England vs. Australia, 1st Ashes Test, Day 3: Highlights, Scorecard and Report

England took a firm grip of the first Ashes Test as they established a lead in excess of 400 runs on Day 3 in Cardiff, Wales.

The hosts were dismissed for 289 in their second innings, leaving Australia needing 412 to win the opening game of the five-match series.

England had established a first-innings lead of 122 after dismissing the tourists for 308 in the morning session.

			Runs	Minutes	Balls	4s	6s
Rogers	c Buttler	b Wood	95	184	133	11	1
Warner	c Cook	b Anderson	17	63	42	3	0
Smith	c Cook	b Moeen	33	78	56	5	0
Clarke	c and b Moeen		38	81	52	6	0
Voges	c Anderson	b Stokes	31	108	75	4	0
Watson	lbw	b Broad	30	85	57	6	0
Lyon	lbw	b Wood	6	33	26	1	0
Haddin	c Buttler	b Anderson	22	50	38	5	0
Johnson	c Ballance	b Broad	14	41	19	2	0
Starc	c Root	b Anderson	0	11	6	0	0
Hazlewood	not out		2	6	4	0	0
Extras		0nb 3w 6b 11lb	20
Bowler			Overs	Maidens	Runs	Wickets
Anderson			18.5	6	43	3
Broad			17.0	4	60	2
Wood			20.0	5	66	2
Moeen			15.0	1	71	2
Stokes			14.0	5	51	1

Starting Day 3 at Sophia Gardens on 264 for five, Australia would have harboured hopes of taking the initiative in the first innings, but their hopes were blown away by James Anderson and Stuart Broad.

Broad trapped Shane Watson lbw with the 10th delivery of the day as he became the fourth Australia middle-order batsman to be dismissed in the thirties.

Nightwatchman Nathan Lyon (6) was palpably lbw to a Mark Wood yorker, and then the final three wickets fell in five overs after the new ball was taken.

Anderson had Brad Haddin (22) caught behind, and Mitchell Starc (0) was superbly caught at slip by Joe Root. Broad saw Mitchell Johnson (14) pick out short mid-wicket in between.

England, however, lost Alastair Cook (12) and Gary Ballance (0) cheaply either side of lunch to Starc and Josh Hazlewood, respectively.

Adam Lyth (37) battled hard only for Michael Clarke to take a superb catch at slip off Nathan Lyon before Ian Bell and Joe Root regained the initiative for England.

The hitherto out-of-touch Bell reached 50 off 75 balls and shared a 97-run partnership with Root.

He became Mitchell Johnson’s first victim of the match when he saw his off-stump pegged back after making 60, the same score on which Root perished.

The prolific Yorkshireman was eyeing his second century of the match when a Hazlewood delivery was angled into him and ricocheted off his back pad and into middle stump.

England continued to play positively, but Ben Stokes (42), Jos Buttler (7) and Broad (4) fell in the space of 16 balls.

Stokes dragged on a full Starc delivery, Buttler (7) attempted an audacious reverse sweep off Lyon and Broad holed out at long-off from the off-spinner's ball.

Johnson had Moeen Ali (15) caught behind and Lyon finished with four for 75 after bowling Anderson (1) in the final over of the day, but a positive unbeaten 32 from Wood had taken England's lead over 400. It's a daunting task, with Australia's highest-ever fourth-innings total to win a Test match standing at 404, a record set in 1948.