So, which app are you looking at? And what does that percentage rain bit actually mean?
These are the only questions on England fans’ lips this evening because, surely, only the weather gods can save Australia now.
After a third successive day of, in the circumstances, cricket executed to near-perfection, England are on the cusp of a series-levelling victory, one that would set up the most eagerly anticipated Test match in a generation, an Ashes decider at the Oval next week.
With the bat, England were again ruthless, Jonny Bairstow picking up from Zak Crawley’s 189 on day two, the wicketkeeper beached agonisingly short of a century of his own but magnificent all the same as his 99 off 82 balls took the home side to a gargantuan total of 592, their largest in Ashes cricket since the famous 2010/11 tour.
Later, with the ball, Mark Wood was blistering, claiming three evening wickets including the key scalp of Steve Smith as his 100th in Tests, Australia four-down at stumps and still needing 162 runs to make England bat again.
There are downpours forecast for Saturday, and Sunday looks unsettled, too, but Ben Stokes and his team could have done no more by this point to keep this must-win game’s fate, as much as is possible, in their own hands.
After half-centuries from the captain and Harry Brook swelled England’s lead to 189 by lunch, the assumption was that their return would be brief, Bairstow, with only Stuart Broad and James Anderson to come, given licence for a flay and Australia’s openers kept guessing. As it turned out, so were the rest of us.
Over after over, Stokes stood at the dressing room threshold toying with the idea of a declaration, like a nervous teen hovering at the edge of a dancefloor, always finding reason to wait just one more song. Time might prove of the essence, but with Bairstow ticking, a bit of confidence to be built and a few debts to repay, Stokes, understandably, let the show go on.
It might be easy to draw a line between Bairstow’s stunning catch off Mitchell Marsh on the first evening and this innings, but the trend of a career suggests the theory has substance, each event, for better or worse, influenced by the last. This was the Bairstow that launched the revolution in a summer-long snowball twelve months ago, dispatching those logic-defying punch-pulls for six, bat-face turning down as ball, somehow, flies up. Australia must be losing count of the time spent in this series with nine on the fence standing helpless guard. The longest of Bairstow’s four maximums rendered not only the sentries, but all bar the back row of spectators obsolete, as well.
On the occasions when the No11, Anderson, was exposed, Bairstow’s pickpocketing would’ve made Fagin proud, the non-striker setting off and threatening to beat the odd slower ball to the other end, Carey’s underarm shies nothing like as accurate as at Lord’s.
As after lunch on day two, Australia’s pokerface slipped, the effect of their torment clear as captain Pat Cummins again cast a weary figure, hurling loose deliveries beyond Carey’s reach. This was only the second time ever that the great frontline trio of Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Cummins had all offered triple-figure run concessions in an innings and, on this occasion, all three went beyond 125. Hazlewood, at least, had the consolation of his tenth five-wicket haul.
Anderson was in heady territory, a partnership of 66 the grandest he had been involved in in Test cricket for nine years, and Cummins, frazzled, went as far as to post a deep square fielder after a single crunching pull for four. But with Bairstow on 99, the tailender’s desperation told, Anderson attempting to work an awkward single and hit in front by Cameron Green.
After two such chastening days, a lesser side than Australia might have cried enough, but with rain offering weekend salvation and the Urn as incentive, even the merriest of those in the skeletal Party Stand must’ve expected the the tourists would batten down. By Wood again, though, they were blown away.
Usman Khawaja found even the threat of the quick too much, spooked into poking with uncertainty at a relatively pedestrian 85mph nut, before Smith and then Travis Head were bounced out of the affair. Chris Woakes, who like Wood has had a phenomenal impact in a game-and-a-half, took the other wicket to fall, David Warner caught between nothing and nowhere as he chopped onto the stumps. England, focused and fine-tuned, now look a team on the march.
