England bazball style of play helps to get a lead in their 1st innings. Jonny Bairstow just remains one run short for completing his century. England in their 1st innings made 592/10 and got a lead of 275 runs. Australia in their 2nd innings lost important 4 wickets and made 113 runs and they are still 162 runs behind.
England started pretty well and continued their day 2 score of 384/4, Stokes and Brook started dominating in the 1st over and Stokes completed his half century within few minutes. After completing his 50 runs he got out by Cummins. He scored 51 runs. (437-5). Next one was Harry Brook who got out. He tries a pull shot against Hazelwood but it takes the edge and Starc takes a simple catch. He departed after scoring 61 runs. (474-6).
Hazelwood again did the damage by taking the wicket of Chris Woakes. He didn’t score any runs and went out in the very first ball he played. (586-7). Mark Wood was the next man dismissed by Hazelwood. He scored only 6 runs. (506-8). Hazelwood then claims his 5th wicket by taking Broad away from the pitch. He took the catch himself. Broad only contributed 7 runs. (526-9).
After that Jonny Bairstow took the charge and started bashing the losing ball and within a few minutes England got the lead of 200+. His consistent hard hitting makes his score 99 runs but unfortunately he couldn’t touch the three figures, as Anderson goes out. For the 10th wicket, 66 runs were added to the team. Green took the wicket of Anderson. England scored with a run-rate of 5.53.
Hazelwood was the leading wicket taker in the 1st innings by grabbing 5 wickets. Starc and Green settled with 2 wickets each. Cummins got one wicket.
Australia in their 2nd innings looked a little struggling in front of Mark Wood as they lost 4 wickets and 3 of them were taken by Wood only. First man gone was Usman Khawaja and Wood strikes with his first over of the 2nd innings. He goes out after scoring 18 runs. (32-1). Next one was Warne, who misjudged the delivery of Chris Woakes and the bails were off immediately. He contributed with only 28 runs. (54-2).
As the Aussies looked a little settled down, then Wood came and took his 100th Test wicket by dismissing Steve Smith. He scored 17 runs. (97-3). Then again Wood starikes and this time he took the wicket of inform batsman and most destructive one, Travis Head. He only scored 1 run. (108-4). After that Labuschagne and Marsh played the remaining 5 overs sensibly and didn’t lose their wickets. Labuschagne is at 44 runs and Marsh at 1 run.
Wood gets three important wickets while Woakes takes one.
On day 4, it will be a good test for the Aussies batters to withstand against the English pace attack.