Il Nuovo Postiglione - Crawley's maiden Ashes ton revives England in fourth Test

England reached 239-2 at tea, having scored 178 runs in just 25 overs during the second session. Crawley alone had added more than a hundred runs, going from 26 not out to be an unbeaten 132.

Joe Root was 44 not out, with England just 78 runs behind Australia's first-innings 317 in a match the hosts, 2-1 down with two to play, have to win to maintain their bid for an Ashes series victory.

The unbroken stand of 109 was the second major partnership of the innings after Crawley and Moeen Ali (54) had put on 121 for the second wicket following the early loss of Ben Duckett.

Both Crawley and Moeen repeatedly played and missed outside off stump as they rode their luck against world Test champions Australia's pace attack.

Moeen had been in red-ball retirement until the start of this series but was recalled following Jack Leach's season-ending back injury. He was only batting at No 3 after Ollie Pope was ruled out from the remainder of the Ashes with a dislocated shoulder suffered in the second Test at Lord's.

Two successive deliveries on Thursday summed up Moeen's recent batting form as he became just the fourth England player after Ian Botham, Andrew Flintoff and current team-mate Stuart Broad to complete the Test 'double' of 3,000 runs and 200 wickets.

Moeen luckily edged Australia captain Pat Cummins past gully for four to go to 3,000 runs before driving the fast bowler's next ball for an elegant boundary.

Crawley had made 20 when given out lbw to all-rounder Cameron Green, but the batsman's review indicated the ball would have missed leg stump.

Both Crawley and Moeen accelerated after the interval with Travis Head's part-time off-breaks proving expensive in a return of none for 48 in six overs.

Head was bowling after Australia had dropped Todd Murphy. It was the first time they had gone into a Test without a specialist spinner in 11 years.

Crawley went to fifty when he reverse-swept Head for four before sweeping the next ball in more orthodox fashion for six.

Moeen then exceeded many pre-match expectations by completing a 74-ball fifty.

Having been dropped on 53, he fell for 54, well caught by a diving Usman Khawaja following a fierce pull off Mitchell Starc.

Crawley went into the 90s with a slashed cut off Starc that sped to the third man rope before reaching 97 with a textbook cover-driven four off the left-arm quick.

A more sedate two off Cummins took the 25-year-old Crawley, a standard-bearer for England's aggressive 'Bazball' style under captain Ben Stokes and red-ball coach Brendon McCullum, to a 93-ball century. It included 12 fours and a six.

The Kent batsman's second fifty had come in just 26 balls.

Amid the run-spree, Cummins appeared to lose control, taking an increasingly long time to set the field, with Root's reverse ramp six off all-rounder Mitchell Marsh a sign of England's growing confidence.

Earlier, Chris Woakes completed his first five-wicket haul against Australia. The Ashes-holders were dismissed after resuming on 299-8 following a frustrating Thursday, when none of their batsmen made more than the 51 achieved by both Marnus Labuschagne and Marsh.

Unsung first-change Woakes had led England's attack with four wickets, as veteran seamer Broad had hogged the headlines by becoming just the fifth man to take 600 Test wickets.

James Anderson, England's most successful Test bowler of all time, had gone wicketless Wednesday.

But with Thursday's first ball, delivered from the end named after him on his Lancashire home ground, Anderson had Cummins caught for one by Stokes at cover-point.

Woakes then had last man Josh Hazlewood caught off a no-ball before removing the No 11 with a legitimate delivery to give him a return of 5-62 in 22.2 overs -- the 34-year-old seamer's fifth five-wicket haul in 47 Tests.

D.Ricci--INP