24th over: England 62-1 (Crawley 50, Malan 2) Enter Nathan Lyon, who may well bowl unchanged for the rest of the game. He’s got the speed dealers on, two men close-in catching, and two men on the boundary. Crawley punches the first for one and there’s Crawley’s fifty, an excellent innings. This is no doubt the start of something for the young man. It’s his fifth Test fifty - there will be many more. How far can he go here? He looks completely untroubled. Malan is meanwhile defending safely enough. 23rd over: England 61-1 (Crawley 49, Malan 2) Starc replaces Cummins - great win for Crawley there, who put pressure on Australia’s skipper and is rewarded for it. CricViz is saying England are 0% chance to win, a provocative number! That simply defies mathematics, doesn’t it? Meanwhile, Malan works one to the onside for one. Starc then makes Cummins’ mistake and bowls short to Crawley. It’s easily swivel-pulled for four. Don’t bowl on this bloke’s hip. Starc is too straight again and Crawley gets one to leg. Malan manages the remainder. Tom writes in: “Hi Sam, there’s an unsettling, tense badinage between Geoff Lawson and David Gower. There’s definite niggle. Regards, Tom, Drumcondra Library” Tell me more! 22nd over: England 55-1 (Crawley 44, Malan 1) Boland isn’t interested in the short stuff, he’s full to Malan and he’s beating him with a beautiful away swinger (to the left-hander). Some thought of a review, but declined, correctly. Malan then sort of walks at Boland’s next one - to break up his length? - and it strikes his pad, making him look a little silly. Malan was outside the line. The next ball then jumps at Malan and he rides it around the corner - it hit him on the glove and he didn’t know a lot about it. Actually that’s not fair, he hit it down. Boland is on serious song here. The good word is in! 21st over: England 54-1 (Crawley 44, Malan 0) Australia building some pressure but it’s not affecting Crawley. Again he pumps Cummins for four, pulling him to deep backward square for four. It raced to Boland at the boundary, he went with one hand but it burst through. Cummins is back on the money for the next couple. Just one slip now. Crawley pulls Cummins again! Wow. These are the strokes of a confident player. Four runs. This one was in front of the wicket. You don’t see Cummins taken down like this. 20th over: England 46-1 (Crawley 36, Malan 0) So Boland picks up Hameed, which gives him four balls at Dawid Malan. He’s around the wicket, and Malan handles him. He’s taken 12 wickets for the series, and Adam Collins on the radio tells us that he’s drawn level with Pat Cummins on that front. Wow. WICKET! Hameed c Carey b Boland 9 (England 46-1) Carey atones! Didn’t have to move as far but it’s low, to the right, and Carey snaffles it with both hands. Hameed was stuck on the crease, Boland nips one away and it gets the edge. Carey will be relieved, to say the least. 19th over: England 46-0 (Hameed 9, Crawley 36) Crawley flicks Cummins off his hip from the first ball confidently for four. Boland can’t get there. Later on Cummins gets one to kick and Crawley gets his hands out of the way. He responds by clipping Cummins strongly through midwicket for four. He leaves the next. Good over for Crawley, good over for England. 18th over: England 38-0 (Hameed 9, Crawley 28) One from Boland’s over here. He’s finding some bounce, but the defending is assured. Crawley flicks one to mid wicket to keep it ticking over. We’re seeing replays of Carey’s drop. Some suggestion it might be Warner’s? I don’t think so. The angle of Cummins’ delivery means Carey’s bodyweight is slanted the other way, but he made the ground easily enough. Two hands? Possibly came too quickly. His feet looked heavy. 17th over: England 37-0 (Hameed 9, Crawley 27) Cummins thinks he’s taken Crawley’s edge through to Carey, but I don’t think he’s got any friends. Cummins is keen, but no one else seems to be. He opts for everyone else’s view and rejects the review. Snicko confirms his judgment to be correct. Great ball nonetheless. Crawley’s on the front foot thereafter, and he scampers through for one behind point. Green has a shy but Hameed is home comfortably. Cummins then squares Hameed up and beats him on the outside. It angles in and nips away. Next one takes the edge and Carey spills it! He was diving away to the right, he went with one hand, he made enough ground, and if anything went too far. That hurts, big time. 16th over: England 36-0 (Hameed 9, Crawley 26) The SEN Radio team are talking about Australia’s ghosts from the India fixture at the SCG last year. The short ball approach, no wickets in the final session. Katich says “you have to go at the stumps”. Boland is at the stumps here, but Hameed is happy defending and leaving on the front foot. 15th over: England 36-0 (Hameed 9, Crawley 26) Some balls are jumping, others are dying. Some are quickening, others are slowing. But England looks assured regardless. Cummins appears to be going wide, wide, wide, then straightening. Crawley is onto it and handling it calmly. Australia’s captain finds an off stump line at the end and Crawley slightly errs in attempting to turn it to the onside, with a hint of a leading edge. Otherwise, well played. 14th over: England 36-0 (Hameed 9, Crawley 26) Boland gets the first three at Crawley before the opener finds a single to fine leg, then Hameed defends the final three confidently. Judging from this tweet on my timeline, Australia has a few final day demons themselves... 13th over: England 35-0 (Hameed 9, Crawley 25) Crawley works Cummins’ first around the corner for one, a leg bye. A conventional field for Australia. Two slips, a gully, a forward short leg. There’s a short mid wicket, all of which points to some variable bounce. Cummins is straight to Crawley again and he works him for three. His next to Hameed seams back in a fair way, but it’s comfortably left. Hameed plays and misses at the next, and Carey collects it on the bounce. That ball died a quick death. 12th over: England 30-0 (Hameed 8, Crawley 22) Boland kicks things off and there’s a bat-pad appeal straight away, but it’s non-committal. Hameed leaves the next and Carey takes it in front of his face. Continuing the theme, Boland gets another to jump as Hameed comes forward and it raps him on the gloves and chest. The next is much the same, but Hameed deals with it. Good signs for Boland. A maiden. The players are heading out onto the field. It’s overcast, there’s a smattering of people, The Temper Trap’s “Sweet Disposition” is playing for the 4000th time this summer, and we’re nearly there. Australia needs 10 wickets. England needs 358 runs. Andrew Jolly on Khawaja: “I know that Harris scores loads of runs in the Sheffield Shield, Burns and Sibley are the dominant openers in the county championship and still average in the mid 20s after however many chances in tests. I’d probably have given Harris another go for Hobart if Khawaja hadn’t done what he’d done, but to me its an absolute no brainer. To keep him in the side would be a very English move.” That settles it, he must be picked! Andrew Benton with a prediction: “Whatever the result, England need to look as though they’ve been learning. It’s all a learning process, after all. So I predict no whack and thwack batting, nothing risky at all in fact, just a desperate attempt to stave off defeat and bat out the day. But my predictions are usually wrong, and they’ll be giving away those wickets all over the place. They’ll need the rain to save them.” From Kim Thonger: “Top of the time of day there to you Sam. Intrigued by your use of just first names when posting emails. Would Don Bradman, emailing you, be just Don? How would we compare his opinion with, say, that of Donald Duck? The former would, in the cricketing world at least, carry more weight? Ian Botham would, I think, not wish to be confused with Ian McKellen, and vice-versa. No names no pack-drill has its place, but is that place on the OBO? Asking for a friend called Isaac.” Hi Kim Thonger! Look, most people are merely signing off with their first name and I’m taking their lead. To those whose surnames I’ve omitted against their wishes, I apologise! Please email me directly with your full names and I will publish them one by one, line by line. Here’s Matthew via email on Khawaja: I think the Aussie selectors are hoping someone tests positive for COVID in the next week or so (not implausible given the current situation), so they can slot Khawaja in the vacant slot and save a load of grief. This is a very sensible analysis and likely scenario Katich on Khawaja: “I thought the case should have been closed for him to stay in the team for Hobart after the first innings, let alone a second innings. I think he’d done enough in that first innings given the way that he compiled the hundred and then to back it up yesterday, he was on autopilot. We know he’s done the aviation degree but he was certainly batting on autopilot yesterday. It was muscle memory. He was carving the ball through covers, extra point, you name it, he hit it there. He’s just in imperious form. There’s no way they can leave him out for Hobart. No way.” Simon Katich on SEN Radio this morning In the meantime we have an email from Finbar: “Good evening Sam, just wondered if there could be any other approach for England today other than guns blazing? Seems obvious doesn’t it? Nothing to lose and all that.” Graham Thorpe made comments last night setting sights on a draw, so while the suggestion titillates, I think we’re in for a day of dogged defence. Can England do it? I actually think they can. The wicket appears to improve as the day goes on, and Australia do historically struggle to remove the opposition once set. The alternative is they lose a few early and the rest go in a hurry. Khawaja: what to do now? He’s 35 and actualised. His rivals are ... not that. Geoff Lemon explores it all, here. For the sake of argument, I’d love to hear views - especially from the UK - on whether or not Khawaja should continue in the side. My view is that he should. While Australian teams deeply value incumbency when they’re winning, they’re also allowed to improve. Travis Head is a lock, so Marcus Harris looks precarious. So far missing from the conversation is Will Pucovski, who has his eye on the Pakistan tour. What do you think? Is there a case for retaining Harris? Preamble Hello all. Here we go: a fifth day, a docile-enough pitch, 10 wickets in play, and 98 overs to decide whether a whitewash is on or not. At 30-0, England have reason to believe they can – to use footballing parlance – “get something” from the Test. Though it came from an admittedly low base, last night Crawley and Hameed looked as assured as they have all series, and will be keen to continue on in the day’s opening exchanges. As the day wears on and wickets inevitably fall, the visitors, of course, will be relying on a number of guys carrying injury. Each of Stokes, Bairstow and Butler are walking wounded but are expected to bat. It’s a day for close-in fields, strange plans, and digging in. The weather, as ever, is dubious. The morning is meant to be OK, but it’s meant to get worse as the day goes on. Then again, they’ve said that for the last three days and rain has barely intervened. Hit me at sam.perry.freelance@theguardian.com or on Twitter: @sjjperry.