Rogers and Smith plunder twin tons

For almost 80 years, England’s inability to defeat Australia in a Test match at Lord’s led the Home of Cricket being viewed as the impertinent colonials’ home away from home.

So having failed at their past two starts in Ashes fixtures at the historic ground, Michael Clarke and his team would have been thrilled to note that the not-always-so-welcoming Lord’s ground staff had rolled out a welcome rug in the pattern of a flat, friendly pitch.

Highlights of Rogers' hundred (Australia only)

All Clarke had to do was change his recent ritual of calling ‘tails’ at the coin toss, try to limit the width of his grin when it landed heads-up, and then watch from his eyrie on the Pavilion balcony as Chris Rogers (158no) and Steve Smith (129no) set about erasing the errors of Cardiff.

A dominant day one stumps score of 1-337 provides a fair reflection of how benign is the playing surface that showed marginally more bounce but an equal lack of pace to the strip that Australia coach Darren Lehmann lamented after his team’s 169-run loss in the series opener.

Quick Single: Rogers hits hundred on hallowed 'home' turf

Highlights of Smith's hundred (Australia only)

“We'd love a bit more pace,” he said when quizzed on what he hoped the hosts would prepare for the second of the five-Test series.

“That would be good, but we're not going to get it, so there's no point asking.”

What Australia had requested, instead, was some batsmen who were prepared and capable of putting some value on their wicket and turning a start into a score.

And while it seemed that might prove a forlorn hope when David Warner surrendered his innings in a mystifying rush of bravado just over an hour into the day, the soon-to-be-retired opener and the destined-to-be-skipper showed they had been listening intently to the team talk.

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Anderson and Cook were without answers // Getty Images

Their unbeaten partnership of 259 is the highest for the second wicket by an Australia team at their historic London hunting ground, surpassing the 231 that Bill Woodfull and Don Bradman put on during the seconf Test of the heady pre-Depression tour of 1930.

Tellingly, it was also not far from what the wasteful tourists had posted in each of their completed innings in Cardiff (308 and 242), after which days were filled with questions as to how they could possibly get the trip back on track for the return meeting.

Quick Single: A century to savour for magnificent Smith

The momentum that England built in Cardiff might not yet be reversed, but the scythe with which they went through Australia in Wales has been blunted and on a grassless surface of their own making.

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Smith dances down the wicket // Getty Images

The inevitability of an unresponsive pitch, that some have suggested have been made to order with that order being to reduce the potency of Australia’s fast bowlers who destroyed England at home 18 months ago, meant the team that won the toss began the game well in front.

As was the case in Cardiff, even though England had wobbled in the opening hour there before Joe Root righted the ship. England’s bowlers were left to despair the lack of assistance from the deck and the noticeably greater application and respect showed by their opponents.

Video: Smith has a life on 51 (Australia only)

And where the first Test turned on Brad Haddin’s missed catch off Root before he had scored, today it was England’s turn to rue opportunities squandered with both Rogers and Smith gifted tough but telling lives during a fruitless and frustrating toil for the home team.

Quick Single: Watson's career not done yet

Given that beating the bat was a feat worthy of rounds of sustained applause for a sell-out crowd who increasingly made their way to the fizz tents and beer gardens as the run-fest pushed on, Ian Bell’s failure to clutch a sharp low slips chance off Smith (51) was glaring.

Aussies make most of chances

Wicketkeeper Jos Buttler’s inability to glove an attempted sweep shot from Rogers  when he was 78 was marginally less culpable as it would have been a freakish snare as he lunged down the leg side, the ball brushing Rogers’ hand and deflecting on the way through.

But when viewed against the circumstances in which the day’s only wicket fell – Warner skewing a fly ball to long-off trying to belt spinner Moeen Ali to the fence for the third time in his opening over – so rare were genuine opportunities fashioned by England’s bowlers that every mis-stroke was a talking point.

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Warner trudges off // Getty Images

The day’s most instructive was also its first – Rogers flashing at James Anderson’s third delivery of a morning that began under low cloud that soon burned off for much of the day before the final hour saw the need for floodlights.

The left-hander looked to be channelling the urgency that saw Australia crash to defeat inside four days in Cardiff as his hefty outside edge flew over the slips cordon and across the rope after a couple of bounces.

However, his next scoring shot – an authoritative punch through the covers at overs’ end – was to become the tone of the day as Australia knuckled down in the first session, consolidated in the second and made a tired and bereft of solutions England pay.

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The Australians acknowledge a stunning stand // Getty Images

Not since Headingley and the fourth ball of the 1993 Ashes series – most famous for Shane Warne’s ‘ball of the century’ – have England’s bowlers toiled for a day and netted only one Australia wicket for their efforts.

And how Warner must have stewed over his intemperance as the nature of the pitch and the impotence of those using it revealed itself over the next five hours.

For a 37-year-old playing his final series, on a ground that’s become his English home but he feared he might not get to enjoy again after being badly concussed a month ago, Rogers was as evergreen as he was rarely troubled.

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Rogers celebrates his hundred // Getty Images

His familiarity with Lord’s and its surrounds manifested itself most regularly in the deft dabs that he would guide into the vacant expanses at third man with such expert touch they would invariably reach the rope just far enough ahead of the pursuing fielder to be infurating.

His highest Test score, and the chance to build further upon it tomorrow, will stand as his crowining achievement in an autumnal international career and may yet prove a decisive knock if Australia is to retain the Ashes.

At the other end, and true to the blog that he penned during the week, Smith simply did what he’s been doing with such devastating effect over the past year.

Leaving the threatening deliveries alone – save for the one from Stokes that carried low to Bell at second slip but busted through his grasp – knocking the good ones into gaps as often as not and treating the bad ones with a disdain that can border on pathological.

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Smith salutes the crowd // Getty Images

His celebration upon pipping Rogers to the century milestone, Smith – dissatisfied with the pair of 33s he carded in Cardiff that had his doubters feeling some vindication – was as defiant as it was demonstrative as he shouted at the sky, thrashed his bat in the air and wrapped up Rogers in a man hug.

It suggested that the man who had briefly held the mantle as the world’s top-ranked Test batsman could feel the Ashes contest was slowly being restored to an even keel.

And that he, as well as his teammates, won’t be satisfied until it returns squarely to Australia’s favour.

Nevill joins the Baggy Green club

Australia: Chris Rogers, David Warner, Steve Smith, Michael Clarke (c), Adam Voges, Mitchell Marsh, Peter Nevill, Mitchell Johnson, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Nathan Lyon.

England: Alastair Cook (c), Adam Lyth, Gary Ballance, Ian Bell, Joe Root, Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler, Moeen Ali, Stuart Broad, Mark Wood, James Anderson.

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