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Australia continued to dominate in the ongoing Ashes series against England as they began the third Test at Headingley in Leeds with a strong all-round performance with both bat and ball to be ahead of the hosts after stumps. England won the toss for the third time in the series and decided to bowl first yet again. Under the overcast conditions at Headingley, this was probably the best decision and a new-look England bowling attack with comeback men Chris Woakes and Mark Wood in it just looked fearsome.
England had Australia on the mat at 92/4 in the first session as the four-pronged pace attack of Stuart Broad, Ollie Robinson, Woakes and Wood was on the money. They bowled tight lines and forced the Australian batters to make mistakes. David Warner got out to Broad for the 16th time poking a delivery outside the off-stump, Usman Khawaja was beaten for pace by Wood while Woakes got rid of Marnus Labschagne whose struggles continued in the ongoing Ashes series.
Steve Smith after surviving a dropped catch couldn’t make most of it in his 100th Test. Then came the partnership or the innings of the match. Mitchell Marsh playing a Test match after four years smashed almost a run-a-ball century to make England pay for their poor catching. Joe Root dropped Marsh when he was on 12 and he just punished England for the costly drop.
Australia raced to 240 as Marsh threatened to take the game away from England. But thankfully for the hosts, after Waokes removed Marsh, it all came down crashing for Australia as they lost six wickets for 23 runs.
It seemed like a job well done by England from the position they were in the Test match, however, Australia just can’t tolerate the hosts having even one moment under the sun. Skipper Pat Cummins dismissed Ben Duckett and new England No. 3 Harry Brook cheaply before Joe Root and Zak Crawley stopped the wickets procession for a while.
However, Marsh just could do nothing wrong on the day as he got rid of Crawley minutes before the close of play to reduce England to 65/3. England added three more runs to their tally before the stumps as they will need big knocks from Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow and Ben Stokes to first overhaul the deficit of 195 and then hopefully take a lead.
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