0548: CLOSE: Match drawn
The maths has been done. Two balls into the 125th over, Smith declares and the players shake hands on a draw. Easy enough for Australia in the end, England's one small window of opportunity slammed shut pretty quickly after lunch by Smith and Marsh. Decent Test until the last few hours, which were a bit rubbish. Cook, Warner, Smith all brilliant with the bat. Cummins and Broad with particularly noteworthy bowling efforts in the conditions. Last point of order is man of the match, which controversially goes to Alastair Cook.
0535: Marsh gets three for a cover-drive. We're about eight overs from handshakes, and six overs from Alastair Cook's Bob Willis impression.
0527: Just another hundred for Steve Smith then. What an absolute nonsense of a cricketer he is. Just three minutes outside the the four hours bookmarked at 0124. Fifties back to 22, hundreds tick inevitably on to 23.
0522: Smith goes past 600 runs for the series at just 150 apiece.
0515: There is nothing happening. Australia have toughed it out brilliantly today, but there's something wrong with a Test pitch that's flatter on day five than it is on day one.
0500: Smith pulls his 3000th Test run in Australia. At an average of 76.92, which is obscene.
0454: Top shot from Marsh, entitled to have a bit of fun now the main work of the day is done. Rocks back and steers a back-of-a-length delivery from Broad behind point for four.
0446: Good ball from Broad, tailing in late to Marsh and squirted away through square-leg off a thick inside edge.
0441: Anderson draws a genuine edge from Smith, driving outside the off stump. It dribbles along the ground for four.
0438: Marsh's second boundary is identical to his first, cover-driven to the fence. Twenty-one overs until the handshakes.
0434: Back under way for the final session of the Test.
0414: TEA: Australia, 225-4, lead England by 61 runs
Magnificent rearguard from Smith and Marsh in that session, and it's job done for Australia. Marsh is 10 from 97 balls, but one of those numbers is far, far more important than the other. The new ball has been and gone. It's hard to think what any of England's bowlers could really have done differently. Anderson and Broad have been immense again. .
0354: One last burst from Anderson, who has been excellent again today. Goes past Smith's outside edge and turns away with an air of weary resignation.
0340: The lead is past 50. Surely time for a man with a Test bowling average of seven to have a trundle. He's done nothing else this week.
0259: Probably the first genuinely poor ball England have bowled since lunch. It's an attempted bouncer from Woakes, but it's down the legside at 80mph and easily helped on its way to the fine-leg fence by Smith.
0250: Smith and Marsh have achieved their first objective. Anderson and Broad off, Woakes and Curran on.
0241: Marsh off the mark with a cracking cover-drive off Broad. It's a great shot, but England shouldn't mind it.
0237: Marsh solidly defends the last five balls of Anderson's over. He's nought off 19.
0234: Huge slice of luck for Smith! Takes on the short ball from Broad and sends a top-edge high into the legside but finds safety between long-leg and deep square-leg. Broad then goes past Marsh's outside edge again.
0225: New ball due. The next 20 overs decide this match.
0224: Close! England bowling brilliantly since lunch, and it almost brings the wicket as Marsh goes for the big drive and slices a thick outside edge just short of gully.
0217: Big appeal for a catch down the legside against Marsh. England decide not to review - they wasted one yesterday - and it looks like it's just flicked the top strap of the pad on its way through.
0215: Broad now goes past Mitchell Marsh's outside edge. Suddenly looks a bit iffy for Australia.
0211: Really clever old-ball bowling this from Anderson. Goes round the wicket to Smith and then switches back to over. Drags him across the crease - even further than usual - and draws him in to playing at one he could have left. Luckily for Smith the ball beats rather than finds the edge.
0207: We're back for the afternoon session.
0202: Cheers from the Barmy Army as the covers are peeled off.
0138: It's absolutely wazzing it down with rain again in Melbourne. England might have got lucky here; should blow itself out during the lunch break.
0134: The draw hit 1/33 when Warner and Smith were together and looking like they wouldn't get out if they played for a month. But Warner has given England an opening, . You know what? I wouldn't entirely discount Australia at 50/1 if England are left chasing, say, 140 off 35 overs.
0129: LUNCH: Australia, 178-4, lead England by 14 runs
Those two late wickets have just given England a sniff. Scoring runs has been so tough that Australia have only managed to eke out the slenderest of leads in 76 overs. If the new ball talks for England, then you just never know. Still 66 overs to go, and Australia probably need to bat 40-odd to make this completely safe. Absolutely no reason why they shouldn't, but cricket is a silly game. Last seven wickets fell for just 67 in Australia's first innings...
0128: WICKET! Fantastic catch from Bairstow to end the session! He's standing incredibly close on this slow, low pitch, but this edge from Marsh flies through. He instinctively dives left and pouches it in the left glove. Essentially like a goalkeeper making a point-blank save. England just about keeping the game alive.
0059: WICKET! Well that was unexpected. Root brings himself on for a laugh and tosses one up outside Warner's off stump. He's been a model of self-restraint for hours and hours but can't resist this. Slices it high in the air to cover where James Vince takes a simple catch. Lovely birthday present for the England skipper from Warner. Good to see he and Root have truly settled their differences.
0051: Smith slaps a cover-drive through a packed field and collects four more. Plays miles away from his body but his freakish hand-eye coordination means the ball is never going to be anywhere other than right in the middle of the bat.
0050: Warner and Smith came together with a 99-run deficit. They now have a one-run lead. Maths types will notice that means this is a hundred partnership.
0048: Smith slaps a sweep into the ground and bounces it over leg-slip for four. Scores are level.
0045: Stopped raining. Covers off. Players back out there.
0038: Rain Stopped Play. And they're going off. Only decision here is whether there's enough rain for some early lunch shenanigans or just wait it out if it's only going to be a short delay. Forecast nothing like yesterday, shouldn't rain for long here.
0036: Bit of rain starting to fall.
0028: Dawid Malan into the attack. That this is such an obvious and correct move a fair summation of Moeen's current form.
0024: Warner starting to free himself up now. Reckon he's decided the match is now safe. Crashes a cover-drive to the fence and then scurries a quick single as Curran continues to send down a bag of Revels. Slower balls, cutters, seam up. Nothing really working.
0015: Productive over for Australia in the end. Warner also knocking Curran away to the legside for a couple of couples. Deficit down to 26.
0013: Four for Warner from that half-pull he plays. Nailed it this time, but it's a shot that has got him in trouble against England time and time again down the years. England shouldn't mind him playing it.
0003: Moeen floats one up to tempt Warner. Overpitches it, though, and Warner slaps the resulting full-toss easily through the covers for four. Big spell for Moeen even if the match has gone here. Far from certain to play in Sydney as things stand.
0000: England trying everything here, to be fair. They're up against two wonderful players on a pitch that's completely died, though. Now got Broad bowling very straight to Smith with a ring of fielders in front of the bat on both sides of the wicket.
2346: First look at poor old Moeen Ali today. Three singles off his over, which is roughly the equivalent of going for about 20 in normal conditions. It's a decent over, to be fair, with a Smith leading edge responsible for one of those singles. The field's wrong as well, with Warner given easy singles down the ground. See if he's willing and able to hit over the top in this situation, surely.
2342: Genuine chance these two bat out the day without covering off the first-innings deficit. No run in the last three overs.
2327: Fifty partnership for Warner and Smith. Warner's previous slowest half-century, for what it's worth, a 133-ball effort against the West Indies in Roseau five years ago.
2324: Warner battles to 50. Remarkable innings, his slowest Test 50 - 161 balls! - and an innings of real concentration and self-restraint to thwart England. Pretty close to job done for Australia, really. England need to bowl Australia out by tea at the absolute latest, and that looks a near impossible task. The rain and the pitch are going to win this Test.
2321: Rare false shot from Smith, dangling his bat listlessly outside off stump to Anderson and making no contact. Didn't carry anyway.
2317: There is nothing happening for the bowlers in these early stages. and that probably underplays its chances to be honest.
2311: First boundary of the day - there were six scored yesterday - comes for Warner via a thick, safe edge to third-man.
2304: First runs of the morning come from the final ball of the first full over, bowled by Anderson and driven for three by Warner through the covers.
2259: The players are out there, under sunny but slightly cloudy skies. Woakes to bowl the last ball of the over he never managed to finish yesterday afternoon.
2245: It's a red-letter day for England in Australia. There are - surely - only two results possible today, and an England defeat isn't one of them. Having lost 14 of their last 18 Tests here, that's something. Whether they can turn a near-certain draw into victory is another matter. Early wickets the key on what remains a difficult pitch on which to force the issue for bowlers.
0620: CLOSE: Australia, 103-2, trail England by 61 runs
The rain has won. Extended day tomorrow beginning half-an-hour early for England to try and force something.
0541: Thunder and lightning now. Rain pelting on to the covers. Puddles in the outfield. No more cricket today, is my bold prediction. Ninety-eight overs tomorrow for England to try and force a result.
0537: Raining hard again. Given the state the outfield is already in, we could well be done for the day.
0534: Drizzle returns to scupper the planned inspection and, in truth, spare the groundsmen the embarrassment of having to explain how and why they'd left a swimming pool at cover-point.
0517: It's stopped raining and the covers are being pulled back. There's talk of an inspection at 0530 with a view to starting 15 minutes later. Judging by the amount of standing water left on the square after the covers were removed that's... optimistic.
0500: TEA: Australia, 103-2, trail England by 61 runs
All very disappointing. Warner, Smith and the rain have probably combined to scupper the hopes of a consolation win for England here. This isn't the sort of pitch where you're likely to run through a side, and the tourists don't have much room for manoeuvre now if they are to bowl Australia out and knock off what's needed in the time remaining. Still far from certain we'll even get back out there at all today, and the draw price continues to fall; it's now with Australia's whitewash hopes up in smoke at to make it 4-0 with one to play.
0453: Still raining. Tea now at 0500 GMT.
0425: Heavy rain now. The draw all the way in to as a result.
0330: And we're back.
0324: Play to restart at 0330 GMT, no overs lost.
0322: And is quickly as it came, the rain is gone. Big cover being peeled off now.
0118: England go odds-on at the fall of that wicket, now . The Aussies are with the draw on the drift at . Obviously a key partnership now with Warner and Smith at the crease.
0115: WICKET! Classic Anderson, shaping one away from the left-handed Khawaja from around the wicket and collecting an outside edge. Jonny Bairstow does the rest.
0114: Broad beats Khawaja, but the left-hander follows up with a single to take the deficit down to two figures.
0105: Moeen's struggles continue as Khawaja takes him downtown for six and then creams him through the covers for four more. Those are his first scoring shots, which is bold.
0051: WICKET! Another drag-on from Australia! The ball after bringing up Australia's 50 with a beautiful clip off his pads Bancroft inside-edges into his stumps to give Woakes the breakthrough.
0037: Shot of the morning from Bancroft to take us to drinks, pinging a drive straight back through the bowler. Expensive over, with Warner also driving to the fence through cover. The Aussie openers have already knocked off 44 of England's first-innings lead, with Bancroft looking far more secure than in his scratchy first innings.
0032: Comical mix-up between extra-cover and mid-off allows Warner to turn a tight single into an easy three as the two fielders converge on the ball and then leave it to each other. Broad and Stoneman I think the guilty men.
0011: England carelessly burn a review on a gambled caught-behind shout against Bancroft. Tom Curran the bowler wasn't particularly interested, but the cordon were. Nothing on Hot Spot or Snicko, and England's problems detecting edges in this match continue.
0001: First boundary for Warner off a thick and controlled edge from Warner between second slip and gully.
2357: Bancroft gets himself into a tangle against a short ball from Broad, which seems to spark him into life. Pulls the next ball for four and follows that with a glorious straight drive back past the bowler.
2350: Quiet start to the innings, save for Broad's first ball which snaked past Bancroft's outside edge.
2341: Bancroft and Warner out to begin Australia's second innings. Anderson straight back in the action, with the ball this time.
2335: The draw is now favourite, which at this stage can only really be down to the weather forecast given England's lead and the time remaining. It's , with for the win. Australia now to keep their whitewash hopes alive; that's going to take something very Adelaide 2006 now.
2331: WICKET! Anderson caught at bat-pad from the first ball of the morning, but that in itself means another record for Alastair Cook: his 244 not out is now the highest ever score by a Test batsman carrying their bat.
2330: Players are out for the first session of the morning.
2311: They don't waste time at the MCG. The display for the best bowling figures and scores in Tests by home and away players already being updated after Cook went past Viv Richards yesterday. Just waiting on the confirmed final number before the new banner is in place...
0559: Incredibly, the lead is now over 100 as Cook leans into a cover-drive off Lyon and gets three.
0557: The lead up to 98 as Broad hooks to long-leg and scampers through for two.
0555: Four more! Broad just flays Bird through the offside. The hundred is up for Starc's replacement. Also the 50 partnership.
0554: This is pain for Australia now. The runs are coming quickly, the lead is up to 92 as Cook collects two through square-leg and another easy run to cover. It's all just a tiny bit easier for the tailenders with no Starc aiming 90mph missiles at their heads and toes.
0547: COOK REACHES 200! What a stunning innings this has been, and he reached his double in fitting style with yet another thumping drive straight down the ground. Probably the best of the many shots like that he's played today. He goes to 202, meaning he now also has the highest score by an England player on this ground, knocking Wally Hammond off that particular perch.
0541: I said earlier that England needed an 80-run lead to make this an even game when batting last. They've pretty much got it now, with 79 the advantage as the players take drinks. Cook three away from a double-hundred.
0538: Good thinking from Cook. Mid-on is up for Lyon, so Cook runs down the track and clobbers it over him for four. It's not perfectly timed but it's the right tactic. The man drops back, Cook takes the single.
0537: This partnership beginning to become an irritant for Australia. It's now worth 26 as Broad smears one through backward-point for four. It's not very elegant, but it's very effective.
0533: Broad stuck on strike at the start of Hazlewood's over, but the short ball is so obvious now. Backs away and smacks it into the legside for a single.
0528: Broad manages to fend one into a gap - he was literally behind the stumps by the time he played it - and scamper a single. The field comes in, and Cook creams a cover-drive to the fence to move to 190. These are important runs: the lead climbs to 65.
0525: Cook still happy to take the easy single on offer and expose Broad to potentially five balls of Hazlewood. Broad top-edges the first of them over the keeper's head for four, which is handy.
0524: At some point, Australia's bowler might want to consider bowling one at Broad's stumps.
0521: Remarkable yet entirely accidental shot from Broad brings him four. I think he's pretty much tried to get his bat out of the way of this short ball from Cummins, but he's ended up somehow steering it perfectly up and over the slips for four.
0518: Four singles from Hazlewood's over - there's a run every ball for Cook if he wants it, and on this evidence he does - take England's lead past 50.
0514:
0511: Here's a stat for you. Cook has played in every single one of Broad's 113 Test matches. This is only the second time they've ever batted together.
0508: Oof. Huge appeal for caught behind down the legside against Broad, but it's missed everything apart from perhaps jumper. Next ball, the last of Hazlewood's over is a brute of a short ball that thumps into Broad's shoulder.
0504: WICKET! Curran feathers one through to Paine off Hazlewood. Finest of edges, and umpire Kumar Dharmasena didn't spot it. Australia's review was instant, and Hot Spot sends Curran on his way. England eight down, ahead by 46.
0451: Two more short balls for Curran in Cummins' next over. Ducks them both. Follows it up with the full ball, and Curran edges it wide of the solitary slip for his first four runs in Test cricket. Safe enough edge - straight to ground and only one man there to catch it anyway.
0443: Cummins greets debutant Tom Curran to the crease with the most obvious bouncer of all time. Curran ducks underneath it easily enough.
0441: WICKET! Cummins strikes early in the session as Woakes gloves a bumper to send a simple catch looping through to Paine.
0436: Cook begins the evening with a couple of identical clips off his pads for two runs each. Adds a single squirted into the offside.
0433: And we're under way for the final session of the day. If England are still batting at the end of it, then they are in full control of this Test match.
0413: TEA: England, 360-6, lead Australia by 33 runs
Two wickets in the session, but 96 runs to turn a 63-run deficit into a 33-run lead. England probably shading that one despite - or maybe because of - one of the strangest Test innings ever produced by a proper batsman. Moeen's 14-ball 20 will live long in the memory but was, in truth, all a bit sad. He surely can't play in Sydney. Cook, meanwhile, just marches relentlessly on. He's 27 away from a fifth Test double-century and is to get there. That's a price slightly inflated by the still very real threat that the last four wickets fall before he can make it. England, meanwhile, are favourites with Australia drifting right out to . That still looks big to me, but it might just be because I am permanently scarred by what's happened in the last three Tests and every Australia tour I can remember bar 2010/11. England are to reach 450, which really would put them in a good position. Looks a long way off, mind.
0413: Hard-earned and, let's be honest, slightly fortunate 50 partnership between Cook and Woakes at a time when England were threatening to muck things up a little bit.
0406: Another edge, another four for Woakes. Only one slip and a gully for Bird - who has in fairness deserved little more - and a big drive flies off a thick edge into the cavernous gap. The lead climbs to 28, and is now officially "useful".
0404: Lucky for Woakes, but he gets four. Genuine edge flies at catchable height directly between Paine and first slip Smith. Each man leaves it for the other and the ball bounces away for four as Hazlewood howls in frustration. Was probably slightly closer to Smith, and carried to first slip, but you'd still expect a keeper to go for it.
0401: Takes something special to beat a batsman on 171, and Hazlewood produces it here, jagging one past a leaden-footed grope of a defensive shot from Cook. Cracking delivery, and one of the few times in this innings that Cook's footwork has been anything less than secure.
0359: Woakes jumps out of his bunker to collect four for a high-class cover-drive off Bird.
0353: . England need a lead around 80 to offset batting last and make it an even game, for mine. The current lead is 13.
0350: It's been a struggle for Woakes, but he's still there battling alongside Cook on nine from 44 balls. It's a bit different to Moeen's 20 off 14, and probably more useful in the situation.
0334: Marsh continues to bowl to this astonishing slip-cordon-in-the-covers field for Cook. The left-hander smacks one through them for four. Paine now up to the stumps to make everything look weirder still. Cook goes through the cover-slips again, two runs this time.
0330: FIRST-INNINGS LEAD FOR ENGLAND! It's a Christmas miracle!
0329: Extraordinary field here for Cook as Marsh trundles in with his very English medium-pace fare. It's basically a three-man slip cordon, but in the covers. Cook still manages to thread the ball between them for a single. Woakes adds another to bring the scores level.
0231: WICKET! Bairstow gone! Attempts to cut Lyon but can only feather it into the gloves of Tim Paine. Lyon does the business for Australia again. England now in real danger of failing to capitalise on all yesterday's good work. They still trail by 48, and - based on the series to date - Australia are now into the tail.
0230: Cook into the 140s as he rocks back to cut Lyon well in front of square. Gets back for a third easily enough as Khawaja gives chase.
0222: Bairstow looking in good nick after that Perth century. Flicks one wide of Paine's despairing dive for four as Bird gets his line all wrong.
0221: That bizarre Malan lbw did hit him outside the line, by the way. Bad decision from the umpire, bad decision from the batsman.
0214: Cook punches another ball back past the bowler for four. Can't recall ever seeing him score as many runs between bowler and mid-on as he has in this innings. His game really does look in wonderful order again. Amazing how quickly it can change.
0210: And we're back.
0132: LUNCH: England, 264-4, trail by 63 runs
Fairly even session. Australia kept a good grip on the scoring rate until Bairstow came to the crease at least, while both dismissals were a bit odd. Root fell into a trap so obvious it had "THIS IS A TRAP" written on it in flashing letters, while Malan became the second England player not to feel an inside edge on an lbw decision.
The odds suggest it's Australia's session - just. They're from 9/4, England from 13/8.
0128: Bairstow living dangerously, but he's upped the scoring rate. Edges Bird through the gap between second slip and gully for four more to move to 16 at a run a ball.
0119: Bairstow no longer using a blank bat, which is a great sadness, but he's using his run-of-the-mill sponsored one quite nicely in the early stages here. Couple of nice Spartan-endorsed cover-drives bring him a scampered three and then a no-running-required four.
0109: WICKET! Another lbw, another England batsman unaware he's nicked it. Thing is, Malan has absolutely smashed this one into his pads. Incredible that he doesn't realise he's hit it, but that obviously must be the case. To be honest, he probably should have reviewed anyway. Would've been umpire's call at worst on impact I think, so a free review even if he didn't hit it.
0108: Hazlewood takes the new ball straight away.
0107: New ball available for Australia.
0101: Warner currently captaining the side with Smith off the field due to his stomach unpleasantness. Spent most of last night praying to the porcelain god by all accounts.
0054: Bang. Cook drives Marsh through mid-on in glorious style. I'm going to say that's the most attractive shot Cook has played in his entire career.
2300: Yesterday was good, wasn't it? Is it too much to ask for long-suffering England fans to expect the skipper and former skipper to carry on that good work? No, no it is not. England need to get a good lead here but the brutal truth is that it's as likely to end in first-innings parity. But really there's no excuse for England not to forge ahead here. Two greats at the crease, Australia minus their figurehead while we also have to wait and see how Pat Cummins is feeling this morning after yesterday's tummy bother.
0701: CLOSE: England, 192-2, trail by 135 runs
Well that's a lovely end to a quite brilliant day for England. Seven wickets for 67 was tremendous, but to build on it with the bat has been enormously pleasing. Broad, Cook and Root silencing some doubters is so significant. Not for this series, that's gone, but for the future. That's the Broad and Cook retirement talk firmly put to bed. In this Test, meanwhile, . Absolute scenes. Australia and the draw now both shots.
0659: Cook 100! Brilliant innings from the England opener as he smacks another friendly delivery from Smith through the legside for four to reach 103. Stunning return to form, and he now has Test hundreds at all five Australian grounds. Not bad.
0657: Cook latches on to a friendly full toss and punches it through midwicket for four, and then collects two more on the legside to get to 99. Field coming in...
0656: Steve Smith to bowl what might be the final over of the day. Possibly one more to come after it.
0651: Hundred partnership between England's two champion batsmen as Cook tips-and-runs a quick single to cover point.
0648: Root to 49 and the partnership to 99 with a hard sweep behind square off Lyon. Four overs left in the day. It feels weird even to type this, but it's been all England.
0646: Cook into the 90s with another drive straight back past the bowler. This really has been vintage Cook. It's 2010 Cook.
0635: Slice of luck for Root as he bottom-edges an attempted sweep through his own legs and collects four. Guess we have to call that the Rootmeg, against our better judgement.
0631: Having already lost Starc before the match, having only a half-fit Cummins has been a cruel and costly blow for Australia here. Still visibly struggling (still sending them down at 85mph, mind) and Cook picks him off like a vulture picking at a carcass. Two clips to leg bring a pair of runs each before a jabbed cover-drive brings three more. Cook 15 away from a century...
0622: Cook plays a coruscating cut shot off Hazlewood for four, and suddenly all is right with the world.
0603: Edgy four for Root, right off the bottom corner of the bat and bouncing short of a diving Smith who gets a fingertip to the ball but can't prevent the boundary. Probably a bit sore as well.
0553: Fifty partnership between England's two senior batsmen as Cook rocks back to crunch a cut shot off Lyon in front of square to defeat the sweeper and collect four more.
0543: That's drinks. Another 20 overs left in the day, and if these two survive them then this has probably been England's best day of the whole series.
0529: Root into his stride now after a tough start. Steers Bird to the third-man fence and then picks up three for a clip off his toes through midwicket.
0523: Drop! Cook back-cuts Mitch Marsh for four but then gets a huge slice of luck as a regulation edge to first slip is shelled not once but twice by Steve Smith. Paine had just moved up to the stumps the ball before. How much that a) helped induce the edge and/or b) unsighted Smith is one to ponder.
0518: Cummins is off the field again. Not a well man.
0513: Stunning shot again from Cook, driving Mitchell Marsh straight back down the ground for four, his ninth of the innings.
0511: Joe Root's had to work very hard for his runs here, but gets four for a delicate late cut played between slip and gully off a bewildered Hazlewood.
0504: Fifty for Cook, brought up in style with a clip through midwicket for four. He's had a horror series, but this hasn't been a battling-back-to-form innings of the kind we've seen Cook produce before. It's been fluent and high quality. I guess what we've learned today is that blokes with 11000 Test runs or nearly 400 Test wickets do have some idea what they're doing.
0447: It's a really interesting one. It's one of cricket's accepted truths that batsmen always know when they've nicked it. Modern technology shows this is not the case. Vince not the first batsman to get an edge he hasn't felt.
0440: WICKET! James Vince trapped lbw by Josh Hazlewood's first ball after tea. It's full enough and straight enough, and he's given out. Decides not to review, but Hot Spot shows he got a thin edge on it. Would've been overturned. Can only assume he hasn't felt it.
0436: Even better from Cook to make it two fours in the over. Punched through cover off the back foot now. Cummins looks unhappy, albeit it's hard to tell from here whether he's unhappy about the shot or the state of his guts.
0434: Shot from Cook. Rocking back and pulling with real authority through midwicket as Cummins, clearly still some way short of 100 per cent, drags down a gentle 80mph long-hop. Cook to 41 not out, his best score of the series.
0432: Back for the evening session. It will be Cummins to start. Let's hope he's feeling a bit better...
0413: TEA: England, 72-1, trail by 255 runs
Two good sessions for England today then. Broad and Anderson knocked over the last two wickets in quick time, and Cook has looked far better than at any other time in the series. Australia now out to for victory here, while England are in to from massive prices when Australia careered to 102-0 before lunch yesterday.
0408: One more over before tea. Cummins counting down the minutes until he can curl up in the rooms for 20 minutes. He's going through it at the moment.
0352: Another glorious driven boundary for Vince, in accordance with the prophecy. Cummins is back on the field, by the way, but does not look well. Presumably taken some tablets and is out there so he can bowl as soon as he's feeling better about life. Going through it at the moment, though, poor bloke.
0349: Cook looking more like his old self here. Four more for a square-cut slapped behind point.
0348: Cummins has a dicky tummy.
0126: WICKET! Broad has a third, trapping Jackson Bird lbw, and England have had a superb morning.
0120: Jackson Bird off the mark with an edge between keeper and first slip for four.
0116: WICKET! Anderson bowls Paine. It's a third drag-on of the morning. Anderson now goes past Courtney Walsh to 520 Test wickets. Glenn McGrath now the only seam bowler ahead of him.
0115: Broad has the bit between his teeth now. Excellent maiden over to Pat Cummins, including one delivery that somehow misses both outside edge and off stump by millimetres.
0103: WICKET! Broad could have had Marsh lbw first ball, and does so on review 147 balls later. Can only think Umpire Ravi thought there was an inside edge here, because otherwise it was plumb. UltraEdge and Snicko show it's beaten the bat and hit the pad in front of middle-and-off. Ball-tracking does the rest, and Broad has his second wicket.
0053: A boundary apiece for Paine and Marsh in this Moeen over. He's still going for nearly five an over. Just not doing any kind of job for his captain. Tim Paine, meanwhile, has raced to 20 not out in no time.
0045: Moeen still struggling in this spell. Whether it's confidence, or his side injury, or his finger. Whatever it is, it's pretty clear that if England had any kind of like-for-like replacement in the squad then Moeen would not be playing here. But with no Stokes, they can't play Mason Crane in place of Ali without crippling the batting order. Not for the first time, England are paying the price for their refusal to pick Samit Patel.
0037: Fifty for Shaun Marsh. Typically hard-working innings, cashing in on his slice of good fortune from the very first ball he faced.
0027: After all the talk about England needing "genuine pace" to succeed in Australia, both wickets today have come from a lack of it. Great plot twist, and further proof that Test cricket is better than other things.
0021: WICKET! A second drag-on of the morning as Mitchell Marsh chops a short, wide ball from Woakes into his stumps. Again, the pace of the pitch - or lack of it - the key.
0014: Curran straying into Shaun Marsh's pads too often here. Gets picked off for two through square-leg and four to fine-leg.
0007: Now the moment we've all been waiting for. The Marshnership. Mitchell joins Shaun in the middle.
0002: WICKET! And Curran's second ball of the day lands the big wicket. Could have had Warner as his first Test wicket, instead gets Smith! The slow pitch does for the world's best batsman, who drags one into his stumps from well outside off. Curran starts celebrating and then turns to see if the umpire's checking the no-ball, like a striker looking across to the linesman. He's safe this time, and Smith has to go.
0448: England review an lbw shout against Shaun Marsh first ball. Looks close, but height's the issue. Clipping the bails so Marsh survives, but so too does England's review. Marsh pretty lucky there - ball hitting the bails in exactly the same spot as Bancroft's dismissal earlier. Broad suddenly has his tail up.
0132: Warner ends the session by depositing Ali over long-on for six. Hundred up for Australia, and Warner goes to lunch with 83 to his name.
0125: Two more boundaries in the over for Warner, pulling and then glancing Curran behind square on the legside.
0118: Odd shot from Warner, but it brings him four more. Plays back to a full ball from Anderson and sends a thick edge in the air but in the gap and down to third-man.
0113: Warner smears a cut shot in the air but wide of the diving point fielder to collect four more. Not quite going to get to a hundred before lunch, which he's done before, but he's not going to be that far off.
0105: Anderson back, and Warner crunches him down the ground for four, and then picks up three more through the covers. Even Wolverine was impressed on the Aussie coverage.
2301: Australia have won the toss and chosen to bat first on what looks like an absolute belter. Teams confirmed as expected, with only the two enforced changes across the two teams. How close England came to making further changes to their underperforming side we'll never know, but to be honest there are not a great many options available to Joe Root.
2255: Check out our betting preview here, where we controversially go for runs from Steve Smith, while there's also our 10/1 RequestABet.
2245 GMT: Merry Christmas. Here's hoping you've had a better one than the England team, who, for the third time in four trips down here have seen the Ashes surrendered before the turkey has been carved.
The toss is 15 minutes away here, with both teams set to make one enforced change. Tom Curran makes a Test debut for England, Bob Willis presenting him with his cap, while Jackson Bird comes in for Mitchell Starc who has a bruised heel.
The early news from Melbourne is that Moeen Ali has passed a fitness test that presumably consisted of something slightly more than "Is the back-up spinner still Mason Crane?" but only just.