Rains spoils more than half of day 4 with Australia 135/0 after set 384 target

 

Rain hampers more than 50% of day 4 of the 5th Ashes test as Australia were set a mammoth  384 target after England were bowled out for 395 in their second innings but not before Stuart Broad hit his last ball faced in test cricket for a mighty 6 off Starc . Todd Murphy took the final England wicket by dismissing Anderson lbw  and got his 4th in the innings and 6th for the match . 

Australia started cautiously as usual but both Warner and Khawaja were on the lookout for scoring opportunities against a quality England bowling under cloudy weather and dim light . The pitch generally played very true  as both Warner & Khawaja rotated the strike and picked up occasional boundaries . Khawaja thus learnt his lesson of the first innings when he and Labuschagne did the stonewalling without making any effort of strike rotation for which Australia suffered and could not get a formidable 1st innings  score .

Stokes rotated his bowlers but surprisingly took a long time to introduce Mark Wood , who bowled 3 quick overs and also hit Khawaja on the helmet . However both Khawaja (69*) and Warner (58*) stayed undefeated till the rains arrived as the hosts never really came close to dislodging them . Warner finally making a case for himself to play in his last home summer on the strength of this knock .

With one day remaining , Australia need a further 249 runs to win with all 10 wickets in hand  . It is now a desperate situation for England to beat the rain and force a win on the final day of the series else Australia may win their first Ashes series on England soil since 2001 .

Weather predictions points towards few rainy phases during the final day too which is not great news for England.