Bazball arrives at its moment of truth

We've been here before. The morning of Day 4 at Headingley with the Ashes on the line. England with a run-chase on their hands. Australia with a series lead and the opportunity to ram the door shut on the hosts.

If anything, it felt like we were here even last week at Lord's. And there's been a deja vu feel to this Test from the moment we arrived in Leeds. The incessant tug of war for ascendancy in the Test from both teams. Multiple collapses. Memorable bowling spells. Considerable movement in the air. Stern interrogations of batting techniques. And quite a bit of rain.

There are subtle differences though. Unlike four years ago and unlike even the second Test of this series for that matter, England are in front. It's their game from here. For a team that fancies itself to chase anything down in the fourth innings, a target of 251, 27 off which they've shaved off already, you'd think is well within range. This won't take a miracle. This shouldn't take a miracle. This wouldn't even require for one of their batters to bat out of their skins to make a match of it. England will believe, maybe even hope, that they won't even need their inspirational captain to have to put that unique garb of his, which combines Superman and Houdini, to save the day.

To the extent that it seems very likely that the match won't last too long if England do get within 150 runs of their target without having lost more than 2 or 3 wickets.

As much as Australia would want to wrap up the Ashes in Leeds itself and enjoy the week off between the third and fourth Tests with the urn safely in tow, you don't have to be a neutral to want this series to stay alive for at least another 10 days. To start with, let's just consider the amount of chances England have had to forge ahead in this series, and the amount of chances that they've let go of to do just that. A dramatic loss for them in Leeds will also mean that we might never really get a clear answer as to whether the concept of Bazball was worth all the fuss in the context of this series anyway.

For, let's face it, going down 3-0 with two Tests to go would certainly signal a rather premature beginning to the post-mortem of Bazball and the bold new world of English Test cricket. Even if it would come across as being a tad unfair. There have been moments after all where it has seemed to work for Stokes and his team with both bat and ball.

They have managed to keep the Aussies in check without letting them dominate proceedings as the current score-line might suggest. A much-needed win for the hosts though will probably make the discussion around Bazball more nuanced than it has been so far, even if the slogan of their approach is to entertain without always focusing on the result.

The fact that this looks like an obvious run-chase from here for England, however, only makes you even more intrigued as to what twists and turns we will witness over the next few hours at Headingley. That's been the theme of this series. You never have been allowed to settle upon where the match is actually heading till the very end.

It was the case even on Day 3, not to forget. Not even so much in terms of what happened but the fact that we even got some cricket to start with. For, by 4 pm, chances of any play looked rather grim, if not improbable. Then against the run of play, there was play. Enough play in fact to hurry up the game even further in what has been a Test match played in fast-forward. And even in the brief session we did get eventually, which included the players walking off the field after only one over, there were enough moments where the game turned on its head to keep you hooked and guessing as to which way it was tending.

There was the double breakthrough from Chris Woakes to set the ball rolling for England. There was the brief partnership between Travis Head and Mitchell Starc to give Australia some hope. Then came an encore performance from Mark Wood to remove Starc and Pat Cummins in the space of a few deliveries. With Australia's lead still under 200 and Wood with four deliveries to knock over the last two wickets, the match seemed to be firmly in England's grasp. That is before Todd Murphy picked 10 runs off those four deliveries while Head added to his list of breath-taking counterattacking knocks, with arguably one of his best, taking down Wood and the rest of the England bowlers. Head and Murphy added 41 before the South Australian reeled off a few more sixes to somehow take Australia's lead to 250.

And for as straightforward a run-chase as many would expect this to be for England today (July 9), you just know there'll be a swerve or two or four at different stages of play. The rain is said to stay clear thankfully too on what will be a pivotal day for the Ashes, and also the immediate future of Bazball, even if it does feel like we've been here before.