Gutsy Stokes stands tall again in absorbing session

A gutsy performance from Ben Stokes was the highlight of another absorbing session in the Headingley Test as England kept the deficit down to 26 in the first innings. Stokes was the lone man fighting again for England after their disastrous show in the morning session as he rallied with the tail despite not being at 100% to add some vital runs before Australia extended their lead to 55 by the break.

The session started in quite a spectacular fashion with Mark Wood hammering the first ball for a six. Mitchell Starc continued to keep it short and the next two deliveries were put away for a four and a six as well as the Headingley crowd finally came alive after England's dull show in the morning. A top edge then gave Wood his third six before Pat Cummins ended that short spell of entertainment. But Wood's 8-ball 24 dramatically reduced the deficit that gave England some hope.

After that wicket, Stokes and Stuart Broad combined again in an attempt to frustrate Australia. Stokes rounded off a Starc over with three boundaries on the trot and added one more in the following over from Cummins. Broad for his part backed away and hit one over extra cover as the runs started flowing. To make matters worse for Australia, they dropped Stokes twice off successive deliveries much to the crowd's delight.

Cummins then bowled another short ball at Broad and he mistimed one to get caught by Steve Smith near the boundary for his sixth wicket. As an injured Ollie Robinson made his way out to the middle, the onus was on Stokes once again to pull off something he is accustomed to by now. Even though he was struggling himself because of a lower back issue, Stokes hit back-to-back sixes off Todd Murphy twice while going past fifty. Those massive hits proved to be very critical as the deficit came down below 40 in pretty quick time to stun the visitors. After clearing the ropes off Murphy for the fifth time, Stokes finally got caught near the boundary by Smith - his fifth catch in his 100th Test. With Australia carrying forward only a 26-run lead, it pretty much became a second-innings shootout again like it was the case in the first Test.

David Warner then gave the English crowd more reasons to cheer as he was sent back to the pavilion very early by his nemesis Stuart Broad again (for the 17th time). The dismissal was quite similar to the one in the first innings as Warner edged Broad behind to get caught at slip. Marnus Labuschagne and Usman Khawaja then withstood a tricky little spell before the Tea break. A huge final session is now coming up from an England perspective.

Brief scores: Australia 263 & 29/1 (Usman Khawaja 20*; Stuart Broad 1/9) lead England 237 (Ben Stokes 80; Pat Cummins 6/91) by 55 runs