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From Stephan Shemilt
BBC Sport at Old Trafford
Exactly on from their past one, England will ask for another day that is best.
In order to conserve the Ashes, an urn they have been desperately clinging to for so long their palms have no 29, they do so again and the nails are ripped in the beds.
A fortnight ago at Headingley, it was win or bust. There was too long left at the Test for it to be drawn. England pulled off a magnificent run-chase, or else they had been beaten.
At Old Trafford, there will be no daring pursuit, no more Ben Stokes endangering audiences with powerful sixes, as they snatch defeat from the jaws of victory no Australians staring blankly into the distance.
It will be about survival – 98 overs of both backs-to-the-wall repulsion of 3 tearaway fast bowlers.
Mere job of the crease, as opposed to trying to win the game, was the magnitude of this task before the overdue carnage of Saturday, when England’s two greatest scorers of the first innings – Rory Burns and Joe Root – were all eliminated in Sunday’s equation by consecutive Pat Cummins deliveries.
At the point, England were just two wickets down to fewer runs than their footballing counterparts were on goals at Wembley.
The Cummins-led drama silenced an Old Trafford crowd which was treated to some day that was the series in microcosm. It was a best hits, except for Stokes doing anything absurd.
There were instances when wickets tumbled and also the pace bowlers of either side appeared irresistible.
Because Jonny Bairstow is constantly bowled, jonny Bairstow was bowled. His stumps are not a fortress to be defended with his own life, than they’re vertical, however the pins in a bowling alley, paying time pumped more.
Because Stuart Broad consistently gets David Warner David Warner was got by stuart Broad. Six times Warner’s third consecutive duck, in eight innings. Broad has created Warner his bunny – he must keep him at a hutch and nourish him lettuce.
Since they will taunt Nathan Lyon the England fans taunted Nathan Lyon. In the party stand, cricket equivalent of a nightclub only with laminate flooring, it might have been necessary to wear three layers for the times that the sun dipped behind a blur, however didn’t stop Lyon being mocked every time that he caught the ball.
His Headingley fumble might nevertheless haunts lyon – he has not taken – but on the other occasion in this series that England attempted through a day that was final to bat, it had been Lyon who bowled them out.
And Steve Smith made runs because Steve Smith makes runs.
Yes, there were times when Broad and Jofra Archer were flooding England fans with belief, actually to the point which each conversation seemed to end with”if we can only get Smith outside”.
However, Smith does not get out. Not cheaply, anyway. And here his sense of occasion failed him. Smith’s selfish love of batting had been the denial of a moment of party whereas the allowance of a mistake or error of conclusion would have routed Old Trafford, Greater Manchester and the country into rapture.
In reality, since he moved through the gears, he proved that he’s more than just maddening ticks, umpteen nudges off the pads and cover drives that his footwork has to allow.
In one Archer over, he performed a short-arm pull like a man whose arms were operated by a puppeteer, followed up with a geometry-bending late cut into a delivery which was on the leg stump and finished with an overarm burst in a bouncer that could have turned into a man playing tennis using a skillet.
In the frivolity of it all he holed out for 82 and looked livid by himself. The announcement came after, letting Cummins to deliver the one-two mix that floored Root and Burns.
Only England have not been very good at saving Test matches. The previous time they batted to save a match Sir Alex Ferguson Smith had to earn a Test ton and Sam Curran was only 14.
They used to do it often. Matt in Auckland and Steven Finn on the 2013 excursion of New Zealand in Dunedin. Graham Onions double in South Africa at 2009-10.
Monty Panesar in Cardiff and James Anderson has been a decade ago this season, if they need Ashes inspiration.
To get something on this ground, they can look to the way the 2005 Australians defied England about the day that tens of thousands were locked out.
And just imagine when they pull it off. A finale at The Oval this summer of all summers genuinely deserves.
Analysis and view from the BBC’s cricket correspondent.

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