Rain delayed the scheduled 11:00 am (1000 GMT) start of the third day's play in the third Ashes Test at Headingley on Saturday, with the match outcome on a knife edge.

Australia were 116-4 in their second innings, a lead of 142 runs, as they looked to go 3-0 up in the five-match series and secure a first Ashes campaign triumph in England since 2001.

England had slumped to 142-7 at lunch on Friday before captain Ben Stokes's dashing 80 took his side to 237 all out.

That left England just 26 runs behind on first innings, despite Australia skipper Pat Cummins's impressive haul of 6-91.

Stokes also hit a blistering 155 in the second Test at Lord's last week as England suffered a 43-run defeat.

Friday's innings revived memories of Stokes's Ashes heroics at Headingley four years ago, when his astounding unbeaten century guided England to a remarkable one-wicket win.

Off-spinner Moeen Ali followed Stokes's run-spree on Friday by taking two wickets for two runs in just nine balls to remove Marnus Labuschagne and Steve Smith -- two of the world's top three-ranked Test batsmen.

When play resumes, Mitchell Marsh, who has already marked his first Test in nearly four years with a brilliant run-a-ball 118 in Australia's first innings, will be 17 not out and Travis Head 18 not out.

It was their fifth-wicket partnership of 155 that was the cornerstone of Australia's first-innings 263.

The most any side have made to win in the fourth innings of a Test at Headingley is Australia's 404-3 in 1948, when Arthur Morris made 182 and Don Bradman 173 not out during a seven-wicket victory over England.

England are bidding to become only the second team in Test history to come from 2-0 down to win a series after Australia, inspired by batting great Bradman, overturned that deficit to take the 1936/37 Ashes 3-2.

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