Amid all the overnight fretting about whether England would even be offered chance to win this Test match, it was perhaps ill-acknowledged that they would still have to take it.
On a fourth day bookended by washed-out sessions, the weather gods coughed up just one window, Marnus Labuschagne using it to whittle away at Australia’s deficit with a fine hundred, before Joe Root’s much-needed breakthrough gave England fresh hope.
They will be back tomorrow - again, if a grim forecast permits - five wickets from setting up an Ashes series decider and Australia still 61 runs from making the home side bat again.
England had played three days of nigh-on perfect Test cricket just to tee-up this scenario, spurred into sixth-gear by a win-or-die scoreline and the strong threat of a weekend downpour.
That duly arrived early on Saturday, soaking the outfield and making play impossible until 2:45pm. Damp conditions promised much to England’s seamers, but an old ball and chilly air refused to comply, Labuschagne and Mitchell Marsh settling in with relative comfort and setting to work.
Something close to a full house had filtered through the gates within an hour of the restart, darting in on the tram from Manchester’s centre and suburbs as word spread that the most pessimistic of weather outputs had proved wide of the mark. They did their best, but that the afternoon’s loudest cheer came for the changing of a misshapen ball told of England’s struggle for inspiration.
Labuschagne, frenetic at times in the series, looked at ease as he cruised beyond fifty and onto to easily his summer’s highest score, unruffled even by a bouncer in Mark Wood’s opening spell that cracked into his bottom hand. With little sign of a breakthrough, Ben Stokes turned again to the quick, only for the move to be blocked by the umpires who deemed the light too bad for his pace. Stokes looked unimpressed by the verdict of two men in sunglasses.
With even the gentler seam of Chris Woakes, Stuart Broad and James Anderson barred, Stokes was faced either with walking off or ploughing on with spin. In the circumstances, it was not really a choice. Initially, that looked to be to Australia’s favour, Labuschagne well set and taking a liking to Root’s part-time offies as he hit down the ground twice for six.
There was one scare, a magnificent arm-ball that took his edge and almost the head off Zak Crawley at slip, but this was more like the Labuschagne that has dominated in home conditions for so much of his career, this his 11th Test hundred but only the second overseas.
On 111, though, he came unstuck, trying to cut and instead edging Root behind to Jonny Bairstow, who took a sharp juggling catch. Umpire Nitin Menon may have been right about the visibility after all since he failed to detect any bat, but, not for the first time in the Test, England were vindicated by their review.
Labuschagne gone and the pitch beginning to misbehave, this was briefly a different game, Cameron Green cautious on his arrival at the crease and Marsh put down as Harry Brook failed to hold what would have been a stunning reflex grab at short-leg.
A second wicket before a tea break that turned into stumps would have swung a frustrating day England’s way, and Stokes was convinced they had it off what became the final ball. Not confident in Joel Wilson’s umpiring, the England captain again called on the third, but this time with no luck, Moeen Ali’s delivery spinning past Green’s bat and onto pad before being poached by a diving Root.
And so, for the second night in a row, England will head back to their hotel rooms and turn straight to the Weather Channel, this time with fresh reminder that, even if the skies play ball, there is work still to do.
