The Ashes: Live coverage of day four of Second Test as Australia close in on victory against England

Ricky Ponting has hit the nail on the head as he usually does.

How good with a Nathan Lyon spell look about now?

“They obviously won’t be thinking about it out there, but we can think about it here. This would have been an ideal time for Nathan Lyon to come into the attack,” Ponting said on Channel 7 commentary.

“We saw some turn and bounce yesterday from Jacks, he’s got a very good record against Stokes as well, has Lyon. And you’ve got a few tailenders after this that I’m sure would look to go after the spinner.”

Cam Green is warming up and looks set for his first overs of the day.

Neser and Doggett have both beaten the outside edge a few times but they don’t look overly threatening.

ENG 6-159, trailing by 18

Starc beats Stokes with an in-seaming delivery and then nearly jags one back into the stumps.

This is a great match-up for Australia and they will need to have it work in this first spell.

The pitch is flat and Stokes is the key to England’s hopes as he loves to go big when his back is against the wall.

ENG 6-148, trail by 29

Four overs into the day, and England - with a small sample size - are showing the kind of commitment and reservation that’s been lacking in their batting so far this series.

There’s been very little aggression as they face a fresh Starc and Boland who haven’t yet provided anything too loose. It’s 6-142, with the deficit down to 35.

It’s Starc from the other end, who strings four dot balls together before Stokes cashes in on one that drifts in toward his toes and clips it - somewhat uppishly - to the midwicket boundary.

The tourists need another 38 runs to make Australia bat again, with four wickets in hand.

Scott Boland is the man with the ball for the day’s first over.

Stokes gets his Sunday account rolling straight up with a dab to midwicket.

Jacks, for what it’s worth, is yet to score beyond 31 in his five Test innings before this match.

We’re set to go as Ben Stokes and Will Jacks stride out the middle at the Gabba!

Stokes has scores of 6, 2 and 19 so far this series, and he’s the only member of England’s top seven not to reach 20. He’s got the weight of the nation on his shoulders today.

Shortly before play on Day 4, Steve Smith has opened up about the tough call to overlook Nathan Lyon for this Test.

“I think the way that Neser in particular batted at 8 with the rest of the tail last night, was outstanding, so we certainly wanted a little bit more batting,” Smith told Seven.

“We thought this wicket and the pink ball, having the opportunity to have five seamers with (Green) as well gave us the opportunity to take 20 wickets.

And we felt like against this batting line up we have the bowlers in the sheds to take 20 wickets. Extending that batting slightly I think has held us in good stead for the game so far, but we’ve still got to finish it off.”

England fans are praying for rain, and there’s some forecast. ‘Showers with storm developing’ is the line from the Bureau of Meteorology, but they’re not expected until the final session of play. The challenge for the visitors is to push the match that far.

Here’s a look at the pitch for Day 4 with Alex Carey talking through his technique in keeping up to the stumps for the likes of Michael Neser in this Test.

Mitchell Starc has been the name on everyone’s lips across the five completed days of this Ashes series.

He’s been stunning with the ball, highlighted by his eight wickets of the 16 to fall for England this match, and his average of 44.5 with the bat is better than any tourist not named Joe Root.

Here’s Mitchell Johnson on his former teammate and discussing the feat of surpassing Wasim Akram’s left-arm record in Tests - and the layers of the veteran’s career so far.