Lord's Test: AB de Villiers gives thumbs up to Aussie skipper Pat Cummins' short ball ploy on Day 2

Australia were bundled up for 416 on Day 2 of the second Ashes Test, at Lord's, before England ended the day's play at 278 for 4, trailing by138 runs. At 188 for 1, England lost the plot in the evening session as they lost three wickets due to Pat Cummins & Co.'s short-ball tactics. Former South Africa skipper AB de Villiers lauded Cummins for his aggressive captaincy as Australia came back in the last session of Day 2.

De Villiers took to his official Twitter handle and wrote, "When a fast bowler, who’s also the Captain, and can hold the bat himself realises that no one is fully in control or comfortable against the short ball. Even the best in the world feel uncomfortable to quality short bowling to the right field placing. Credit to Cummins for taking this route, but more importantly, persisting with it. Aus have opened it up here while Eng looked like dominating procedures. Smart Cricket. Very entertaining."

He added, "And bear in mind, this pitch is fairly low and slow! Imagine…"

ABD lauds Pat Cummins

Australia remain in the game at stumps on Day 2 due to the three late wickets -- with Ollie Pope, Ben Duckett (98) and Joe Root falling to the short-ball ploy. However, the visitors have a herculean task of stopping Ben Stokes & Co. from racing ahead as their premier spinner Nathan Lyon got injured and limped off the field on Thursday.

For England, they are scoring at over 4.5 runs per over and will look to surpass Australia's 416 with wickets in hand. They will hope to takea sizeable lead and put pressure on Australia in their second essay.

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