Stage is set for Archer v Smith in unfolding Lord’s drama

The optimistic view at lunch suggested we were done for the day. The pessimistic outlook had Lord’s being washed into the Thames by tea, which prompted a resurrection of the idea of a mesh roof over HQ first aired by the MCC chief executive Guy Lavender in 2017.

Jofra Archer celebrates after dismissing Cameron Bancroft for 13 on a rain-hit day at Lord's. Picture: Gareth Copley/Getty Images

Lavender speculated we might be two years from realising technology being developed in the United States that would free cricket from the rain of terror to which it is eternally vulnerable. It was perhaps a measure of the Ashes drama unfolding in a first session of gathering intensity that we were ready to invest in any solution, no matter how madcap, that might allow the action to continue.

The portents were never great. The morning began under artificial light. The early overs were not particularly threatening until the England bowlers found their length. Two Australian wickets in four balls brought Steve Smith to the crease, and offered up the contest many hoped might define the series. Jofra Archer’s first ball to Smith was the last of his over, a leave outside off stump. We say a leave. It was travelling at 93.5mph. It might be that Smith didn’t see it. Smith was bang over the top of Archer’s second ball to him, guiding it to fine leg for a single. Thanks a lot, said the newly arrived Travis Head. I’ll take the next five balls, shall I? He did so with varying degrees of inadequacy.

The inability of Head to deal with Archer with anything like control was not a failure unique to him. Homo sapiens simply does not have the required neuro-wiring to deal effectively with extreme pace. It is always going to look ugly, with outcomes decided as much by caprice as judgment.

Head assumed an orthodox defence and presented his bat in a gesture of defiance. It was then a matter of providence whether the ball took the edge or not. In terms of his own agency, there was little influence that Head might bring to bear. It was not much easier at the other end with Chris Woakes finding movement off the deck and in the air, even if the pace was down considerably.

What turned out to be Archer’s only spell of the day read 7-3-1-8, the wicket of Cameron Bancroft his only reward. His removal from the attack must have felt like Christmas.

Stuart Broad from the Pavilion End is no bowl of cherries, as Head would attest, the fourth wicket to fall with the score on 71, trapped on the back foot to a full-length delivery that nipped back off the slope and clattered into the pads. Similarly Usman Khawaja was powerless to deny Woakes, fending a delivery slanted across him into the gloves of Jonny Bairstow. England’s bowlers had done their job, they had brought the match back into the balance and Australia’s centurions at Edgbaston, Smith and Matthew Wade, to the crease.

It was emphatically England’s session and would have been the more so were the lbw law not framed to protect the batsmen. In a short, two-over blast before the close from the Nursery End Ben Stokes gave Smith the hurry-up and had Wade plumb as you like with one that darted back off the slope. However, since Wade is left-handed and the ball pitched outside his leg stump, the law deems claims for lbw inadmissible and he survived.

Thus the session, and ultimately the day, ended, the atmosphere pregnant with jeopardy for a wounded Australia trailing by 178 runs at 80 for four. The stage is set. The weather forecast is fair. Two days to fashion a result.

To get a positive outcome England must bring down the wall that is Smith. Should Smith linger, England will be batting to survive on the final day. And we know how that might end.

So it’s Jofra v Smith on super Saturday. May the best man win.