Australia 386 and 107 for 3 (Khawaja 34*, Boland 13*, Broad 2-28) need 174 more runs to beat England 393 for 8 declared and 273 (Cummins 4-63, Lyon 4-80)
An Edgbaston Ashes classic is brewing. England batted frantically for two sessions on the fourth day to set Australia a target of 281 to win the first Test, and Stuart Broad took two late wickets to remove Marnus Labuschagne and Steven Smith and leave the game in the balance overnight.
Australia's pursuit started with the biggest partnership of the day as David Warner and Usman Khawaja added 61. But then Ollie Robinson cracked the game open, inducing a thin outside edge from Warner to bring Labuschagne to the crease on a king pair and give the raucous Hollies Stand an early-evening pick-me-up.
The stage was set for Broad, who became the game's protagonist as he bounded in from the Pavilion End. Labuschagne, who had reached 13, was beaten by his first ball and dismissed by his fourth, unable to avoid the temptation of chasing a wide one in the channel outside his off stump which nipped away to take his outside edge.
When Smith walked out, the field was up; so too the volume, as Broad stood at the top of his mark and revved the crowd up once more. Smith swung him away for four, but then edged through to Jonny Bairstow on the bounce and Broad sensed another moment. As Smith shaped to drive through cover, the ball swung in and shaped away off the seam. Bairstow took the catch, Broad peeled away and England had the foothold they were after.
Khawaja walked off unscathed at the close - for the third evening out of four - with nightwatch Scott Boland for company and 174 more required on Tuesday to put Australia one-nil up; England are seven wickets away. With showers forecast in the morning, a tight finish looms in the golden glow of the late-afternoon sunshine.
Joe Root had fought to survive eight balls under thick, dark clouds on Sunday afternoon and decided to free his arms under blue skies on Monday. He attempted to reverse-scoop the first ball of the day over the slip cordon and missed it entirely; he connected with the sixth and seventh, picking up six and then four with the same audacious shot.
Pat Cummins spread the field in a bid to stem the flow as Root and Ollie Pope traded boundaries, but he produced a ball that made his team-mates redundant. From wide on the crease, he sent down a booming inswinger that snuck underneath Pope's bat and ripped his off stump out the ground.
Harry Brook joined Root and made a fast start, picking length early and taking 13 runs from Nathan Lyon's first over of the day. Root himself continued at a quick tempo and by drinks, England had scored at 6.88 runs an over in the morning, adding 93 in 13.3 overs.
But four runs short of his half-century, Root ran past one. He skipped down to a sharply-spun offbreak, looking to heave Lyon up and over the leg side, but was beaten by the turn. Alex Carey whipped the bails off, and for the first time in his 131-match career, Root was stumped in a Test match.
Josh Hazlewood and Lyon dried England up as Ben Stokes looked to play himself into some kind of rhythm. He survived a convincing lbw shout off Lyon which Australia reviewed unsuccessfully, but Brook fell while trying to force the initiative with a pull off the same bowler, straight to short midwicket.
Bairstow was given out in the over before lunch, struck on the pad by a Boland in-ducker, but successfully overturned the decision and tried to push on after the interval, taking Cummins for back-to-back boundaries. His innings proved to be England's latest cameo: trying to reverse-sweep Lyon, he was trapped leg-before.
Australia were on top and tried to turn the screw, appealing in every other over. Labuschagne was convinced he had taken a blinding catch at short leg to dismiss Robinson, only for replays to confirm he had grounded it, and then convinced Cummins into burning their final review when Robinson played-and-missed at a short one.
Moeen Ali slashed Cummins for four then slog-swept Lyon for six, but gloved a pull behind as Hazlewood returned for his second spell to expose the tail. Robinson added 27 useful runs, surviving a short-ball barrage before lofting Lyon straight to Cameron Green at long-on, and James Anderson managed a couple of boundaries then steered Cummins into a sprawling Carey's left hand.
Cummins and Lyon shared eight wickets and struck regularly, with England's batting in a state of hyperactivity. Ten of their 11 batters reached double figures but nobody made a half-century, and the most substantial partnership - between Root and Brook - was worth just 52.
After Khawaja edged Anderson through the gap between Bairstow and Root to pick up a streaky boundary through the slips, Australia's progress was serene. They were aided in no small part by Moeen's struggles with a blistered spinning finger and their seamers' difficulty in finding movement on a slow, dry surface.
That was, at least, until Warner's dismissal prompted that enthralling half-hour passage. If the weather allows, this clash of styles and cultures should go down to the wire.
