Mitchell Starc’s best still to come on return to Ashes action and DRS woes continue for Tim Paine

Mitchell Starc’s second spell at Old Trafford leaked runs and relieved pressure. He may yet clean up the England tail. He needs to to justify the selector’s decision to play him. Five things we learned.

• Report: Late wickets break England resistance
• Like the Don, Smith takes luck out of equation

Australia ended the third day of the fourth Ashes Test well ahead of the game but were made to work for it by England batsmen Joe Root and Rory Burns.

Pat Cummins was unlucky to miss out on both men’s wickets, but his hard work was cashed in on by Josh Hazlewood late on to leave England still 297 runs behind with five first innings wickets down at stumps and two days play remaining.

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Five things we learned from a day when half of Australia’s bowling attack were exceptional and the other pair were below part for spells.

THE MITCHELL STARC RISK HASN’T PAID OFF, YET

Given his first bowl of the series, the left-arm quick looked to have found some of the control selectors had wanted to see.

Mitchell Starc brought the fire to Australia’s attack but his accuracy and control were wanting.

Starc’s first three overs were maidens, and he shaped the ball nicely. But then the risk factor with picking a bowler who can leak runs reared its ugly head.

Given a second spell, after his teammates had built immense pressure, Starc got hammered. He went for 22 runs in two overs, the score went from 76 to 102, and he didn’t look like getting a wicket.

His figures of 0-41 off 11 overs don’t look too bad, but that includes five maidens, so six of his overs went for 41 runs.

He could yet clean up the England tail, but he’d want to.

NATHAN LYON NEEDS A WICKET TOO

The champion Australian spinner did a power of work, bowling unchanged after tea and poured on the pressure.

Nathan Lyon will hope to exploit favourable conditions at the back end of the Old Trafford Test.

But there were too many pressure relieving balls, and he didn’t get a wicket, despite several near chop-ons from Joe Root, and an edge off Ben Stokes which fell short of second slip.

He finished the day with 0-68, and now has 2-286 since the second innings of the second Test at Lord’s.

He’ll no doubt be locked on from one end at some stage on day four, and with the wicket continuing to spin could yet be the most important bowler in the game.

TIM PAINE HAS TO GET BETTER AT DRS

It could have been a bit of desperation as the Joe Root and Rory Burns partnership neared 150 but an LBW review when the England captain was rapped on the knee was ambitious at best.

Tim Paine’s use of DRS has been consistently terrible throughout the series.

Not only did the ball from Pat Cummins hit Root, who was on 58, outside the line of off-stump, it was going on to miss the stumps too.

It took Paine’s record to zero from 10 reviews with Australia in the field, including the burned one at Headingley which to some extent cost Australia the third Test.

Paine said they’d worked on the process. It’s a process that needs a lot more effort devoted to it.

ANOTHER STEVE SMITH CENTURY

After dominating day two with his third Ashes double-hundred, the Aussie superstar was straight in to the action on day three, too.

Australia's Steve Smith is constantly in the game, with bat in hand or in the field.

Nine balls in to the day’s play, after a lengthy rain delay, Smith took the catch at second slip which sent England’s nightwatchman Craig Overton back to the dressing room. It was Smith’s 100th catch in Test matches, another milestone to add to an ever-growing tally.

His second later in the day took him to five catches behind former skipper Ian Chappell, who snared 105 in 75 Tests.

But Smith remains a long way behind top dog Ricky Ponting who has 196 catches, well clear of Mark Waugh’s 181.

Jofra Archer is learning there’s no hiding place in Test cricket.

ENGLAND ARE MAKING EXCUSES FOR JOFRA ARCHER

After talking a big game coming in to the match, England’s fast bowling weapon misfired, returning figures of 0-97 in the first innings, with all his spells down on pace and not very threatening.

But England’s bowling coach Chris Silverwood jumped to the defence of the Test rookie, playing just his third match.

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“I think we’re just going to be careful with Jofra,” Silverwood told Sky Sports

“He’s playing his third Test match, so we’ve got to cut him a little bit of slack. He’s still finding his way in international cricket. He’s figuring out what it’s all about.

“Test cricket is hard work. You must put the workload in, but it’s there, and he’s trying and we’ve seen what he’s capable of. But he’s not going to do it every day.”