Lord's will host Sunday's second NatWest Challenge tie

Two major cricket matches between England and Australia in London will be staged despite the bomb attacks that rocked the capital on Thursday.

The second and third matches of the one-day series between cricket's oldest rivals will take place at Lord's on Sunday and The Oval on Tuesday.

Lord's owners the MCC said: "The usual major matchday security arrangements will be further tightened."

There will be extra stewards and sniffer dogs in St John's Wood.

The decision followed a meeting with the police, the England and Wales Cricket Board and Cricket Australia.

A full house of more than 28,000 spectators is expected to watch Sunday's game at Lord's where tickets sold out many months ago.

The MCC, whose head of security and major match-day co-ordinator are both former police officers, urged fans to arrive well in advance of the scheduled 1045BST start time.

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Its statement continued: "Security checks at the gates will take longer than normal."

The match will be preceded by a minute's silence in memory of the victims of Thursday's attacks, with both teams wearing black armbands as a mark of respect.

Scott Carey, safety officer at The Oval, said: "Surrey have been in regular communication with representatives from our contracted agencies and the Metropolitan Police.

"We have enhanced our search operation to cover all aspects, both on the match day and the days preceding.

"Additional search staff and police officers have been called upon to provide support to the search regime and to minimise the delays that these measures may cause.

Trescothick hit a century against Australia on Thursday

"Our aim is to continue to provide the high levels of safety and comfort enjoyed by our spectators while ensuring we meet our duty of care to staff and spectators."

England won the opening match of a three-game series against Australia by nine wickets at Headingley.

England opener Marcus Trescothick, the hero of that win, said: "When it comes to situations like this and times like this, you can only fall back on things that you know - spending time with your family and being with your loved ones.

"If you can get out and see the cricket or football or rugby or whatever it is, then that can only help."

Captain Michael Vaughan said: "We were very professional at Headingley, but the game of cricket is put into perspective when you're waiting to play and you see those scenes on television.

"Cricket is not that important when you see those things.

"Normally we wouldn't have had the televisions on in the dressing room, but we had to keep them on because there were people that were in London that we all know."

Earlier, Australia captain Ricky Ponting said: "The team management have been looking into [security] for us.

"We will be guided by the experts in London and everyone at Cricket Australia will keep us in the loop with everything that is happening and hopefully make the right decisions."