READ MORE: <\/strong>Australian cricket mourns death of iconic wicketkeeper<\/strong><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p>\n READ MORE:<\/strong> Coach's harsh truth to Souths after 'embarrassing' loss<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n If Ben Stokes and his men are to salvage victory to square the series at 2-2, they will have to return to Old Trafford and clean up the remaining five Australian wickets, and possibly also erase a small deficit.<\/p>\n If Pat Cummins' men hold on for a draw despite being comprehensively outplayed in Manchester, they will retain the Ashes urn.<\/p>\n Stubborn Australian batsmanship was critical after England, propelled by Zak Crawley's 189 from 182 and Jonny Bairstow's 99 from 81, piled up 592 all out and a lead of 275 to elevate the hosts to an unbeatable position.<\/p>\n Since the departures of Usman Khawaja (18 runs), David Warner (28), Steve Smith (17) and Travis Head (one), defiance in the middle has been even more crucial.<\/p>\n Until Australia's second dig of the Old Trafford Test, Labuschagne had had an underwhelming series, having only mustered scores of \ufeffzero, 13, 47, 30, 21, 33 and 51.<\/p>\n What followed was his 11th Test century, his first since last December, his first overseas since last July and his first ever on English soil.<\/p>\n Every ball of the Ashes will be live, free and exclusive on<\/strong> 9Now<\/strong><\/a>, and if you miss any of the action you can find full highlights and exclusive replays after every day's play<\/strong> here<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n His task became easier 58 overs into the innings, when the umpires told Stokes that he could no longer bowl his quicks because of poor light, visibly agitating the skipper.<\/p>\n Stuart Broad and James Anderson were replaced by Moeen Ali and Joe Root, and while Labuschagne and Marsh must have been delighted to be avoiding England's champion seamers in cloudy and sticky conditions, the\ufeff spinners troubled them.<\/p>\n Root enticed Labuschagne's outside edge on 93, but the ball rocketed over Crawley at first slip\ufeff. The opener flung his left arm above his head but, realistically, had no chance of taking the catch.<\/p>\n The 29-year-old brought up his century when he danced onto his back foot, prodded a Moeen delivery into a vacant cover region and scurried through for a single.<\/p>\n Labuschagne eventually fell for 111 after trying to swat a Root delivery through the off side, only for the ball to smack into Jonny Bairstow's gloves. Umpire Nitin Menon turned down a raucous England shout, but the hosts reviewed and UltraEdge showed a spike on the top edge of Labuschagne's bat.<\/p>\n A huge amount of rain will again pelt down on Old Trafford on day five.<\/p>\n Whether any cricket will be played, and whether England can claw victory in the event of cricket being played, will be answered.<\/p>\n For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/strong><\/em> clicking here<\/strong><\/em><\/a>!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n
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