The Ashes: Alastair Cook, Kevin Pietersen resurrect England after Starc's double blow
Cook and Pietersen added an unbroken stand of 69 runs for the 3rd wicket as they saw England through to stumps on Day 2 after Ashton Agar's heroics with the bat stole the show for Australia.
England were 80 for two in their second innings, a lead of 15 runs, at stumps on the second day of the first Ashes Test against Australia at Trent Bridge on Thursday.
England captain Alastair Cook was 37 not out and Kevin Pietersen 35 not out.
Earlier Thursday, Australia's Ashton Agar fell agonisingly short of becoming the first Test match No 11 to score a century when he was dismissed for 98.
The 19-year-old, making his Test debut, was in sight of three figures when he holed out off Stuart Broad to Graeme Swann at deep midwicket.
His innings was the highest score by a Test match No 11, surpassing Tino Best's 95 for the West Indies against England at Edgbaston last year.
Together with Phil Hughes (81 not out), Agar shared a Test-record last wicket stand of 163, topping the previous best of 151 shared jointly by Brian Hastings and Richard Collinge for New Zealand against Pakistan at Auckland in 1972/73 and Azhar Mahmood and Mushtaq Ahmed for Pakistan against South Africa at Rawalpindi in 1997/98.
Agar's exit saw Australia all out for 280 in reply to Ashes-holders England's 215, a first innings lead of 65 runs.