LEEDS, July 7: Travis Head and Mitch Marsh held off a resurgent England to extend Australia’s fragile lead to 142 runs after two days of the third Ashes Test at Headingley on Friday.
Marnus Labuschagne and Steve Smith squandered a perfect batting track against a depleted England bowling attack by gifting their wickets after tea to Moeen Ali.
Head, on 18, and Marsh, on 17, negotiated the last 12.1 overs to advance Australia to 116-4 in its second innings at stumps.
Earlier, Stuart Board got the wicket of David Warner once again. The one-sided nature of the Broad vs. Warner duel continued as the Australia opener was out for 1 run after he squared up and edged to Zak Crawley in the slips — a mirror image of his first-innings dismissal.
It was the 17th time Warner was dismissed by Broad and it left Australia on 11/1.
England earlier limited the deficit damage as captain Ben Stokes and even pacer Mark Wood went on the attack in its first innings to eventually concede only a 26-run advantage to Australia.
The host was all out for 237 in reply to Australia’s 263. Australia captain Pat Cummins took 6/91 in 18 overs and celebrated his first five-wicket Test haul in England.
England started after lunch on 147/2, still 121 runs behind. That deficit was quickly reduced as Stokes advanced in the afternoon session from 27 not out to a team-best 80.
Wood, who took a five-for in his day job, smashed an eight-ball 24.
Cummins is trying to help his side clinch the Ashes for the first time in England since 2001.
England must win to stay alive.
Despite a flattening deck, wickets were falling at a pace that suggested the match might be over on Sunday with a day to spare.
The Australians kept England in the contest on a sun-drenched second day. (AP)
