Steve Smith helps Australia take first-innings lead of 12 runs over England

Gritty halfcentury from premier batter Steve Smith along with vital contributions from captain Pat Cummins and offspinner Todd Murphy helped Australia take a lead of 12 runs against England after being bowled for 295 on day two of fifth Ashes Test at The Oval here on FridayAfter being 1857 at one stage Australia were eventually bowled out for 295 in 1031 overs on the last ball of a riveting day two play and managed to take a lead Smith topscored with 71 off 123 balls and was supported by Usman Khawaja 47 Cummins 36 and Murphy 34Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett will walk out for the start of Englands second innings on day threes play with the real intrigue over who bats at number three following Moeen Alis groin injury which prevented him from bowling on day twoResuming day two from 621 Khawaja and Marnus Labuschagne resumed proceedings with caution and were content in playing defensive shots or leaving deliveries Englandrsquos pacers though made life extremely difficult for Khawaja and especially Labuschagne with runs hard to come byThe hard work finally paid off as England finally had a breakthrough in the first session courtesy of some brilliance from Joe Root in the slips Labuschagnes knock of nine off 82 deliveries came to an end against the bowling of Mark Wood with Smith and Khawaja safely negotiating the remainder of a lowscoring sessionPost lunch England began to find wickets in heap as Broad trapped Khawaja lbw on 47 with the opener also burning a review A couple of overs later Broad struck again dismissing the dangerous Travis Head for four with a cracker of a delivery on the fourth stump line that the batter edged to the keeperTaking out Head also made Broad the leading wickettaker in the ongoing series Australias slide continued when Mitchell Marsh chopped on a James Anderson delivery on 16 after looking in good touch at the creaseThe direction continued to shift as Root enticed Alex Carey into a drive as Ben Stokes held on to his 100th Test catch at short cover to send the wicketkeeperbatter packing for 10 just after slogsweeping him for a six on the previous deliveryAlso Read Cricket quite the gentlemanrsquos gameThe wicket of Mitchell Starc taken by Mark Wood ensured that England had a dream second session to hold a tight grip on the match But Smith went on the attack in the final session with Cummins giving him able support Smith escaped an extremely close runout call and reached his halfcentury continuing his staggering record at The OvalThe vital 54run stand finally came to an end when Smith tried a big shot against Chris Woakes leading to a topedge that was caught by Jonny Bairstow and to be dismissed for 71 Murphy walked out and took the aggressive route by hitting Wood for three sixesHe played an entertaining knock of 34 sharing a 49run stand with skipper Cummins before being trapped lbw by Woakes as the end of the day edged close Cummins was the final wicket to fall perishing on 36 after a brilliant catch from Stokes on the boundary as Australia took a lead of 12 at the end of day twoBrief scoresEngland 283 trail Australia 295 in 1031 overs Steve Smith 71 Usman Khawaja 47 Chris Woakes 361 Joe Root 220 by 12 runsThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever