England were left waiting on the rain as their push for an Ashes series-levelling win against Australia in the fourth Test at Old Trafford on Saturday was delayed by bad weather.
This is a must-win match for England, currently 2-1 down with two to play, if they are to regain the Ashes.
They headed into the fourth day of five in a commanding position with Australia 113-4 in their second innings, still 162 runs behind England’s imposing first-innings 592.
England are effectively six wickets away from a win that would square the series at 2-2 heading into next week’s fifth Test at The Oval in London.
But persistent rain was still pelting down on Old Trafford — with the pitch and square fully covered — when play should have resumed at the scheduled start time of 11am.
There are now fears that rain on both Saturday and Sunday could scupper England’s bid to draw level, with Old Trafford notorious for weather interruptions — the Manchester ground has had 24 complete days rained off in Test cricket, plus an additional two entire Tests abandoned.
England restricted world Test champions Aus-tralia to 317 in their first innings at Old Trafford, with Chris Woakes taking 5-52.
Then, scoring rapidly, England passed 500 in a home Ashes innings for the first time since their 1985 series win over Australia.
Opening batsman Zak Crawley’s 189 laid the foundation in an inning where six of England’s top seven all made fifties, with Jonny Bairstow left stranded on 99 not out when last man James Anderson was lbw on his Lancashire home ground.—AFP
