England beat Australia by eight wickets in third test, lead series 2

England cruised to an eight-wicket win in the third Ashes Test at Edgbaston to take a 2-1 lead in the series.

Set 121 to win after England bowled the tourists out for 265 in their second innings on the third morning, Ian Bell guided the hosts home with an unbeaten half-century. And Mitchell Starc scored his 5th Test fifty with a brilliant six.

Cook (7) and Lyth (12) made it through two overs before the interval, but the England captain was cleaned up by a beauty from Starc (1-33) soon after the break.

He thought-about the Australian gamers as novices and stated that it was an embarrassing day for them.

Steven Finn strikes for the 6th time and removes Peter Nevill at 59.

Starc appeared unperturbed by the pressure of the situation though and he pushed Australia’s lead beyond 100 while simultaneously going to his fifth half-century.

Starc went down swinging at Ali as Australia were bowled out for 265.

“It just shows you how badly they played in the first two days”, Shane Warne said on Sky Sports. “It would have been a good test match“.

Umpire Chris Gaffaney felt the ball came off something other than glove. A loud appeal but looks like Broad will have to wait a little more for his 300th wicket.

Anderson was, of course, the man who put England firmly in command with a brilliant display of swing bowling on day one, after Michael Clarke had won the toss and elected to bat.

Josh Hazlewood helped him add another 28, until – in the absence of the injured James Anderson – Ben Stokes struck with his second delivery of the day, the number 10 brilliantly caught by Joe Root high to his right at third slip.

Nathan Lyon could have been out in the same over if Cook had a review left, with a confident lbw shout turned down by Aleem Dar.