England vs Australia, 4th Test highlights: Rain washes out Day 5 as Pat Cummins and Co. retain Ashes

Zak Crawley played a brilliant knock of 189 off 182 balls in the 4th Test against Australia. Crawley's sublime knock powered England 592 in 1st innings. He is named the Player of the Match for his stupendous knock!

The fourth Test of the five-match series between hosts England and Australia has ended in a draw. Rain wins in Manchester and Australia have managed to keep its 2-1 lead intact while heading to the final Test of the 2023 edition of the Ashes.

Rain is lashing down and puddles are visible on the field in Manchester. So no drama on the final day of the 4th Ashes Test at Old Trafford. Even the supporters have given up!

Play is unlikely to resume soon as the rain is still coming down hard in Manchester. It's a big possibility that the play will be washed out for the rest of the day.

Thanks to Manchester's infamous weather, England are not in the driving seat of winning the 4th Test. Fresh showers fell at Old Trafford after heavy overnight rain had already delayed the start of the day's play. Ben Stokes' men must win at Old Trafford to square the series at 2-2.

“In England, it doesn't get dark until 10pm. Why not start earlier? Whatever it is, if you need to make overs up, instead of punishing teams for being slow on over-rates, can you find other ways of maximising play and finding chances of getting as much cricket in as possible? Why do you have to have hard and fast rules: why not play until the overs are done?,” Joe Root told the BBC. 

Finally some good news! The covers are slowly coming off and play can resume soon. The next inspection will take place at 12:15 pm local. Thus, the day's play can resume at 1 pm local.

Light drizzle but we are yet to receive a positive update about the day's play in Manchester. The 11 AM local inspection has also been postponed due to rain at Old Trafford. Australia trail by 61 runs on the final day of the 4th Test.

We could have had a result in the match for sure had the weather gods not intervened. But now that they have, there is only one possible outcome: A draw. That is unless England pull off something extraordinary. Yesterday, many expected England to plough through Australia's batting line-up but Marnus Labuschagne's gritty century has brought the deficit down to 61. With five wickets remaining, England would need to dish out one of the best bowling performances of all time and then hope to knock down whatever extra Australia get - all of this, provided there is no rain and a significant chunk of play is possible. Otherwise, The Urn stays with Australia.

Marnus Labuschagne had quite the interaction with a reporter during yesterday's post-match play. He was asked whether if there's any possibility of Australia declaring and pushing for a result. An amused Labuschagne, after initially not understanding the question right, then outrightly refused. He said "No, no chance. Zero". Well, you've got to give the English reporter credit for trying his best to get the inside story but Marnus' answer, like his batting, was crisp as always.

Every English and Australian fan must be refreshing the weather update on their laptops, phones and tabs right now. It was raining until 4 hours ago and it is still. The little ray of hope is that the winds are strong and it's blowing towards north, increasing the possibilites of rain. But even if that happens, we are unlikely to have a full day of play.

Hello and welcome to Day 5 of yet another riveting Ashes Test match between England and Australia. The big-match series has lived up to the hype so far with another Test heading into the final day. However, the conclusion of this Test match promises to be more of a damp squib as there are huge possibilities of rain on Sunday. Yes, the dark clouds over Old Trafford stadium could not have come at a worse time for England and a washout today will ensure a draw and allow Australia to retain The Ashes. The forecast for today looks dull!