Ashes: In gritty conditions at Leeds, Australia keep their Head against England

Under the sullen, sombre skies of Leeds, Travis Head composed another cameo of gritty violence to keep the game in the balance.The conditions on a rain-curtailed day were incredibly difficult to bat, the surface under incessant pounding for most of the day, the ball, though old, hooping and hemming around at the velvet fingers of Chris Woakes and Stuart Broad, but Head has made a happy habit of shining amidst the gloom.His counter-blows, in a characteric 76, ensured that Australia set a target of 251, of which England whittled down 27 runs without the loss of any wicket with characteric gusto; whether its daunting or not would depend on the overhead conditions on Sunday.

Stumps.
The perfect day for England? 😍
We need a further 2️⃣2️⃣4️⃣ to win with 🔟 wickets remaining. #EnglandCricket | #Ashes pic.twitter.com/48asAy5vhT
— England Cricket (@englandcricket) July 8, 2023
For much of the day, defusing short-ball blast, Head was largely invisible, barely unfurling a stroke of aggression, but content pulling the ball to the packed leg-side field waiting for an airy miscue. England often set an inverse umbrella field of sorts, all nine fielders on the ropes, lest he chooses to counter-attack. He resed until the exit of Mitchell Starc left him with no options.
Head crunched the immaculate Woakes for a pair of fours, one slashed behind point and the other smoked through mid-wicket. Next over, he clobbered Mark Wood through square leg, before he pillaged Woakes for a six and four. He adeptly rotated the strike, and when he was down to one partner, he switched into frantic mode and swatted the pacy Mark Wood for a brace of sixes, steering Australia to a competitive score.
that time, the ragged ball was not coaxing adequate movement to trouble Head. However, for all the movement on offer when the ball was pitched up, Alex Carey and Mitchell Marsh were not victims of swing, but waspish bounce from nowhere.
Both batsmen departed when trying to leave the ball on length, but the ball ricocheted off the underside of the gloves, for Marsh to the wicket-keeper and Carey to the stumps. But the wickets owed as much to the bounce as the swing that spooked them throughout the brief session.

Another one! 🔥
Alex Carey gone for 5️⃣#EnglandCricket | #Ashes pic.twitter.com/3qOTnL5KGl
— England Cricket (@englandcricket) July 8, 2023
The ball before Carey’s dismissal had swung late after he had shouldered arms and just whizzed past the off-stump. So perhaps, the leave next ball was half-hearted, he had just kept him flexible to jam the bat down if the ball swung back.
Similarly, Marsh usually defends such ball — outside the off-stump on the shortish bandwidth of the good-length frequency, but because he had watched the ball swing, he opted to leave. Both wickets, though, owed to the discipline of Woakes as well the clever interchanging of length; the Marsh-wicket ball was a few centimetres shorter than he had generally bowled to him, whereas the Carey delivery was less fuller than he had bowled at him.
Bizarrely, England persed with the short-ball tactic against Head at the start of the innings, even though the ball was swinging wildly whenever pitched up. England realized this as early as the second ball when a Woakes bouncer swung devilishly across Head as it passed him. Jonny Bairstow had committed to his right side assuming the ball, which landed on the leg stump, would arrive in that direction.
But he had to swiftly change his direction to grab the ball, which the wrong-footed keeper accomplished stretching full-pelt. Head, though not entirely in control, would safely pull to the deep for singles, or defend, hopping and leaping about, blocking ungainly towards mid-on. Despite the perceived vulnerability, he hardly looked frazzled when neutering the short ball. How England would rue that.

Before tormenting Carey, Woakes conjured a conventional-seamed beauty that held the line after swinging in past the fluent Marsh. To think that he had not played a Test in 16 months baffles, for he bowled as if he was never away, no rusty shoulder no clunky, strides, smooth and silken like a vintage car, always hitting the perfect length, challenging the off-stump, and forcing the defensive stroke. Typically, his imperious labour would slide under the radar, in the blaze of Stokes and the blinding speed of Woods, Woakes has played more than a side-kick role in this Test.