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Australia will hope to retain the Ashes on day four of the third Test at Headingley, requiring seven more wickets to win the match with England still 202 in arrears, but the hosts are not going quietly into that good night.
Set 359 to win after a disastrous first innings of just 67 runs, England seemed ready to hand over the Ashes before day three, but its captain has them dreaming of a miracle win
Joe Root woke up to a slew of headlines calling into question his captaincy, and would definitely have been feeling the pressure as he was averaging just 20 through the first two-and-a-half Tests.
But he made it to stumps on 75 not out and shared in a resilient 126-run, 53-over partnership with Joe Denly (50) that has England in with a chance of tying the series at one game apiece.
It seemed unfathomable before play and even less likely when England's second innings began very much like its first, with both openers falling cheaply and with the Australian quicks bowling beautifully.
Rory Burns was the first to go, edging an angled delivery from Josh Hazlewood to the safe hands of David Warner in the slips cordon.
He was soon followed by Jason Roy, who added another comedy dismissal to his catalogue when Pat Cummins sent down a peach of a delivery, and Roy made it look unplayable as he nearly fell over his feet while the top of his off stump was struck.
Having lost 2-0 in four balls, fears of another collapse would have gone through England as Denly strode to the crease to join captain Joe Root, who was coming off two straight ducks.
But Root and Denly weathered the fired-up opening pair of Hazlewood and Cummins, before a pressure release when James Pattinson and Nathan Lyon struggled to get the same sort of penetration.
Both batsmen were happy to leave and Denly copped a barrage of bouncers, eventually reaching the safety of the tea break with Root on 41 and Denly 30.
Root carried on nudging the ball around the ground after the break and seemed undaunted as he progressed through the 40s and reached a hugely important and pressure-relieving half-century.
Denly joined him in passing 50 — his first time in the series — as the partnership frustrated Australia and gave England hope of an unlikely victory.
But Hazlewood's post-tea spell was a masterclass in persistent Test bowling and eventually broke the pairing with a well-directed bouncer that caught Denly's glove and ballooned to Tim Paine behind the stumps.
It was the lone wicket in a seven-over stint that yielded four maidens, one wicket, three runs and broke a 126-run partnership that was starting to look like a match-winner.
The bad news for Australia is England's best batsmen — Root and Ben Stokes — were still at the crease together at stumps after both put the shots away as shadows lengthened. The good news is England is still more than 200 runs away from its victory target.
Resuming play at 6-171, Australia would have been looking to bat as much time as possible, and with Marnus Labuschagne and James Pattinson at the crease the early going seemed easy enough.
Ben Stokes and Jofra Archer bowled with troubling pace, but the Aussie batsmen added to the score with relative ease — aside from a couple of hairy moments in which Labuschagne was rattled on the helmet.
The partnership was broken by Archer, with Pattinson edging a sharp, low catch to Root, who shrugged off his day-two demons to take the chance.
From there, it was Labuschagne and the bowlers, and the young batsman looked to score quickly in the face of some rapid short bowling.
The bowling was too much for Cummins, who was beaten by the pace of Stokes and skewed a catch to Burns in the gully.
Determined to go down swinging, Labuschagne's bid for a maiden Test century fell short. Trying to turn one into two on a Denly misfield at third man, Labuschagne was caught short of his ground and run out on 80.
Lyon didn't last long, chopping Archer onto his own stumps and setting the target for England to chase.
At the time, it seemed fanciful. Now, the game is alive.
Look back at how day three unfolded in our live blog below.
Topics: ashes, cricket, sport, england, united-kingdom
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