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Stuart Broad dismissed David Warner yet again before capturing the prize wicket of Steve Smith as Australia slumped to 91-4 at lunch on the first day of the third Ashes Test at Headingley on Thursday. At 2-0 down with three to play, England have to win to keep the series alive and got off to a perfect start when Broad (2-20) struck in the very first over of the match. England captain Ben Stokes had sent Australia in to bat on a green-tinged pitch and that call paid dividends as express fast bowler Mark Wood also impressed on his return to the side with 1-8 in six overs. Australia took the field to a chorus of boos with many in the crowd still upset by the controversial dismissal of local hero Jonny Bairstow, given out stumped when he thought the ball was dead, in the tourists’ 43-run win in the second Test at Lord’s last week.
Warner drove Broad, leading the attack in the absence of the rested James Anderson, for four off the first ball of the day.
What a start!
Broad gets Warner for the…
*Checks notes*
…Sixteenth time! #EnglandCricket | #Ashes pic.twitter.com/WfSoa5XY1G
— England Cricket (@englandcricket) July 6, 2023
But four balls later the left-hander fell to his longtime nemesis for the 16th time in 29 Tests.
Warner pushed forward to a round-the-wicket delivery only to get a thick outside edge that was well caught high to his left at second slip by Zak Crawley.
Wood, one of three changes to the England side, came on for his first spell of the series with Australia 27-1.
He immediately hit speeds in excess of 90 miles per hour (mph), with the injury-prone Durham quick unsettling Marnus Labuschagne as he showed England what they had been missing without a genuine fast bowler.
But it was Usman Khawaja, so often a thorn in England’s side this series, who fell to Wood when bowled between bat and pad on the drive for 13 by a 95 mph thunderbolt that flattened the left-handed opener’s leg stump.
Australia were now 42-2 as Smith walked out to bat in his 100th Test fresh from a hundred at Lord’s.
Smith was nearly out for just four when he inside-edged an Ollie Robinson delivery that cut back sharply off the seam, only for a diving Bairstow to drop a difficult left-handed chance.
But England struck again when paceman Chris Woakes, like Wood playing his first match of the series, squared up Labuschagne (21) and Joe Root held a regulation catch at first slip to leave Australia 61-3.
Travis Head should have been out for nine when he gloved Wood down the legside only for Bairstow, whose wicketkeeping has proved fallible this series, to drop the catch despite getting both hands to the ball.
Bairstow, however, made no mistake with a routine catch when Smith, on 22, got a thin inside edge to a Broad ball that nipped back to leave Australia 85-4 despite the batsman’s review.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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