Twitter Reactions: Joe Root’s unbeaten half-century keeps England’s hopes alive at Headingley

The third Ashes Test between England and Australia is taking interesting turns with every session of play. At the moment, Joe Root is leading the way for the Brits and has instilled hope of a win. Australia, who continued with their second innings at the start of the day, added another 75 runs to their tally. James Pattinson and Pat Cummins were the first two players who lost their wickets on the day for 20 and 6 runs respectively.

However, Marnus Labuschagne kept going strong from one end. He played some splendid cricket and was batting on 80 when he was run-out. In an attempt to keep Nathan Lyon off the strike, he tried to take a risky single. However, it didn’t work his way and thus he was dismissed. The England bowlers wrapped things up quickly after he got out and bowled Australia out for 246 runs. Ben Stokes picked up three wickets in the innings.

Joe Root leading England from the front

As we have seen several times already in this series, England lost both its openers early. An excellent delivery from Pat Cummins sent Jason Roy back to the hut for 8 runs. Josh Hazlewood got Rory Burns caught in the slips. With England down to 15/2, Australia would have already sensed yet another victory at this stage. However, Joe Root and Joe Denly came up with an unbelievable fightback.

Together, they put up 126 runs and were going strong. But, Denly was dismissed as soon as he got to his fifty by Hazlewood. Yet, the English skipper is going strong with an unbeaten 75. A lot of England’s hopes will depend on him and he has got Ben Stokes for company. England still needs another 203 runs to win the game which seems to be more and more a reality with the passage of play. However, Australia is just a couple of wickets away before they get back into the game and will want to dismiss Root as soon as possible.

Twitterati was happy to see Joe Root back amongst the runs after two consecutive ducks. Fans of both the teams are still optimistic about their side winning the game. With plenty of time still left, there is no question of a draw.

Here is how Twitterati reacted: