England are on the brink of defeat in the Ashes series with 11 days remaining after stumbling to 207-6 en route to a Test record of 435 to win the third Test in Adelaide.
Ben Stokes’ side actually enjoyed much of the fourth day in good form, but dropping only three wickets in the final hour of play put Australia firmly back on top.
Nathan Ryan (3-64) did the damage, bowling out Harry Brook (30) and the England captain for five before Zak Crawley (85), who had played well, stumbled. Three wickets fell for 17 runs in the space of six overs.
Pat Cummins (3-24) removed England’s top order first and Ben Duckett (4) slipped in in the second over, but Marnus Labuschagne’s sublime diving catch low to the left could spell the immediate end to Ollie Pope’s England career as he dropped 17 just after lunch.
Joe Root (39) joined Crawley at the crease and the duo put on 78 for the third wicket to give England’s miracle chase a brief glimmer of hope. Cummins then took the key wicket of Root in the second over after tea, and Lyon took center stage towards the end of the session.
Australia started the day with a lead of 356 runs at 271-4 in the second innings, but their hopes of slamming England into the dirt in a few sessions to signal a declaration were dashed by the visitors’ energetic bowling performance.
Travis Head helped push Australia over 300 after a brilliant performance in his 11th Test ton on the third day, taking his score to 170 before holing out with a deep square leg over Josh Tan (4-70).
Stokes (1-26) did not bowl at all during the first 66 overs of Australia’s innings, but he ripped a seven-over spell at the start of the day, taking the wicket of Alex Carey, 72, who was caught in a slip of foot, allaying fears of a possible injury.
Australia’s rear-end offered little resistance for once after that, with Tongue adding Josh Inglis (10) to his individual score and Brydon Kearse (3-80) completing his hat-trick with back-to-back deliveries from Cummins (6) and Lyon (0). Jofra Archer (1-20) then expertly caught and bowled Scott Borland (1) to end the innings, with the hosts’ last six wickets totaling 38 runs.
Still England were left with a record chase of 435 to keep Ashes alive, a task made all the more difficult as Duckett’s disastrous series continued with pokes to slip.
But it was just a catching exercise for Labuschagne, and his cries to send Pope off were timeless, sparking frenzied scenes of celebration.
Crawley and Root quickly silenced the Australians with an impressive stand up to tee time, but just after the interval Root meekly clipped a shot dangled wide of off-stump by Cummins.
Crawley lasted until the 21st Test 50, and Brook helped build another promising partnership, albeit typically unenthusiastic at points, as had been the case throughout the series.
He eventually lost his wicket while attempting to reverse sweep a pass from Lyon, but went too straight to shoot and the ball bounced off the leg stumps of a bewildered Brook.
Stokes soon followed, and Lyon erased any threat of Headingley-style heroics from the England captain with a beauty of a delivery through middle and leg, turning and beating the outside edge to hit the top.
Crawley followed next, but his resistance was thwarted by further clever work by Carey behind the stumps as he was lured into the carriageway by Ryan and crawled out of the crease.
Jamie Smith (2nd) and Will Jacks (11th) managed to survive the final half-hour to stumps and at least make it to day five, but with 228 still needed for victory, England’s Ashes hopes hang in the balance.
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