Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow innings helped England to get a challenging lead. Stokes, Crawley and Duckett gave some valuable contributions. England were 389/9 at the end of the day and their lead goes to 377 runs till now.
Australia gets a 12 runs lead on day 2. England openers started pretty well and for the 1st wicket they put up 79 runs. Starc broke that partnership and got the wicket of Duckett. Duckett goes after making 42 runs. (79-1). Then just a few overs after lunch Cummins dismissed the dangerous Crawley. Crawley looked solid in his 73 run innings. (140-2).
Stokes himself up the order and looked good with his shots. But unfortunately Murphy gets his wicket and England loses their 3rd. Stokes again couldn’t convert his innings to a big one and went out on 42 runs. (213-3). Harry Brook didn’t score much and got out by Hazelwood. Brook departed after making 7 runs only. (222-4).
After that a great partnership between Bairstow and Root took England to a comfortable position. Their partnership stands for 110 runs for the 5th wicket. Murphy gets Root. Root missed his century by 9 runs and departed at 91 score. (332-5). Then the other set batsman Bairstow, went next. Starc damages the opposition. Bairstow scored 78 runs. (360-6).
Starc again strikes in his next over by taking the wicket of Woakes. Woakes couldn’t contribute much and made only 1 run. (364-7). Moeen Ali was the next man dismissed. He was looking in good touch but Starc had some other plan for him and got his wicket. He goes out after scoring 29 runs. (375-8). The last man dismissed on day 3 was Mark Wood. Murphy gets his wicket. Wood scored 9 runs. (379-9).
Last two batsmen standing in the crease are Stuart Broad and James Anderson. Broad is batting at 2 runs while Anderson is at 8 runs. Now Aussies will be eager to get the remaining wicket on day 4 as early as possible. While the hosting team will try to bat as much as they can. Let’s see how things will work on day 4.