Crawley and Duckett dominate as England look to construct lead
Australia had been bowled out for 295 on the second night on the Oval, incomes a slender first innings lead of simply 12.
England wanted only one over of their second innings to erase that deficit, Crawley and Duckett happening to share a brisk 79-run opening stand earlier than the house facet ultimately reached lunch on 130 for one, a lead of 118.
Crawley evoked reminiscences of the Edgbaston sequence opener by crunching the primary ball of the day by way of the covers for 4, but it surely was Duckett that made a lot of the early working as 40 runs got here from the primary 5 overs alone.
By that time, Mitchell Starc had been pulled from the assault, the left-armer’s first two overs dispatched for 22 to go away Pat Cummins little selection however to carry himself on early than deliberate.
The Australian skipper introduced a level of management to stem the stream of boundaries, however England’s openers continued to rotate strike effectively because the scoreboard continued to tick above 5 runs per-over.
Starc’s return introduced a much-needed breakthrough, the vacationers making good use of a evaluate to detect Duckett’s exterior edge because the batter fell for 42.
With Moeen Ali barred from batting till after lunch on account of the time he spent off the sector on day two with a groin harm, Stokes promoted himself to No3 as Crawley started to take cost, the Kent man nonetheless unbeaten at lunch on 71 from 73 deliveries having taken a specific liking to Todd Murphy’s spin.