It does not get any more emphatic than this. There can have been few more one-sided games in the long history of Test cricket. England have simply destroyed Ireland.
Such has been England’s brutal superiority at Lord’s that the benefits of this whole futile exercise for the much more important business to come can only be negligible.
Certainly, this one-off game will bear no relation to what faces England when they come up against an Australia side with much more thorough preparation for the Ashes in the form of next week’s World Test Championship final against India under their belts.
But England can hardly be blamed for that, nor for the pitifully weak state of an Ireland team who left their best bowler in Josh Little out of this Test and instead fielded an attack barely up to county standard.
In the absence of meaningful opposition England did what this England team have done for the last year, blitzed the opposition with both ball and bat over the first two days to leave themselves in sight today of their 11th win in 13 matches under Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum. And by some distance the easiest and most predictable of them.
Josh Tongue (centre) took three wickets to leave Ireland on 255 short of England’s 524 for four (declared) first innings total
Ollie Pope continued his renaissance batting at No 3 with a double hundred – the fastest ever in England
Yet instead of dwelling on Ireland’s inadequacy let’s celebrate the fastest double hundred by anyone in a Test in England from Ollie Pope.
Plus an equally swashbuckling century from Ben Duckett in his first Test innings on home soil.
Then there was the single just before tea that took Joe Root to 11,000 runs in Test cricket, only the second Englishman to do so, with just Sir Alastair Cook ahead of him.
And, finally, before Ireland closed on 97 for three, a mere 255 behind, there were two wickets in his first over in the Ireland second innings and three in all, his first victims in Test cricket, for a bowler in Josh Tongue making a huge impression on debut here.
Nothing summed up this mauling more than the rare feat of both Pope and Duckett scoring more than a hundred runs in a single session.
Duckett cruised along with ease to that landmark in the morning and the new vice-captain did the same in the afternoon, as Ireland wilted in the face of an assault they could do absolutely nothing to withstand.
Only when Ireland managed to get an out of shape ball changed, with England on the small matter of 353 for one off just 59 overs, did they manage to even get past England’s broad bats, the replacement starting to swing and Duckett falling for 182 off 178 balls.
This was the best contribution yet for an opener in Duckett for so long appeared lost to the highest level because of his off-field indiscipline but who has matured and flourished like few others under the uber-positive Stokes and McCullum regime.
Ben Duckett also scored a massive hundred falling for 182 in his first ever home Test
Joe Root (left) fell for a busy 56 off 59 deliveries shortly before England’s declaration
When Duckett was bowled by Graham Hume Pope simply carried on, racing along to his fourth Test century and his third since he rang Stokes ahead of last summer and asked to bat in the problem No3 position that has now brought the very best out of him.
There was the possibility of an England declaration with Pope unbeaten on 197 at tea but Stokes rightly let him reach the magical milestone of a Test double century at Lord’s, Pope advancing to smash Andy McBrine for six to get there before falling off the next ball.
That was the key for Stokes to withdraw in search of the two-day finish he quietly targeted ahead of this Test, with England on a monumental 524 for four off just 82.4 overs, racing along at more than six an over and never really seeming to get out of second gear.
The biggest minus for England is that Stokes and Jonny Bairstow did not get a bat and Harry Brook faced just seven balls, meaning all three will go into the Ashes with little red-ball practice behind them.
But there was then another big plus in the form of Tongue.
What another excellent decision the selection of Tongue here ahead of Chris Woakes has been and what another brilliant piece of captaincy there was from Stokes when he brought the debutant on for just the seventh over of the Ireland second innings.
Tongue (centre) repaid the faith shown in him by Ben Stokes handing him his first Test cap
James McCollum was forced to retire hurt after spinning when leaving a Tongue delivery
Clearly the captain wanted Tongue to feel he belonged and he did so by trapping Peter Moor plumb with his first ball and then forcing Andy Balbirnie to edge a cut through to a tumbling Bairstow, again keeping well on his return to the side.
Tongue was the bowler when James McCollum tried to take evasive action and managed to badly twist his ankle when falling in a heap, forcing him to retire hurt.
But it was Tongue, putting himself very much in the Ashes frame, who struck again when Paul Stirling gloved one down the legside to Bairstow and departed after a review.
It should not take long for England to wrap things up on Saturday – and then all thoughts really will turn to what will surely be a much more competitive contest.
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