The much-maligned English weather came into its own as supreme swing bowling in muggy conditions from Andrew Flintoff and Matthew Hoggard dismissed Australia for 367 before bad light curtailed play when England batted.

After two brief sessions of play ended by the murky conditions, England had reached 34-1 and a lead of 40 in the game, with Marcus Trescothick (14*) and Michael Vaughan (19*) unbroken. It is still possible for Australia to win the match and retain the Ashes if conditions on the final day allow a full day's play.

But the fact that England exploited the weather so beautifully to take the last eight wickets for 90 runs has given them a far greater chance of getting the draw they need to regain the precious urn. Australia were unlucky enough to be forced to bat in bad conditions because they needed to force the pace, then be frustrated as England went off the pitch in similar light. Such was the immeasurable value of England's slender 2-1 lead in the series.

Flintoff and Hoggard left the field of play at 1344 arm in arm applauded by teammates and cheered by the crowd, after taking all eight wickets to fall in the day to finish with 5-78 and 4-97 respectively. Both men bowled exceptionally well and, with Australia's vaunted batsmen characteristically struggling to cope with the sideways movement, the innings collapsed.

Flintoff, in particular, was immense. He had already saved England with the bat in the first innings and here he was dragging England back into the game again with a magnificent unbroken spell from 1030 to 1344 only interrupted by lunch. He began by preventing Australia from getting off to a flier with accuracy to rival Glenn McGrath in his pomp, as 10 runs came from the first 6.2 overs. But the most extraordinary thing was how he sustained his pace and aggression throughout an epic spell, holding the crowd captive as only the greatest in any field can do.

With the Ashes on the line he was a man inspired, a man on a mission, riding the waves of crowd euphoria. He took three of the four wickets in the morning session, exploiting variable bounce to force Damien Martyn (10) to hit in the air, trapping Matthew Hayden (138) with a ripping legcutter that brought the rare and generous response of "good ball" from the departing batsman, then producing a lovely inswinger to trap Simon Katich. A fantastic morning session for England was capped by the final ball from Hoggard, a booming inswinger that trapped Adam Gilchrist lbw (23). If any one ball was the most important of the day this was it. Gilchrist had faced only 20 balls for 23 runs and already struck pulls and drives off the meat of the bat, as well as slashing an edge through the slip cordon, all myopically peering into the gloom. He was Australia's best chance of a big first-innings lead that would have put far greater pressure on England's batsmen in the second innings.

Australia trudged off to lunch at 356-6, knowing their dominant position was being squandered. But they were still only 17 runs behind with four wickets remaining.

But after lunch, the Flintoff-Hoggard show resumed and Australia were helpless as the ball did hoops in the air. Michael Clarke (25) should have been out when he nicked a Hoggard away-swinger to Geraint Jones, but he fumbled another chance. But it was not expensive and he had scored only two more runs when a Hoggard incutter trapped him lbw.

It was Flintoff's turn next, defeating Shane Warne (0) with a four-card trick. He was beaten by two big legcutters, surprised by a ball of excessive bounce, then skied the fourth ball off a pull shot. Hoggard wrapped up the innings with an outswinger that was tailor-made for the edge of Glenn McGrath's bat (0), then a cunning long hop that Brett Lee (6) swatted to Ashley Giles at cow corner, where he somehow spotted the ball in the murk and plucked it out of the air running round the boundary. It was that kind of day for England, by far their most inspired of the Test, as they suddenly awoke with keen hunger for the Ashes, realising the prize was slipping away.

When England batted there was real purpose in the strokeplay of Vaughan and Trescothick, knowing that every run took them nearer the treasured goal. However, one warning that more drama might lie ahead came from the ball from Warne that spat out of the footholds to dismiss Andrew Strauss cheaply. There could still be Trent Bridge-like tremors if weather permits a lot of play on the final day and one or two wickets fall early.

11 Sep, 2005