ENGLAND FIND THEIR BACKBONE

After the humiliation of 67 all out, Root leads fight to make Headingley history

AGAINST al l expectations, s a ni t y br o ke o ut i n Leeds yesterday. And no man was more relieved than Joe Root.

England remain rank outsiders to pull off one of the most unexpected wins in their history. The chances are Australia will retain the Ashes some time today. But the fact that Root’s team are not yet down and out after their pitiful surrender on Friday suggests that rumours of missing vertebrae have been exaggerated — for the moment, anyway.

Set an implausible 359 to square the series and set up a barnstorming fourth Test at Old Trafford, England reached stumps on the third day of this absurd game on 156 for three, with Root unbeaten on 75 from a painstaking 189 balls. After successive ducks, and the vitriol that greeted his side’s first-innings capitulation, his was shaping up to be the definitive captain’s knock.

While Root and Joe Denly were adding a courageous 126 in 53 overs for the third wicket, it was hard not to wonder how different this game might have been had England’s batsmen shown similar resolve 24 hours earlier.

But, against an Australia attack that threw everything g at them and even grew stroppy under t he northern sun, this s was a decent response. As if to underline the point that England had learned from their extravagances, Ben Stokes reached the close undefeated on two from 50 deliveries. ries.

If England are to lose, it will be over their dead bodies. The Headingley crowd appreciated that much, at least.

Their innings had got off to its customary dreadful start. In the second over after lunch, Rory Burns fended at one from Josh Hazlewood that was short enough to leave alone and was caught by David Warner, who in this Test has turned slip-catching into an art form.

Burns is still in credit after a fighting hundred at Edgbaston and a half-century at Lord’s, but Australia’s quicks are peppering him and he is yet to produce a convincing answer. Three deliveries later, Jason Roy was squared up by a good one from Pat Cummins that hit the top of off stump, though Roy’s lack of balance was such that he almost tripped over his own feet as he groped at thin air.

He and Burns, best friends and now opening partners, had begun the day sharing a coffee at a nearby shop opened last year by their former Surrey team-mates Tim Linley. Last night, they might have opted for something stiffer, especially Roy, whose removal remov for eight took his tally t in this series to 57 at 9.50. Despite the uproar u that greets hihs every dismissal, his selection as an opener was w worth a try, mainly m because England E have spent spe years having no luck lu with steadier types. Frankly, F they had little to lose by picking him, though they should have done so earlier in the year in the Caribbean, not waited until he was up against a world-class Australian attack on seaming pitches.

Whether he gets another go as open erin Manchester, or is demoted to the middle order — or dropped altogether — remains to be seen. But his diminution over the past few weeks is sad to see after the role he played in England’s World Cup success. Trevor Bayliss and, despite what he says in public, Root both believe he belongs in the middle order.

One option would be to switch places with Denly, who has been faltering at No 4. As Denly tried in vain to get the scoreboard moving from 15 for two, swishing and missing more than once, that option looked tempting.

Slowly, though, he set about an innings which, given the lack of alternatives, should extend his Test career until the end of this series at least. A pull for four off Hazlewood even had the stamp of class and the Western Terrace gave him a standing ovation as he reached his second Test fifty.

He got no further. In the middle of a superb seven-over spell that yielded only three singles, Hazlewood got a short ball to rear at him and loop off the glove to Tim Paine behind the stumps. At that point, England shut up shop, ready to reopen this morning, with half an eye on history.

Earlier, Australia extended their overnight 171 for six to 246, with Marnus La busch ag ne finessing his impersonation of Steve Smith by making 80 to top-score for the third innings out of three. Between them, Labuschagne and the man he replaced as a concussion substitute at Lord’s have racked up 591 runs in six innings, compared with 660 in 36 from the rest of Australia’s top seven.

But while Smith’s twin centuries at Edgbaston and 92 at Lord’s were largely chanceless, Labuschagne continued to ride his luck on the third morning. Dropped twice and caught behind off a Stokes no-ball the previous afternoon, he was missed by Jonny Bairstow for the second time, on 60, off an unimpressed Stuart Broad.

Diving low to his right, Bairstow intercepted a chance that would almost certainly have carried to Root at first slip. For those who argue England should return the gloves to Ben Foakes, who averages 41 from his 10 Test innings, this was grist to the mill.

By the time England broke through, James Pattinson poking Jofra Archer low to slip, where Root was this time unencumbered and held his 100th Test catch, Australia were 215 for seven and led by 327.

The tireless Stokes bounced out Cummins before Labuschagne risked a second on Denly’s misfield at third man and was run out. When Archer, fit again after leaving the field on the second evening with cramp, bowled Nathan Ly o n , E n g l a n d needed to chase down a figure that has been bettered only once in successful fourth-innings pursuits in Headingley Tests.

Don Bradman’s 1948 ‘ Invincibles’ made 404 for three, with Bradman finishing unbeaten on 173.

If Root can do something similar t oday, England’s chase will be mentioned in the same breath and we will have a series on our hands.