Australia Looks Series Level at Lord's

London: Australia will be greeted by blazing sunshine and a venue where they lost only once last century when they arrive at Lord's on Thursday for the second Ashes Test against England determined to level the five-match series.

After heroic last-wicket stands in each innings, Australia eventually lost by 14 runs on Sunday. But they will be buoyed by the resilience and resource they showed at the midpoint of a horrible year in which they have been beaten 4-0 in India and failed to advance past the first round of the Champions Trophy.

Despite the narrow margin in Nottingham, England were ultimately deserved winners and James Anderson at the height of his powers produced the decisive deliveries of the game to account for two of his 10 wickets.

Anderson removed captain Michael Clarke in the first innings with the perfect delivery, a ball which swung late into the batsman then evaded the outside edge to hit the top of the off-stump.

The second key wicket was the final ball of the match which vice-captain Brad Haddin, whose gritty 71 had threatened to snatch victory from England's grasp, edged to Matt Prior.

Australia will relish the sun and the surroundings at the home of world cricket. To recover from one-down and regain the Ashes, though, their top-order batting must fire and Usman Khawaja may come in at number three to replace the out-of-form Ed Cowan.

Aussies captain failed in both innings after his build-up was hampered by a chronic back ailment. The only other Australian batsman of comparable pedigree is the highly gifted but perennially frustrating Shane Watson who contributed 46 to a second-innings opening partnership of 84.

Australia's tenth-wicket pair were responsible for 228 runs at Trent Bridge, including a world record stand of 163 in the first innings that featured teenage debutant Ashton Agar's 98 -- the highest score by a Test No 11.

In contrast to Australia's fragile top order, England's key batsmen scored runs at critical times at Trent Bridge.

Jonathan Trott contributed 48 to their modest first-innings 215 and captain Alastair Cook (50) laid a solid foundation in the second with Kevin Pietersen (64).

The crucial innings came from Ian Bell, whose 109 in more than six hours was perfectly calibrated for a sun-baked pitch demanding intense concentration with its low, slow and sometimes unpredictable bounce.

England have named the same 13-man squad for the Test with the final decision again resting between the pacers Steven Finn, Tim Bresnan and Graham Onions.

Finn, given the new ball in the first innings, dismissed two of the first three Australian batsmen cheaply on the first day.

Teams from:

England: Alastair Cook (Capt.), Joe Root, Jonathan Trott, Kevin Pietersen, Ian Bell, Jonny Bairstow, Matt Prior (wk), Tim Bresnan, Stuart Broad, Graeme Swann, Steven Finn, James Anderson, Graham Onions.

Australia: Michael Clarke (Capt.), Shane Watson, Chris Rogers, Ed Cowan, Usman Khawaja, Phillip Hughes, Steve Smith, Brad Haddin (wk), Ashton Agar, Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Peter Siddle, James Pattinson.

Pitch & conditions
Britain is engulfed in a heat wave which is forecast to last throughout the match and conditions for the first Test at Trent Bridge were reminiscent of the Indian sub-continent.

Stats & trivia

• Michael Clarke, who enjoyed a wondrous 2012 with 1,595 runs at an average of precisely 106.
• England's 115-run win in the last Ashes Test at Lord's four years ago was their first Test success at the 'home of cricket' in 75 years against Australia.

Match facts
July 18-22, 2013
Start time 11:00 local (10:00 GMT)