Steven Smith scored 215 in the first innings at Lord's. By the end of day two, there was no guarantee England's entire team would manage that many. But they also had to pursue Chris Rogers' 173. And the rest of the contributions that added up to Australia's 566 for 8 declared. An Australian victory was no fait accompli, but if this Investec Ashes series moves on to Edgbaston at anything except 1-1, Australia will have wasted a golden opportunity.

 

This was not a perfect day for Australia, but it wasn't far from it. Rogers was struck on the helmet with the first ball when he ducked into a James Anderson delivery, and that was about all that went wrong. That and Michael Clarke scratching out an ugly 7. But by the close of play, not only had Smith and Rogers dominated with the bat, the attack had skittled England's top order with a fine display of fast swing bowling.

 

No wicketkeeper in Test history has secured his first dismissal as quickly as Peter Nevill, who pouched a catch from the second ball of England's innings when Adam Lyth wafted outside off and edged behind off Mitchell Starc for a duck. Alastair Cook and Gary Ballance steadied somewhat, but on 23 Ballance lost his off stump to a quick, fullish ball from Mitchell Johnson that swung away just a touch.

 

In the next over, Josh Hazlewood also rattled the stumps, this time of Ian Bell, who on 1 missed a lovely delivery that curled away just a fraction. All of the fast men pitched the ball full enough to allow it to swing, negating the lack of pace in the pitch. Johnson then made it 30 for 4 in the 11th over when he banged one in shorter and had Joe Root tickling behind for 1.

 

It was part of a magnificent over from Johnson, who nearly had Ben Stokes chopping on and prompted oohs and aahs from the fielders from the last two balls of the over as his pace beat Stokes. To Stokes' credit, though, he fought through those early moments and played some classy strokes, including a couple of flicks through the leg side for boundaries and a straight six off Nathan Lyon.

 

This was a man who had toiled with the ball on this pitch for nearly two full days, and knew it would provide plenty of runs to a batsman willing to wait for the bad balls. By stumps, Stokes had moved on to 38 and Cook had crawled to 21 from 85 balls, but importantly for England they had lost no more wickets. At 85 for 4, they trailed by 481, but at least they had started to steady.

 

Still, the Stokes-Cook partnership of 55 runs had some way to go to match the 284-run stand that Smith and Rogers had compiled, an Australian record for any wicket at Lord's, surpassing the 260 set by openers Michael Slater and Mark Taylor in 1993. Rogers added 15 to his overnight score before he played on to give Stuart Broad the first of his four victims. A double-century eluded Rogers, but not Smith.

 

Having passed 150 in the first session from his 265th delivery, Smith lifted his tempo after lunch and moved towards his maiden first-class double-hundred. The frustration of being dismissed for 199 in Kingston last month might have been in the back of Smith's mind as he approached the milestone, which arrived with a whip off the pads for four off Moeen Ali from his 335th delivery.

 

It made Smith the first Australian since Jason Gillespie in Bangladesh in 2006 to score a Test double-century away from home, and the first Australian to post an Ashes 200 since Justin Langer at the MCG during the 2002 Boxing Day Test. He also joined Don Bradman and Bill Brown as the only Australians to score a Test double-century at Lord's.

 

It took a line-ball lbw on a reverse-sweep to prise Smith off the friendly surface. He was on 215 when he tried to reverse sweep Root and was given out by umpire Kumar Dharmasena. Smith asked for a review and the ball-tracking showed the tiniest fraction of the ball had struck Smith in line with off stump, which allowed the decision to stand.

 

While Smith was compiling his huge score, other contributions were being made. Clarke was the only real failure, seeming in no sort of form for 32 balls before he was put out of his misery by pulling Mark Wood to square leg. Adam Voges made a breezy 25 before edging behind a lovely Broad legcutter, and Mitchell Marsh played on for 12, also off Broad.

 

Nevill played some classy strokes on his way to 45 from 59 balls but missed the chance for a debut half-century when he drove Root to Moeen at mid-on. Starc and Johnson then steered the innings through until its end, which came with a declaration after Johnson holed out to mid-off against Broad.

 

Broad was the best of England's bowlers and deservedly finished with 4 for 83, and overall it was a much better day for England's attack - they claimed wickets, plural, on day two as compared to wicket, singular, on day one. But that day one was costly, potentially too costly. It is now up to the England batsmen to find out whether anything can be salvaged over the next three days.

(espncricinfo)