Zak Crawley‘s 189 off 182 balls sent England roaring into the lead at Emirates Old Trafford, giving them hope of beating both a frazzled Australia side and the Manchester weather to square the series two-all.

With rain expected to wipe out the fourth and fifth days, Ben Stokes hinted the day before this Test that England would adjust their strategy accordingly by doubling-down on their ultra-attacking style with the bat. True to their captain’s word, they overhauled Australia’s first-innings 317 inside 55 overs.

And it was Crawley who led the way. He flicked the first ball of England’s innings past Alex Carey for four and, after a shaky start before lunch, he batted with utter disdain against the best seam attack in the world throughout the afternoon. His first Ashes hundred took only 93 balls, the fourth-fastest by an Englishman, and left Pat Cummins and his bowlers floundering.

England scored at a run rate of 7.12 during a heady second session, adding 178 in 25 overs. Alongside Moeen Ali, then Joe Root – who both made half-centuries of their own – Crawley pulled, drove, flicked and slog-swept his way to three figures, then accelerated past 150 after tea.

He fell 11 runs short of a second Test double-hundred, bottom-edging a swing across the line onto his own stumps, but by that stage he had become the leading run-scorer in the series. It served as vindication of England’s faith in an opening batter who had arrived at the ground on Thursday morning with an average below 30, yet has come to represent their progress under Stokes and Brendon McCullum.

Australia were a bowler down by the close after Mitchell Starc damaged his left shoulder while diving in the field. Despite the wicket of Root for 84, bowled by a ball which shot through low from Josh Hazlewood, they lacked any semblance of control; their decision not to field a frontline spinner for the first time in a decade was exposed as a blunder.

There were few signs early in Crawley’s innings of what was to come. He played-and-missed several times against Starc and Hazlewood in their initial new-ball bursts, edging Hazlewood just short of Steven Smith at slip on 12. When Cummins came into attack in the 12th over, Crawley edged his first ball past his own stumps.

He lost his opening partner Ben Duckett to the 13th ball of the England innings, edging Starc’s outswinger behind, and Moeen’s driving outside his off stump was fast and loose as he walked out in his temporary role as a makeshift No. 3. Crawley himself was given out lbw on 20, trapped on the front pad by Cameron Green, but reviewed successfully.

But in the over before lunch, he creamed a trademark cover drive for four off Cummins and never looked back. Carey couldn’t get his hand to a half-chance via the inside edge as he cruised towards a 67-ball half-century, raised with a reverse-swept four off Travis Head’s first ball and celebrated with a swept six off his second.

Moeen reached his first Test fifty since January 2019 when he flogged Head over mid-on, then miscued him in the same direction. Cummins put him down at short midwicket on 53, but he didn’t survive his next ball: Starc went short, Moeen took on the pull, and nailed it straight to the same position, when Usman Khawaja held a diving catch.

Australia hoped that, after a second-wicket stand of 121 in 152 balls, this was where the carnage ended. When Root pulled his first ball behind square for four, then glided his fifth away past gully with an open face, it became clear that it had only just started.

Cummins tried to slow the game down, tinkering with the field multiple times in the same over, but Crawley cared little for changes of plan. He swung back-to-back boundaries off first Hazlewood, then Starc, before threading Cummins through cover to reach three figures. He grinned with arms aloft, as Old Trafford rose to its feet.

By the time Mitchell Marsh – who dismissed him in both innings at Headingley – was brought into the attack, Crawley had 112. England were treating a must-win Ashes Test like an exhibition match: Root reverse-scooped Marsh for six; Crawley slog-swept Head for six more, bringing up a century stand.

Another Root reverse-scoop, this time for four off Cummins, brought him a 45-ball half-century and Crawley went back-to-back once more to raise 150. He swung Marsh over his head for six to put England into the lead, and his dismissal – chopping Green’s round-the-wicket short ball onto his stumps – came from nowhere.

The scoring rate fell after Root’s dismissal, bowled by a grubber that scudded under the toe of his bat, as Stokes and Harry Brook saw out the final stages of the day. Starc’s injury, diving at mid-on, seemed to compound Australia’s problems, even if their management are optimistic about his prospects of bowling on Friday after icing his shoulder overnight.

The portents were ominous for Australia from before the scheduled start of play: by the time the clock in the old pavilion at the James Anderson End had ticked past 11am, Cummins had chipped a tame half-volley from its eponymous bowler straight to Stokes at cover-point, falling to the very first ball of the day.

Chris Woakes celebrated a first Ashes five-wicket haul when Hazlewood edged his fourth ball of the morning to second slip, but he was reprieved by a marginal front-foot no-ball. When Woakes did remove Hazlewood, well caught by Duckett at third slip, it seemed the 18 runs added for the last wicket might prove costly; seven hours later, those concerns were forgotten.