ENGLAND v AUSTRALIA, Third Ashes Test, Headingley, Day Two on Friday.
SCORE: Australia (263 and 4-116) lead England (237) by 142 runs with six wickets in hand.
SUMMARY: Another pulsating day of Test cricket on this good sequence. Pat Cummins had Joe Root caught off the second ball of the day and by the point England went to lunch at 7-142, Australia had been proper on prime. Enter Ben Stokes. He whacked 5 sixes within the 50 minutes after tea to assist England add 95 runs for the final three wickets and scale back the first-innings deficit to 26. Stuart Broad then struck early when he eliminated David Warner for the seventeenth time in his Test profession caught within the slips, earlier than Australia rebounded to 1-68. But there was nonetheless one other twist left within the story, with Moeen Ali getting Marnus Labuschagne and Steve Smith in back-to-back overs. Chris Woakes additionally drew Usman Khawaja’s edge within the ultimate hour, placing England again on prime.
PLAYER OF THE MOMENT: Stokes, after all. While Pat Cummins took 6-91 for Australia, England are solely on this recreation due to their captain. He batted tamely for almost all of the primary session, making an attempt to maintain England’s innings intact earlier than hitting out after lunch. One of his sixes off Todd Murphy went again over the spinner’s head and into the highest tier of the Howard Stand, whereas one other flew deep over the legside. By the time he was executed, England had been again within the contest.
KEY MOMENT: Marnus Labuschagne’s poor shot to get out to Moeen Ali. With a person again on the legside, Labuschagne slog-swept Moeen straight to Zak Crawley on the boundary. Australia had been 1-68 on the time, and misplaced 3-22 afterwards.
STAT OF THE DAY: Stuart Broad has now dismissed David Warner 17 occasions in Test cricket. Warner made scores of 1 and 4 on this Test, and desires runs at Manchester within the subsequent match.
QUOTE OF THE DAY: “When Ben Stokes is there, you are never in total control.” – Andrew McDonald, summing up not solely this Test for Australia however nearly each Ashes Test in England over the previous two sequence.
Source: www.perthnow.com.au
