England refuse to give up

Australia are sweating on getting a new ball in their hands after England refused to roll over and concede the Ashes without a fight.

A tantalising fourth day of the third test at Headingley now awaits after England captain Joe Root took matters into his own hands to keep Australia at bay.

Having set England 359 runs to win, Australia swooped quickly and removed openers Jason Roy and Rory Burns within the first seven overs of their second innings, leaving the hosts 15-2 and with their humiliating capitulation for 67 the day before still fresh in the mind.

But as another collapse beckoned Root (75 not out) had other ideas, frustrating Tim Paine’s men in a 126-run partnership with Joe Denly that kept alive England’s dream of becoming only the 11th team in test history to successfully chase down a fourth-innings target of more than 350.

A superb Josh Hazlewood broke the back of that stand in a tense last hour when he dug one in short and Denly failed to get his glove out of the way, with the ball popping up to Paine behind the stumps to bring his support act to an end on 50.

But the new man at the crease, Ben Stokes, then withstood a 45-minute examination to remain unbeaten on two from 50 balls at the close.

England are on 156-3, still 203 runs short of victory but far more in the picture than they were 24 hours earlier.

‘‘We have got to stick to our process, shut that scoreboard down and challenge both edges of the bat – ball in, ball out. If we do that I’ve no doubt we will win the match,’’ Australia batsman Marnus Labuschagne said.