Watson Wallops, Australia Splutter

The 2nd day of the England Lions vs Australia tour match at Northampton began with England declaring on 269-7, leaving Australia with a day to bat and (really) Hughes and Khawaja to push their cases for inclusion in the final test. Ed Cowan and Dave Warner opened the batting. James Harris and Keith Barker bowled with spirit, but didn't find a breakthrough in their opening spell with Warner scoring easy runs as the 50 came up in the 13th over. Simon Kerrigan's spin arrived, and Warner charged, missed and was easily stumped by Buttler for 35, 52-1. Liam Plunkett then fairly easily picked up the wicket of Cowan, caught behind by Buttler for 17. Shane Watson then took a liking to the bowling of Kerrigan, announcing himself with 3 fours in the 23rd over, slamming the ball over midwicket and through cover with ease. another four soon followed, then the biggest hit of the day, Kerrigan slog-swept over midwicket for a massive six, but on 45 the adventure came to an end. Watson went for another heave off James Harris, but found fine leg where Liam Plunkett took a good catch, 117-3. Steve Smith came in and looked at ease against spin, but was yorked by Ben Stokes for 18, 144-4. Stokes had his 2nd in two overs as Khawaja, edging to Buttler for four. Keith Barker returned to finally shift Hughes, bowling him for 30 as Australia slumped to 160-6 in 46 overs.
Matt Wade and James Faulkner decided to grind it out for as long as they could, whilst pinging boundaries off Plunkett and Stokes as they batted up to tea, and then onwards, bringing up the 50 partnership. At 227-6, the light and rain closed in and play was abandoned, match drawn (as it always would be). Australis not really looking in any better shape for the final test as they managed to all get in, then get out without any of them spendint some serious time in the middle.

A Ballanced Attack

Thanks to Northants making it to finals day, an England Lions XI was selected to take on Australia in a 2 day game in Northampton. Early morning rain delayed the start for an hour. The Lions won the toss and elected to bat first, with Alex Lees and Luke Wells opening. Wells soon fell for 10, edging to Wade off James Faulkner for 10, 17-1. Moeen Ali then came along and the pair played nicely, the main unusual sight from the morning session was Dave Warner bowling seam up, though with limited success. Nathan Lyon picked up the other two wickets to fall before lunch, Alex Lees caught by Shane Watson at slip for 33 and captain Eoin Morgan also caught Watson for 5.
After lunch, Moeen Ali completed a comfy 85 ball 50 and progressed onto 61 before giving Steve Smith an easy catch off Mitchell Starc, 164-4. Gary Ballance's 8th four brought up his 50 shorty after, from 90 balls. Australia were never out of the day for long, as Ben Stokes (19) was the third victim to the Lyon-Watson slip catching combination, 195-5. Ballance carried on, and with Jos Buttler blocking up one end on the fairly slow pitch, he moved fairly untroubled into the 90s. Buttler then fell for 7 to Steve Smith, before Ballance carted the 4th ball of his next over for six over midwicket to go to his century from 153 balls. He then tried to repeat the dose next ball and was LBW for 104, the highlight of an otherwise slow day.
The Lions finished the day on 269-7 from 77 overs, a pretty decent showing on a slow pitch against a good attack.