Whose victory now?

Lord's Second Test - day four

Preview
Showers swept across the ground, causing the start to be put back 15 minutes, it was cloudy overhead and without pause for more than a moment's detailed consideration Strauss declared, leaving Australia to make 522 to win although their vice captain Michael Clarke , searching for a positive outlook, claimed records were made to be broken. Where did he read that I wonder?

Two no doubt interrupted days with conditions favouring swing seemed to set up an England win long before 188 overs had been completed but - no I cannot believe the Aussies can save the game, much less win.

To lunch

In the short term, England had taken the wickets of the openers and conceded just 76 runs but in the long term Andrew Flintoff, who had had both Simon Katich and Phillip Hughes caught had had to go off for treatment. His spell finished with a considerable limp and there has been a fear throughout this series that his good days might be outweighed by the injury moments.

Whether Strauss's decision to bowl him for seven successive overs was a good one remains to be seen. Both dismissals were controversial. Katich, caught in the gully, may have been out to a no-ball, and Hughes, to a ball which appeared to touch the ball as Strauss caught it.

Ricky Ponting began sketchily and he was hit on the hand but he was in control by the interval and Michael Hussey survived readily.

To tea

When Ponting was out - for another low Lord's score - bowled from an inside edge off Stuart Broad there were immediate signs that an Australian defeat might come today. Two more wickets fell to Graham Swann's off spin: Hussey caught at slip even though TV technology claimed the ball did not hit the edge and Marcus North bowled by a quick ball.

England led at the interval by 178, conditions were helping their bowlers and all the luck was going their way; but Michael Clarke lived up to his pre-innings interview with a series of superb shots through the offside.

To close

Clarke continued down his chosen path and with Brad Haddin put on 185 for the sixth wicket so that when bad light stopped play with the Lord's lights blazing Australia were 313-5, 209 behind and giving every cricket lover the suspicion that there might be a magnificent finish to this extraordinary Test.

They kept the scoreboard ticking by refusing to be daunted by the huge task and taking every single on offer.

England are still favourites although they had to be assembled for a rousing huddle by Strauss as the second new ball was taken. If the Australians win, as they might, it will be a record to end all records and continue the sequence at Lord's in which they have not been beaten since 1934.

Flintoff and Pietersen both finished the day limping; how will they finish the series, if at all?