinson and Peter Siddle tried to apply themselves as they played good 14 overs of the English bowling before Anderson came into the attack to remove Siddle who faced 62 balls for his 18 runs. Australia somehow managed to pass the 200 runs mark in the 79th over of the innings as Pattinson tried to knit a partnership with Harris for the final wicket.
Swann picked up the final wicket of Pattinson, who scored 35 runs off 88 balls that he faced, and led his side to a comprehensive win by 347 runs.
Australia, who were all out for 128 in their first innings, lost their first wicket on Sunday inside seven overs when Shane Watson was LBW to James Anderson and thereafter were reduced to 36 for three in no time. Swann, who was introduced early by Captain Alastair Cook, struck in his very first over when he took the wicket of opener Chris Rogers who played no shot to a delivery that didn't turn but carried on to hit his off stump. Swann then had Phil Hughes lbw for one.
Thereafter, captain Michael Clarke and Usman Khawaja played sensibly to add 98 runs for the fourth wicket before Joe Root came in to party with the ball as he removed both Clarke (51) and Usman Khawaja (54) for one run in 11 balls. Then seamer Tim Bresnan had Steven Smith, off a thin inside edge, well held by Prior off what became the last ball before tea.
The tail-enders did put up resistance for a while but their hard work eventually came to naught as England won by a massive margin.