Glenn McGrath
Ex-Australia pace bowler on BBC Test Match Special

The pitch has played pretty well. A couple have hit the cracks and done a bit, which you'd expect, but apart from that it's not too different to yesterday.

Shot! A good old fashioned cover drive from Moeen, pressing forward and lacing the ball down the field for four. Cummins reminds Moeen not to get too cocky with a snorter that beats the outside edge of his dangling bat.

Mitch Starc has gone off the field, presumably for some more treatment on that bruised heel. He didn't look particularly happy while he was bowling.

Pat Cummins will replace him.

Mostly, hours of waiting for a damp patch to dry.

Play did not start until 05:00 GMT - three hours late - because water leaked through the covers overnight and left some wet patches on the pitch, the most worryingly of which was on a good length.

Cue groundstaff spending the morning - in between countless showers - pointing leaf blowers at the offending patches. It was quite a sight.

This all aided England's hopes of saving the Test and keeping the Ashes alive.

When play got under way, Jonny Bairstow was cleaned up by the first ball he faced, but Dawid Malan and Moeen Ali have resisted for the best part of an hour since then.

England's task now: they have 56 overs to survive. Australia need five wickets.

Image source, Getty Images

Another little shimmy down the pitch from Dawid Malan allows him to work a single off Nathan Lyon.

Tim Paine chirps in Moeen's ear, although Moeen looks, as ever, completely disinterested in what they're saying to him. He presses forward to Lyon, who mixes his speeds up, and plays out a maiden.

You'll all be pleased to know that the sun is now out at the Waca, although it's blowing a gale as Mitch Starc runs in.

Grins all round as Dawid Malan drives at Starc, and an inside edge hits the pad and then trickles past the stumps. Tim Paine's not stopping that one though as Starc beats bat, pad and keeper with another slingy, leggy delivery.

Dawid Malan has definitely changed the way he plays Nathan Lyon. He works the first delivery off his pads and darts straight down the wicket for a single. Moeen, meanwhile, stays circumspect, although he moves his feet around quite nicely.

Image source, Reuters

Chris Elliott: #theashes, external torture continues. They’ve even waited for me to get up for work to start the 5th day so I can witness the pain when it should all be over. Damn you incremental weather (fist shake).

LancsLadofArabia: Projecting a rain dance from Riyadh to Perth.

Steve Smith spends a bit of time tinkering with his field as Mitch Starc comes around the wicket, looking for a delivery like the one that cleaned up James Vince yesterday.

Dawid Malan does well to work the ball over short leg and away for a single, before Moeen smacks a lovely cover drive up towards a fielder. Tim Paine is then forced into a superhero dive to his right to tidy up a bouncer.

Moeen has a brief dance down the pitch but spoons the ball straight towards a fielder. Lyon readjusts and Moeen retreats back into his crease, and pats away a maiden.

60 overs left in the day.

A colleague has just commented that we must be due a bit of rain. It's windy out at the Waca, and those skies look mostly blue to me.

Tim Paine can't be having much fun keeping on this pitch. Mitch Starc spears in a leggy delivery that just takes off as it pitches, swinging the ball even further down leg side and away for four byes.

Another lbw appeal goes begging as Starc strikes Moeen's pad, Moeen toppling over to one side, but that would have swung past the stumps. Starc grimaces as he walks back to his mark. A clip off the pads brings the sole run from the over.

Dawid Malan uses his feet to hustle Nathan Lyon's second delivery through mid-wicket, and Usman Khawaja chases after it. I say chases it - he runs alongside the ball before eventually realising it's getting close to the rope, and he flicks it back just before it goes for four. That looked like it was in slow motion.

There's two left-handers at the crease, so, naturally, here's Nathan Lyon to bowl at them.

Swing for Starc, as he fires a yorker in towards Moeen's toes, but it's a bit leg side, and Starc gives up the appeal.

David Warner is in the thick of things again as Moeen pushes a drive towards cover and the ball rises up at Warner, hitting one of the darker patches in the outfield and nearly hitting Warner's nose. Moeen stays solid, and sees out the over.

A change for Australia. Mitch Starc - who has a bruised heel - is on to bowl to Moeen.

Dan Norcross
BBC Test Match Special

I can see blustery movement in the trees to our left, where the weather has been coming in from.