England aim for Australia wickets after rain delay in 3rd Ashes Test

England’s quest for Australia wickets in the third Ashes Test at Headingley resumed Saturday after rain had kept the players off the field for most of the third day. 

Following an umpires’ inspection, the game eventually restarted at 15:45 GMT only for a fresh shower to halt play again after just one over from Chris Woakes yielded two runs.

But minutes later the match got going again, with the Test on a knife edge.

Australia were 118-4 in their second innings, a lead of 144 runs, as they looked to go 3-0 up in the five-match series and secure a first Ashes campaign triumph in England since 2001.

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The gloomy overhead skies in Leeds were set to make life difficult for Australia’s batsmen.

Mitchell Marsh, who has already marked his first Test in nearly four years with a brilliant run-a-ball 118 in Australia’s first innings, was 18 not out and Travis Head 19 not out.

Their fifth-wicket partnership of 155 was the cornerstone of Australia’s first-innings 263.

England had slumped to 142-7 at lunch on Friday before captain Ben Stokes’s dashing 80 took his side to 237 all out.

That left England just 26 runs behind on first innings, despite Australia skipper Pat Cummins’s impressive haul of 6-91.

Stokes also hit a blistering 155 in the second Test at Lord’s last week as England suffered a 43-run defeat.

Friday’s innings revived memories of Stokes’s Ashes heroics at Headingley four years ago, when his astounding unbeaten century guided England to a remarkable one-wicket win over Australia.

England’s 362-9 in that chase is the second-highest fourth-innings total to win a Test at Headingley.

Off-spinner Moeen Ali followed Stokes’s run-spree on Friday by taking two wickets for two runs in just nine balls to remove Marnus Labuschagne and Steve Smith — two of the world’s top three-ranked Test batsmen.

The lengthy break in the action could help England’s injury concerns, with seamer Ollie Robinson yet to bowl since suffering back spasms on the first day and all-rounder Stokes batting a longstanding left knee problem, as well as several other niggles.

England are bidding to become only the second team in Test history to come from 2-0 down to win a series after Australia, inspired by batting great Don Bradman, overturned that deficit to take the 1936/37 Ashes 3-2.