Stuart Broad says England can still force victory in second Ashes Test
"There's certainly hope for both sides and there could be quite an intriguing game left in this Test match"
Saturday 17 August 2019 09:53, UK
Stuart Broad remains confident England can force a victory in the second Ashes Test at Lord's despite rain halting their charge on day three.
Broad, Jofra Archer and Chris Woakes struck once each on Friday to reduce Australia to 80-4 before rain wiped out the final two sessions, leaving Tim Paine's side 178 runs behind England's first-innings 258.
Steve Smith remains at the crease, though - the 30-year-old reaching 13 not out from 40 deliveries having hit twin tons in the Ashes opener at Edgbaston as Australia recorded a thumping 251-run win.
"It's a real shame [about the weather] but we're pretty positive," Broad said at stumps.
"We'd need to bowl Australia out by lunch [on Saturday] - our bowling unit's aim is to get the next six wickets by lunch and then ideally bat until half-an-hour before lunch on day five and try to force a result that way.
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"There's 98 overs for the next two days, which for both teams has been enough to bowl each other out. There's certainly hope for both sides and there could be quite an intriguing game left in this Test match.
"This pitch has got 10 good balls in it in each day.
"They were good conditions for bowling this morning and we got into a really strong position. We'd like to have continued but there's not a lot we could do about the weather."
Archer made Cameron Bancroft his maiden Test scalp when he trapped the Australia opener lbw and has recorded impressive figures of 1-18 from 13 overs on debut so far.
The 24-year-old - who bowled the Super Over as England won the World Cup at Lord's last month - has injected some pace into the hosts' attack having replaced the injured James Anderson in the side.
"He's got all the attributes and he's already been a successful international cricketer, having been involved in a World Cup win," Broad said of Archer.
"In our minds, because he's been involved with the World Cup and he's been talked about so much in the last six months, we think he's an experienced, older, knows-it-all cricketer.
"He's still learning his trade a little bit, but he's doing it with great success. There will be times when he blows teams away."
Former Australia captain Steve Waugh, who is mentoring the Baggy Greens in this series, added: "From our point of view we need to score some runs. We're still 178 behind, so that's our first target.
"If we can get there and get some more runs after that we believe we've a chance. Both sides will be confident that they can force a victory, but there is a lot of work to be done."
Watch day four of the second Ashes Test, at Lord's, live on Sky Sports The Ashes from 10am on Saturday. Click here to upgrade now.
