Day four

Oh dear.

Even Rain let England down on the fourth day of the opening Test. The forecast was poor, but the rain held off until tea, whereupon it came to the extent that play was abandoned for the day. But it may be too late already.

With the clouds heavy and rain apparent at some point during the day, Australia got a move on. Marcus North went to a hundred after starting the day on 52 while Brad Haddin got there in quick time. It barely seemed five minutes between him raising his bat for fifty to doing so slightly more extravagantly as he notched his ton. The batsmen knew that if they got on with it, then they could stick England in before tea and have a nibble under increasingly dark skies.

Eventually the call came, after Haddin holed out for 121, Ravi Bopara taking the catch off one of Paul Collingwood's cutters. Collingwood was the only bowler not to go for a hundred. He only bowled nine overs, mind, and still went for 38. A really cruel opposing captain would have kept going until he too conceded three figures. 674 for 6 was the score when Ricky Ponting called them in, a lead of 239. Australia could only muster four centurions as opposed to England's five, so there's a note of comfort.

These short sessions such as England had to endure can often be tricky little periods. You're never going to win a game in such a situation, but you can definitely lose one and maybe England did. Mitchell Johnson had Alistair Cook plum in front playing across a straight one and Ben Hilfenhaus got a lucky-ish call for lbw against Ravi Bopara. Hitting him high on the thigh, well above his pad, Billy Doctrove didn't hesitate in raising the finger, despite seeming to be a determined not-outer in Australia's innings. Either way, Bopara was back in the hutch and there's no reason to think Hilfenhaus wouldn't have got him next ball anyway, with it swinging around at good pace. Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Strauss saw out the remaining deliveries until tea and then the rains came.

The forecast for tomorrow is good and, with an attempt to recover time lost earlier in the game, there's at least 98 overs for Australia to pick up the eight remaining wickets they need. Even if England force them to bat again, it's difficult to imagine the chase will be of a suitably sizeable total that will trouble the Australians in terms of time. England have the mother of all battles on their hands to rescue this one.