'He's a freak': Smith pays tribute to Stokes after crazy fifth day at Lord's

England captain Ben Stokes' swashbuckling 155 was in vain as Australia won the second Ashes test at Lord's by 43 runs on an extraordinary final day on Sunday to take a 2-0 lead in the series.

Stokes launched a blistering attack after the controversial dismissal of Jonny Bairstow, smiting nine sixes and nine fours to raise hopes of a repeat of his brilliant match-winning knock against the Australians at Headingley four years ago.

Steven Smith, named man of the match for his first-innings century at Lord's in the second Test, paid tribute to Stokes.

"It was a bit of deja vu, for sure," he said. "He's an unbelievable player, some of the things he can pull off. He's a freak.

"I dropped him so I was glad we got him in the end. I didn't pick it up initially," Smith added.

"The way he plays, chasing totals, he gets it done. It was just an incredible knock."

Ben Duckett earlier contributed a polished 83, sharing an excellent partnership of 132 with Stokes to drag England back into the match after they had slumped to 45-4 on Saturday.

After two pulsating matches, Australia have a firm grip on the Ashes with England needing to win the remaining three games of the series to take back the urn.

"Unfortunately, just wasn't enough today," Stokes told Sky Sports. "Australia changed the plans in which they were going with me so I sort of had to change the way that I was going about it as well.

"It's a tough one to swallow getting so close and being involved in a fantastic game was awesome. We're 2-0 down but we've got three games left and we've won series, 3-0 against New Zealand 3-0 against Pakistan, so we know we can do it."

The third test at Headingley starts on Thursday.