After another day of swinging momentum, England finished 176-4 as they chased down a record 354 run target to secure an improbable win in the first day-night Ashes test at the Adelaide Oval.
Skipper Joe Root was not out on 67 with nightwatchman Chris Woakes on 5 at the close of play. Woakes entered the fray after Australia’s Pat Cummins took the late wicket of England’s Dawid Malan, who had followed Alastair Cook (16), Mark Stoneman (36) and James Vince (15) back into the clubhouse in the tourists’ second innings.
Pat Cummins of Australia clean bowls England's Dawid Malan to leave the tourists four wickets down as they chase a record 354 to win the Ashes test in Adelaide, Photo: EPA
Earlier in the day Jimmy Anderson gave England an outside chance with his best haul ever Down Under, claiming 5-47 to restrict Australia’s second innings to 138.
The 35-year-old Anderson and Woakes (4-36) exploited the extra swing and seam with the pink ball, starting with two wickets each under the lights on Monday night, and continuing in the same fashion on day four to ensure no Australian batsman surpassed 20 in the second innings.
That left England needing to beat their record for a successful fourth-innings run chase – 332-7 in Melbourne in 1928 – to win the second test after losing the opener in Brisbane last week by 10 wickets.
England's Jimmy Anderson celebrates his first ever five-wicket haul in an Ashes test. Photo: AP
England lost two wickets in the evening session, which started with a lucky reprieve after Cook was given not out to an lbw appeal when Josh Hazlewood hit him on the pads directly in front of the stumps.
