LONDON: Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins put Australia within touching distance of a 2-0 Ashes lead as they cut through England’s top order during the final session of a day that had earlier been marked by the home side’s unprecedented short-ball plan, which reached reaped rewards but ultimately looked to have no bearing on the outcome. For periods of the fourth day the game almost game to a standstill as Australia ducked and swayed away from bouncer after bouncer, but overall they lost 8 for 92 which, given England’s recent history of chases, including one of 378 against India last summer, offered them a glimmer with a target of 371 in four sessions. However, those hopes were blown away by the brilliance of Starc and Cummins which left them 45 for 4 and the absence of Nathan Lyon, who had astonishingly appeared to bat at No. 11, likely not proving a factor. It appeared they were five down shortly before the close when Starc superbly caught Ben Duckett’s attempted upper cut at fine leg, but the third umpire ruled the catch wasn’t clean as the ball scraped along the outfield, much to Australia’s amazement and frustration. The first wicket of England’s innings was not among the memorable ones as Zak Crawley tickled Starc down the leg side. But Starc was finding movement with the new ball and produced a wonderful delivery which came back sharply into Ollie Pope and clattered middle stump. Cummins, who is no stranger to creating viral Ashes moments, then produced what may go down as the over of the series as he roughed up Joe Root with a delivery which struck his forearm before having him fending to slip. He then produced a ball to take Harry Brook’s off stump which matched the one Root received at Old Trafford in 2019. Australia were two wickets away from England’s bowlers and there was a chance the game could hurtle to a conclusion but Duckett, with his second half-century of the match, and Ben Stokes – who had earlier put his knee on the line with a 12-over bouncer-laden spell – forged a stand of 69 to ensure that there would be room for a few further mentions of Headingley, even though the task of 257 more runs remained huge with a long tail. After briefly trying to find the outside edge when play began, England soon resorted to short-pitched bowling and basically did not shift from it until Australia were all out. The two sessions on the fourth day record the highest number of short deliveries in ESPNcricinfo’s ball-by-ball database going back to 2015. TV graphics showed that 98% of the deliveries England bowled in the second session pitched eight metres or shorter. It was a slow burn of a tactic and created much debate, particularly after England’s previous proclamations of entertainment, but wickets did start to fall. It began when Usman Khawaja’s fine innings, which took him to 300 runs for the series, ended with a top edge to long leg. In what then became a frenetic period, Travis Head was dropped at backward point before he had scored by James Anderson – his second miss of the game – then next ball Steven Smith top-edged to deep square leg. Head soon fended a catch to short leg which was superbly caught by Root as Australia lost 3 for 10 to spark some life into England. Cameron Green and Alex Carey played carefully until lunch then the afternoon session was when the game hit a virtual stalemate, although Australia held a strong advantage the whole time. By and large the pair did not have huge trouble avoiding the short deliveries, although Green was struck on the badge of the helmet by Stokes and a few moments later pulled Robinson to deep square leg after a 13-over post-lunch period which brought 17 runs. Stokes was into one of those marathon spells which have dotted through his Test career – the most famous being at Headingley in 2019 before his batting heroics. Whether this time, with the state of his knee, it was a sensible approach remains to seen and he was clearly grimacing at the crease when he later batted. But he certainly played a role for England as wickets fell at the other end. Carey was another to bunt a catch to short leg – Robinson then ending with a spell of 9-6-7-2 – and Cummins fended to gully after being given a life when Stokes had overstepped. Stokes finally earned a wicket when Josh Hazlewood turned the ball to short leg but the innings was not yet done with its bizarreness. Lyon, unable to use a runner under ICC playing conditions, limped down the steps of the pavilion and hobbled to the middle with his badly damaged calf, which will surely rule him out of the rest of the series. Barely able to stand and unable to walk he helped Starc add 15 runs and managed one pulled boundary himself. Australia may have felt they needed every run available, but the new-ball bursts from their opening pair have meant it will take another extraordinary turn of events for this match to come down to such fine margins.