Twitter Reactions: Australia remain on top despite late strikes by England

England desperately needed to bat well on Day 3 and get as close to Australia’s first innings score as possible to make sure they not only keep themselves alive and kicking in the Adelaide test match, but also in the 5-match Ashes series. But the day started as horribly as it could have been for them as they lost a couple of early wickets courtesy extremely poor shot selection by James Vince and the captain Joe Root, both of whom perished looking for expansive shots through the off side.

Nathan Lyon, the Australian off spinner, then capitalised on the good work put in by the quicks and chipped away with some crucial scalps in the middle order to keep England on the back foot right through their innings. Chris Woakes and Craig Overton showed some resilience down the order with a gutsy little partnership, but they failed to guide the visitors past the follow on mark as the whole of the English side was bundled out for 227 runs.

The highlight of the day was the catching of Australia which was just on a different level. While they held on to some sharp slip catches, a couple of catches taken by Nathan Lyon and Mitchell Starc off their own bowling were absolute stunners. Lyon’s catch, in particular, was the talking point of the day on twitter as people came up with some interesting remarks to shower praises on the off spinner who is fondly called the GOAT in the Australian dressing room.

Some twitteratis were also wondering why Australia didn’t enforce the follow on as they thought it was a great opportunity for the Kangaroos to run through a fragile English batting line-up under lights. The English bowlers found extravagant movement under lights and managed to dismiss four of the Aussie batsmen before stumps, however Australia still remained in the dominating position because of the huge first innings lead.

Here are a few selected tweets of the day.