London: England ended Day 2 at 303/9, gaining a lead of 181 runs against Ireland in the one-off Test Match at Lord's Cricket Ground on Thursday. Resuming their second innings, England lost their opener Rory Burns (6) pretty early as he was sent back to the pavilion by Boyd Rankin.
Nightwatchmen Jack Leach and Jason Roy piled on the misery on Ireland bowlers as they stitched together a stand of 145 runs, which saw both batsmen bring up their fifties.
Debutant Roy (72) missed out on a century as he was dismissed by Stuart Thompson. Leach (92) also failed to bring up his ton as he was finally sent back to the pavilion by Tim Murtagh.
After Leach's dismissal, England suffered from yet another collapse as they lost six wickets for 111 runs. Joe Denly (10), Jonny Bairstow (0), Moeen Ali (9) and Chris Woakes (13) all failed to leave a mark.
Skipper Joe Root was playing cautiously, but he was dismissed by Mark Adair after playing a knock of 31 runs to leave England in a spot of bother.
Sam Curran played a quickfire knock of 37 runs off 29 balls to take England's lead past the 150-run mark, but in trying to accelerate he perished after being dismissed by Thompson.
Bad light forced an early end to Day 2 with Stuart Broad and Olly Stone holding the fort for England.
Earlier on Day 1, both England and Ireland were bundled out as a total of 20 wickets tumbled. England, after opting to bat first were dismissed for just 85, whereas Ireland were bowled out for 207, gaining a 122-run lead over the hosts.
