Ben Duckett and Zak Crawley survive for 27-0 at stumps after England’s bowlers rip through Australia

England’s late entrants to this year’s Ashes combined on a dramatic Saturday evening to set up the prospect of more Headingley heroics against Australia being completed today.

Rain delayed the third day’s play until 4.45pm but when it finally relented, it provided a perfect window and perfect conditions for England to make inroads.

Recalled bowlers Chris Woakes and Mark Wood responded with a couple of crucial strikes apiece, to open up the prospect of Ben Stokes’ team heading across the Pennines next week 2-1 down and their hopes of a comeback for the ages alive.

That appeared unlikely from a position in this match when they trailed by 121 runs with only three first-innings standing, but another epic finale’s on the cards four years on from the Stokes-inspired chase of 359 that breathed new life into the 2019 series.

This ground has a habit of throwing up enthralling successful chases, in fact, and they are not confined to Ashes contests alone. Last year, England cruised to 296 for three to defeat New Zealand.

Travis Head was caught to end the Australian innings after scoring 77 runs for the visitors 

Ben Stokes and his England side took the initiative after play resumed on Day Three in Leeds

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This time, they need a middling 251 – a target which would have been more modest still but for a ferocious counter-attack launched by Travis Head which temporarily silenced another raucous Leeds crowd, checking the the momentum of four wickets for 39 runs during boundary-laden stands with Australia tail-enders Todd Murphy and Scott Boland.

Things threatened to get worse during that period of flurried activity but the cool-headed Stuart Broad returned to pin Murphy lbw, making him the leading wicket taker in the series in the process, and then claimed Head as his 16th victim when the Australian left-hander finally mishit a short ball, having nailed two sixes off Wood in the previous over.

And in a match that England must win to retain hopes of regaining the urn, openers Ben Duckett and Zak Crawley sliced 27 runs off the requirement unblemished as 7pm sun peaked from behind the clouds.

There is a school of thought among Australians that despite the current Ashes scoreline it is England who have had all the atmospherical advantages this series.

That is not strictly true – the passage of play at Edgbaston when England lost two new-ball wickets under the floodlights, stalling their charge after securing a narrow first innings lead, was a significant factor in Australia scrambling to a two-wicket win.

But yesterday’s gloom-ridden delayed resumption with Australia on 116 for four, 142 runs ahead, is undoubtedly part of a pattern.

First, there was the winning of the toss that presented the chance to England’s swing king Jimmy Anderson and others to exploit the heavy cloud and artificial illumination of the pitch on the opening morning at Lord’s.

Then, after inserting again here in Leeds, idyllic batting conditions invited England to bask in the baking sun for day two’s entirety.

Zak Crawley (left) and Ben Duckett (right) survived the late Australian attack to finish 27-0

Stuart Broad has bowled more deliveries than anyone else across the three Ashes contests

Both those opportunities were spurned, the latter when they lost home heroes Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow in the opening hour and the hosts became reliant on Ben Stokes to get them within 26 runs on first innings.

However, the storms clouds that hung over Headingley yesterday morning – it is hard in recent memory to recall a time when they did not – burst at an appropriate juncture, providing England’s flagging attack with some much needed time off their feet.

Understandably, Wood’s pace had been down on the second day after being asked to return to bowling just two sessions after England dismissed Australia for 263, but here he was almost exclusively back up above 90 miles per hour.

At 37, Broad has bowled more deliveries than anyone else across the three contests and with Ollie Robinson suffering from a back spasm, a prospect of a hard flog with the recalled Woakes lay ahead.

No doubt grateful for the respite, they were not forced into action until deep into the evening session and were greeted by perfect bowling conditions too – moisture lingering and floodlights on.

Woakes did not take long to strike, securing his best match figures in a home Ashes Test in the third over of the day, shortly after five o’clock, when first-innings centurion Mitchell Marsh became his fifth victim.

Marsh was once again looking ominous, greeting the introduction of Broad from the Kirkstall Lane end following a 11-minute delay for a shower with a booming on-drive for four and then forcing Woakes through the off side for another boundary.

Woakes persevered, though, forcing an error next ball when Marsh popped the ball wide of the bowler at catchable height and then following that with one which exploited some uneven bounce in the Headingley surface.

Australia’s Alex Carey arrived to boos and for just five after falling to the inspired Woakes

Marsh attempted to raise his hands out of the way of a rising delivery but ultimately failed as the ball brushed his glove on the way through to wicketkeeper Jonny Bairstow.

And the boos for Alex Carey’s entrance still hung in the air as another attempted leave resulted in a drag-on and an upgrade for Woakes to his best haul versus Australia in Tests anywhere.

Wood then got in on the act, adding to his five-wicket collection of the first innings: Mitchell Starc shovelling a short ball behind square on the leg side and Pat Cummins testing the DRS technology by reviewing the thickest of edges to Bairstow.

Questionable tactics against Head were the only downside of a session which England totally dominated.

Woakes, playing his first Test since Stokes became captain, was making the ball talk from a full length yet he and the rest of the attack ignored that whenever the left-handed Head was on strike, banging it halfway down the pitch instead.

Initially restrained, he later struck his cross-batted strokes with more power and precision than even Stokes had managed in an innings of 80 on day two that kept English hopes of more fourth-innings glory burning.

And they will not lack confidence, given Stokes’ record here and four 250-run pursuits last summer remaining fresh in the memory.

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