Zak Crawley’s brilliant 189 gives England chance of staying in Ashes hunt

• Fourth Test, day two: Australia 317; England 384-4
• Root hits 84 and Moeen 54 to put England on top

This has been an Ashes series of nip and tuck, of ebb and flow, of fine margins and a pendulum that has swung one way and then the other. But on a giddy second day at Old Trafford these themes were burned to the ground by a frankly absurd 189 from Zak Crawley and three sessions of outright English dominance over Australia.

Will it be enough to set up a blockbuster decider at the Oval? The weather gods may yet have their say. But England could scarcely have put themselves in a better position to make it so, their plunderbats having treated Pat Cummins & co with a level of contempt last witnessed from the Fast Show’s competitive dad all those years ago.

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