It took until late on Saturday afternoon for the skies above Headingley to become clear, and within a couple of hours England’s situation had done likewise: they must score another 224 runs – precisely Australia’s second-innings total – to win this game and keep the series alive, with 10 wickets in hand and plenty of time to do it.
Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett kickstarted the run chase in the five overs they faced before the close, scoring 27 without loss – only once in this series has England’s opening partnership contributed more. This has been a series of plot twists and momentum shifts, but by the end it seemed to have settled in England’s corner.
