Good morning and welcome to Telegraph Sport’s live, over-by-over coverage of day at Headingley. If you’re an England fan, there’s only one song to have on loop this morning. The weather forecast at Headingley is the stuff of England’s dreams. Sun is shinin’ in the sky/there ain’t a cloud in sight. This should be the best day for batting in the match, and England have to capitalise.
Yesterday was about two newbies: Mitchell Marsh and Mark Wood, who stole the show in their first match of the series. England hope today’s play is about two Yorkies: Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow will resume this morning, having batted with fierce determination during a tricky spell last night.
Both have wrongs to right. Root dropped Marsh and Alex Carey, unbecoming errors that cost England 110 runs, and celebrated with rare anger when he finally caught Travis Head. Bairstow dropped two more catches – one difficult, one straightforward – and has a peedie bit of unfinished business from Lord’s. It’s Jonny against the world once again, and that’s often when he plays his best innings. If he gets through the first half hour, anything could happen.
England will resume on 68 for three, a deficit of 195 after that exhilarating first day. Their tail is both longer (Moeen Ali at No7) and shorter (Chris Woakes at No8) than it was at Lord’s. Ideally they will bat time as well as runs – to keep a weary Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc in the field, to keep Australia’s batsmen away from the crease while the sun is shining.
We’ve said it about a dozen times already this summer, but this, the 12th day of the series, is absolutely crucial. If England get a three-figure first-innings lead, they will be in business. If they fail to capitalise on the best batting conditions of the match, as they did at Lord’s, it may well be all over.
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