Twitter Reactions: England take charge after fifties from Joe Denly and Ben Stokes

Catch drops have proved to be extremely costly for Australia in this fifth Test against England. First, Joe Denly was dropped late on the second day by Marcus Harris when he was still early in his innings. On the third day, Ben Stokes was given two lives – both by Steve Smith which turned out to be quite expensive. These two batsmen have made the most of these reprieves and pressed the foot on Australia.

Joe Denly came up with a terrific performance after Rory Burns and Joe Root fell in quick succession to Nathan Lyon. While Burns scored 20, the English skipper mustered 21 runs. It was Ben Stokes who walked in to bat at number four in the absence of Jason Roy. He made the most of this opportunity and built up a really good partnership. Denly and Stokes added 127 runs together before the latter was cleaned up by Lyon for 67 runs.

Joe Denly fell soon after that when he edged one off Peter Siddle. Thus, he missed out on his maiden century by just 6 runs. However, he ensured that he put England in a good position by then. Jonny Bairstow disappointed yet again and got out for just 14 runs.

Australia have a mountain to climb in their second innings

At this stage, Jos Buttler came up with yet another aggressive knock which helped take the game further away from Australia. He scored 47 runs off 63 balls before Peter Siddle dismissed him. While Sam Curran mustered 17 runs, Chris Woakes had to walk back to the pavilion after Smith took a fabulous catch. At the close of play, England finished with 313/8. Jofra Archer and Jack Leach are the two batsmen in the middle. With a lead of 382 runs already, it shouldn’t be a surprise even if they come up with an overnight declaration.

While Nathan Lyon picked up three wickets, Peter Siddle and Mitchell Marsh got two each. The match is clearly under the control of the Brits. Australia will need nothing less than a miracle to pull this off. Twitterati was all praise for Joe Denly and Ben Stokes. The fans were disappointed that Denly fell marginally short of his maiden Test century.

Here is how Twitterati reacted: