The Ashes - Day Three, Third Test, Headingley - Root and Denly partnership gives England hope

Captain Joe Root and Joe Denly showed the resilience that English batsmen have been missing in Tests, to give England a glimmer of hope to keep the Ashes alive.

Photo from Swansea Sound

England - 67 & 156-3 / 179 & 246 - Australia
Australia still look set to retain the Ashes at Headingley despite some resilience with the bat shown by England.
Set and England record of 359 to win, the hosts battled to 156-3 thanks to 75 not out from Joe Root and 50 from Joe Denly.
They showed everything that was lacking in the first innings - solid defence, patience and bravery - to repel the Australia attack.
The partnership between Root and Denly of 126 from 15-2 prevented England from being skittled once again on a sunny day in Leeds.
Australia added 70 to their overnight score, finishing 246 all out with super-sub Marnus Labuschagne run out for 80.
Despite excellent bowling once again from the tourist, they went largely unrewarded.
England are well set to pull of a miraculous victory, and lets not forget that Australia once successfully chased 404 and only two years ago West Indies knocked off 322 - both at Headingley.
If England could pull it off, it would go down in cricket folklore with Sir Ian Botham and Bob Willis' heroics at the same ground in 1981 as one of England's best Ashes wins.

England's capitulation in the first innings - at a time when a solid batting performance would have given them a great opportunity to level the series - was compounded by a display proving what they are capable of.
England defied the Australia bowling, making steady progress on a good pitch in the warm Yorkshire sunshine - everything that should have been happening on Friday.
The Headingley crowd lapped it up - as though they deserved to see a good batting display after the first innings.
Forward defensives and edges through the slip cordon were applauded and roared, and when England brought up 100 - the whole crowd was on its feet.
Just when Australia were looking desperate, Denly gloved a bouncer behind off Josh Hazlewood for a much needed breakthrough.
Ben Stokes made two off his first 50 before the close, calmly helping the skipper overnight with the second new ball just eight overs away in the morning.

Highest successful Test chases at Headingley
404-3: Australia v England, 1948
359: England vs Australia 2019 (?)
322-5: West Indies v England, 2017
315-4: England v Australia, 2001
219-7: England v Pakistan, 1982
186-5: England v South Africa, 1929

England were two down just after lunch and looked like losing in three days when Rory Burns edged Hazlewood to slip and Jason Roy was bowled by a beauty from Pat Cummins.
Root and Denly responded brilliantly - the former with question marks over his captaincy, and the latter over his place in the team - with a performance that restored some pride in England's batting.
That's not to say that the progress was easy, in fact it was painstaking at first.
With edges and play-and-misses, every delivery looked dangerous.
Denly was was struck in the head and arm, while twice he almost gloved short balls to fielders.
But the batting became easier from then on, with Root scoring square of the wicket on both sides, while Denly favoured the push down the ground.
Root correctly reviewed an lbw call on 59, showing he had inside edged it onto his pad off Hazlewood, before Denly punched a bouncer to wicketkeeper TimPaine off the same bowler.

Australia would have relished another onslaught on England's batman, given the surrender on Friday.
Their failure to retain the Ashes already was no fault of the bowlers though, with Hazlewood, Cummins and James Pattinson examining England's defence with line and length, before testing their mettle with hostile bouncers.
Labuschagne had earlier moved the seventh wicket partnership with Pattinson to 51, with his fourth reprieve a drop by wicketkeeper Jonny Bairstow on 60.
Jofra Archer - passed fit after suffering cramp on Friday evening - peppered him with bouncers, before having Pattinson caught at first slip and Nathan Lyon chopping on as the last man to fall.
The relentless Stokes had Cummins caught at gully, while Denly's throw from deep point was enough to see off Labuschagne who was coming back to the striker's end for a second run.
The last four wickets fell for 31 runs in 7.3 overs, a contrast to the absorbing battle that would follow.

The Ashes Fixtures and Results
1-5 August
First Test, Edgbaston
Australia won by 251 runs (England 0-1 Australia)

14-18 August
Second Test, Lord's
Match drawn (England 0-1 Australia)

22-26 August
Third Test, Headingley

4-8 September
Fourth Test, Old Trafford

12-16 September
Fifth Test, The Oval

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