Marnus Labuschagne, the Australian batsman who scored 100 runs, was bowled by Joe Root, but the return of the rain at Old Trafford dashed England’s chances of forcing a victory in the fourth test match and evening out the series.
Only 30 overs had been bowled by the time the rain started falling again during the rescheduled tea break on the fourth day of the match.
At 17:27 (GMT), the game was over for the day officially.
England has scored 592 runs in their first innings, while Australia has scored 214-5 in their second innings. Australia is still 61 runs behind England.
On Saturday, Labuschagne was the sole batsman for Australia to be dismissed, but not before he had put England at bay with an innings of 111 runs, which was his maiden Test century on English soil.
If England wants to keep their dreams alive of winning back the Ashes, they need to win the fourth and final match of the series at Old Trafford. Currently, England is behind the series 2-1.
The home team should be quite concerned about the dreadful weather that is expected in Manchester for the last day of the match on Sunday.
The visitors led by Pat Cummins were successful in thwarting the bowlers from England, with all-rounder Mitchell Marsh (31 not out) and Labuschagne putting up 103 for the fifth wicket.
However, it was the rare off-spinner Root who was able to get the breakthrough for England. Root came on after the umpires seemed to advise England captain Ben Stokes that it was too dark for him to deploy his fast bowlers.
Labuschagne attempted to cut Root, but all he was able to do was edge the ball to wicketkeeper Jonny Bairstow, who managed to take a juggled catch.
It was first declared that the batsman was not out by Nitin Menon, but an England review of the Indian umpire’s ruling revealed that the batsman had made contact, leaving Australia with a score of 211-5.
When play began on Saturday at 13:45 GMT, Australia had reached 113-4, which meant that they were still 162 runs behind England. England’s first innings included a remarkable 189 from opener Zak Crawley, in addition to Bairstow’s unbeaten score of 99.
Mark Wood, a fast bowler, stunned Australia on Friday by taking three wickets and getting Usman Khawaja, Steve Smith, and Travis Head out of the game. However, the home team struggled on Saturday.
Stokes sent in off-spinner Moeen Ali and bowled him in tandem with Root because he was concerned that the umpires may send the players off the field because of poor lighting, which would have deprived England of even more time to try to force a victory.
By twice hitting Root over long-on for six, Labuschagne brought his team closer to scoring a hundred runs than they had before.
Before a single off Moeen pushed him to a century off 161 balls, he got a fortunate break on 93 when he edged Root past Crawley at slip. This was Labuschagne’s 11th century in 42 Tests.
The rain suddenly started falling again, leaving England with little to do except wait it out in the locker room.
If the fifth and final test match at the Oval next week ends in a tie, then Australia will keep the Ashes regardless of the outcome of the match, given they are the current holders.