Zak Crawley and Joe Root show fight as England battle to avoid Adelaide defeat

England were fighting to avoid an abject Ashes defeat in Adelaide, reaching 106 for two in pursuit of a world record chase to keep the series alive.

The tourists picked up the last six Australia wickets for just 38 runs before lunch, leaving a monumental target of 435 to achieve an almost unthinkable comeback.

The highest ever achieved in a fourth-innings victory is 418, while England set their own best when they hunted 378 against India in 2022.

England’s task looked nigh-on impossible when home captain Pat Cummins made two early breakthroughs, Ben Duckett poking his second ball to slip and Ollie Pope undone by a sensational one-handed catch in the cordon from Marnus Labuschagne.

But Zak Crawley (36no) played with unusual restraint in a sobering stand with Joe Root (37no). At the tea interval the pair had pieced together a stand of 75 to raise hopes of a meaningful fightback.

The scale of the challenge was still a staggering one – another 329 needed over four more sessions on a wearing pitch – but Crawley and Root at least showed their was some heart left in a side who have been dragged through the mire in 10 days of demoralising cricket.

Earlier, their pace attack had relocated its mojo, spearheaded by two wickets for Josh Tongue, who finished with four for 70, and two in two balls for Brydon Carse. Ben Stokes picked up one for 26 in a seven-over spell, having been too fatigued to bowl at all on day three, and Jofra Archer finished things off with his sixth of the match.

It was a brief reminder of how England had envisioned things unfolding when they put this attack together but it was hard to escape the feeling that too much damage had already been done.

Australia had started 356 ahead and every run only increased the scale of the ask. Their top chase Down Under, 332, had already been surpassed and their top Ashes chase of 362 – Stokes’ 2019 miracle of Headingley – quickly followed.

But they were bundled out with surprising haste, going from 311 for four to 349 all out, to leave England’s dysfunctional opening pair with just two overs to face before the break.

That proved too many for Duckett, who clipped his first ball for four then guided his next straight to slip to continue what is fast becoming a horror tour for the left-hander.

Crawley and Cummins engaged in some slapstick tit-for-tat time-wasting in the moments before the lunch break, culminating in a final ball that came perilously close to the outside edge.

Pope scratched out 17, his exact average against Australia, before Cummins found a nick, leaving Labuschagne to produce a magnificent take that energised his whole team.

But Crawley, who had one run from his first 28 balls, refused to be tempted out of his bunker and Root batted with poise for the remainder of a session that ended with England on unexpectedly firm footing.