Head coach Trevor Bayliss believes England can definitely come out of the fourth Ashes Test unscathed despite all odds in favour of Australia going into the final day of the encounter at Old Trafford.
The three lions find themselves 18/2 overnight, still another 365 runs away from the victory but more realistically a day's play away from holding onto a draw with only eight wickets left in the shed. An outcome considered unlikely by many against a high-quality visiting attack.
However, Bayliss said: "Anything is possible. We saw that in the last Test match. We have got a couple guys out there and a few guys in the shed who are more than capable of scoring a hundred. We know it will be difficult on this wicket against this attack but as Ben Stokes showed last week, anything is possible."
"We spoke about last week about who will put their hand up and be remembered. It is another opportunity tomorrow (Sunday) for someone."
"When you lose a couple of wickets like that close to the close of play it is a little disappointing but we are pretty upbeat about what we might be able to do tomorrow. Hopefully, we bat well, save the game and enjoy a beer after," he added.
Steve Smith, whose brilliant 82 helped stretched the Aussies' lead to impregnable proportions, though, said his team won't allow any once-in-a-lifetime knock like Ben Stokes' in Leeds to take the game away and the visitors wouldn't surely meltdown under pressure as they did.
"I think it will be difficult (for England), particularly while the ball is hard. I found when I first went out to the middle, when you bowl a good length, there was enough up and down and sideways movement," he said.
"For us it's pretty clear what we need to do tomorrow, quicks hit the good length, Gaza (Nathan Lyons) hit the rough as much as possible and when he bowls to left handers just pitch it on the stumps and try and hit the stumps as much as possible and bring lbw and caught behind the wicket into play."
"It's just about relaxing and going out and just enjoying it and hopefully executing our skills well enough to bowl England out tomorrow."
(Inputs from Reuters)
