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Ashes 2019: Headingley Test: Day 3 Highlights: Root and Denly show fight with Australia scenting victory

Joe Root and Joe Denly scored battling half-centuries but Australia remain on course to retain the Ashes after Josh Hazlewood struck twice on a glorious day

Josh Hazlewood

Leeds, August 25: Joe Root and Joe Denly scored battling half-centuries but Australia remain on course to retain the Ashes after Josh Hazlewood struck twice on a glorious day three at Headingley.

England were humiliatingly bowled out for a pitiful 67 on the second day in Leeds and were set a highly unlikely 359 to level the series when the tourists were dismissed for 246 on Saturday.

The in-form Marcus Labuschagne showed great character and technique while riding his luck to make 80, with Ben Stokes taking three for 56 as England ended Australia's second innings in the morning session.

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Captain Root (75 not out) and the under-pressure Denly dug in to put on 126 for the third wicket after England were reduced to 15 for two, but Hazlewood (2-35) removed the Kent batsman for exactly 50.

Root and his deputy Stokes were unbeaten at stumps, but England are still facing defeat at 156 for three, needing a further 203 to win, with Tim Paine's side requiring seven wickets to go 2-0 up and keep the urn.

The tenacious Labuschagne was struck on the head by a Broad bouncer before being dropped by Jonny Bairstow off the same bowler on 60, having also been given three lives on day two as Australia's lead moved past 300 after they resumed on 171-6.

James Pattinson was caught by Root off Archer at first slip to end a seventh-wicket stand of 51 and Labuschagne soon required another check over from the doctor.

Archer rattled him on the grilled with a rapid bouncer, recalling the gripping battle the pair engaged in at Lord's last week.

Stokes saw the back of Pat Cummins and Labuschagne missed out on a hundred when he was run out by Denly, with Nathan Lyon chopping on to Archer to bring the innings to an end.

Rory Burns nicked Hazlewood to David Warner at first slip after lunch and the out-of-sorts Jason Roy followed in the next over, bowled by a brilliant delivery from Cummins that reduced England to 15-2.

The vast majority of a packed crowd would have been fearing a repeat of England's first-innings fiasco, but Denly and Root showed the resistance that had been so badly lacking on Friday to take tea on 90-2.

Denly took a blow on the helmet from Cummins but skipped down the track to dispatch Lyon down the ground for four and ran well with the busy Root, who drove the spinner to the cover boundary to reach his half-century.

Root successfully reviewed an lbw decision after inside edging a straight one from Hazlewood and Australia wasted a review for a Lyon leg-before shout against Denly.

He did not last much longer, though, falling caught behind after being rapped on the gloves by a hostile ball from Hazlewood after raising his bat for the second time in the longest format, leaving Root and Stokes to see England through to stumps.

Story first published: Sunday, August 25, 2019, 1:54 [IST]
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