Brisbane -December 10 (Online): Joe Root and Dawid Malan dug in to give England some badly needed cheer at tea on the third day of the opening Ashes Test against Australia at the Gabba on Friday.
England were 107-2 at the break with skipper Root on 26 and Malan 35, still 171 runs behind.
They lost both openers in the session — Rory Burns failed to add to his lunch score of 13 and Haseeb Hameed was unluckily caught down the leg side for 27.
But Root and Malan looked increasingly comfortable on the third day Gabba pitch as they took England to tea only two wickets down.
Earlier, Travis Head scored a superb 152 to put Australia in a commanding position after their first innings.
Australia were finally dismissed for 425 on Friday, 30 minutes before lunch, a handsome lead of 278.
England then survived a tricky period and went to lunch 23 for no wicket.
Burns, who was out first ball of the series on Wednesday when clean-bowled by Mitchell Starc, was lucky to survive the dreaded pair when he was adjudged leg-before wicket on Starc’s sixth ball of the first over Friday.
But after reviewing the decision, replays showed the ball was just missing the top of middle stump, and a relieved Burns survived.
But he didn’t last long after lunch and gloved a ball to wicketkeeper Alex Carey off Australian captain Pat Cummins.
Hameed looked in great touch and eased to 27, but he tried to glance a wide ball from Starc, only to get a faint touch to Carey.
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