Star Australia batter Steve Smith is livid with a report in a British tabloid that his teammate Alex Carey didn’t pay the barber after a haircut at a store in Leeds. The Sun carried the report. However, Smith wrote on his Threads account: “I can confirm that Alex Carey has not had a haircut since we were in London. Get your facts right The Sun.” Since Jonny Bairtsow’s controversial dismissal within the second Ashes Test, issues have taken a unsuitable flip for the 2 sides. The Australia facet was closely booed by the Leeds crowd throughout the third Test.

Meanwhile, England’s quest for Australia wickets within the third Ashes Test at Headingley on Saturday was halted by dangerous climate after rain meant there was no play earlier than tea on the third day, with the match final result on a knife edge. Australia have been 116-4 of their second innings, a lead of 142 runs, as they regarded to go 3-0 up within the five-match sequence and safe a primary Ashes marketing campaign triumph in England since 2001.

England had slumped to 142-7 at lunch on Friday earlier than captain Ben Stokes‘s dashing 80 took his facet to 237 all out. That left England simply 26 runs behind on first innings, regardless of Australia skipper Pat Cummins‘s spectacular haul of 6-91.

Stokes additionally hit a blistering 155 within the second Test at Lord’s final week as England suffered a 43-run defeat.

Friday’s innings revived reminiscences of Stokes’s Ashes heroics at Headingley 4 years in the past, when his astounding unbeaten century guided England to a outstanding one-wicket victory over Australia as they posted 362-9 — the second-highest fourth-innings whole to win a Test at Yorkshire’s headquarters.

Off-spinner Moeen Ali adopted Stokes’s run-spree on Friday by taking two wickets for 2 runs in simply 9 balls to take away Marnus Labuschagne and Steve Smith — two of the world’s prime three-ranked Test batsmen.

With AFP inputs