England, Australia trade blows in action-packed session

England and Australia traded blows in another action-packed session as the Headingley Test edged closer to a tight finish on the fourth day. Resuming at 27/0 in pursuit of 251, England ended up bringing down the equation to 98 needed from five sessions. However, they also lost the favourites tag on the fourth morning after Australia struck four times to stay alive in the contest.

Australia had the field spread out to begin with as the two openers kept rotating the strike. Ben Duckett, who already had a close shave for lbw against Mitchell Starc, came a long way across once again to the left-arm pacer in his next over and this time, he was a goner. England then sprung a surprise and sent out Moeen Ali at No.3 having sent Harry Brook in the first innings.

The move didn't work though as Moeen lasted only 15 deliveries for five runs and was cleaned up by Starc. A scrambled seam delivery came in after pitching to rattle the stumps as Australia made a fine start. A jittery Joe Root then got going with a neat cover drive and Zak Crawley started finding a few boundaries as well to eat into the target.

After the drinks break, Crawley nailed a shot through the offside against Mitchell Marsh to move to 44 but the Australian allrounder staged a strong comeback by pulling the length a touch and getting the ball to move away. Crawley ended up edging it behind to give Australia a huge lift. Brook did finally come out at No.5 and after a watchful start, he smashed Scott Boland straight down the ground to collect his first boundary.

The young right-hander then took on Boland again in his next over and hit him for successive boundaries as England slowly regained control again. Just minutes before lunch, he survived a scare when Pat Cummins found his outside edge but the ball just bounced in front of first slip.

However, Root wasn't the beneficiary of any such luck at the other end as he took on a short-pitched delivery from Cummins, only to get a tickle through to the keeper much to Australia's delight. The wicket was absolutely massive from an Australian perspective given England had knocked off over 100 runs in the session. Ben Stokes was then given a rapturous welcome to the crease by the Headingley crowd. England will hope he can deliver the goods again post the lunch break.

Brief scores: England 237 & 153/4 (Zak Crawley 44, Harry Brook 40*; Mitchell Starc 2/44) need another 98 runs vs Australia 263 & 224