Cricket does strange things to a person’s brain.
If anything else had you declaring fealty to an English weather monitoring website at 3am, your friends and family may politely suggest you give up that pastime.
But in the context of Test cricket and this fabulous Ashes series, that is perfectly sane behaviour. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. Stop looking at me funny.
With that in mind, say hello to Accuweather. Sure, you can dabble with the Met Office, spend time at BBC Weather, maybe even have a regrettable fling with Google if you’re too lazy to scroll past the search bar. But once you’re ready to trust again, Accuweather is the one.
While everyone else preached a total washout, Accuweather told us we would get some play on day four at Old Trafford in the afternoon, when a break in the rain would allow a full session of cricket before evening downpours threw things back into doubt.
They were spot on. And you have to imagine that’s where Marnus Labuschagne and Mitch Marsh had been getting their morning information too, because they confronted that potentially match-defining period with a surprising calmness. As if they knew what was coming.
With the Ashes on the line in gloomy two-hour session, Labuschagne and Marsh rediscovered Australia’s grit in the nick of time, and have allowed the team to dream again of pulling off an unlikely draw in Manchester.
It was an inauspicious setting for Labuschagne to complete his first century of the series, and the second of his career anywhere outside Australia. But should Australia somehow get out of this mess, this will arguably be the finest moment of Labuschagne’s career to date.
He scrapped through the carnage at the end of day three and then stood tall against both England and the occasion on day four.
When Labuschagne is at his best, he bats like he knows he’s never going to get out. It’s a hard thing to describe, but Steve Smith has it too.
It’s not the same as a Stokesian brashness — where you bat without care for the possibility of getting out — but more a transcendent confidence in his ability to handle anything a bowler could possibly send down at him. It’s almost meditative.
But that version of Labuschagne has been MIA so far on this tour. His outside edge has shone like a beacon whenever he has taken guard, and once the struggles set in he started seeing ways to get out everywhere.
So a backs-against-the-wall, do-or-die innings didn’t seem particularly likely for Marnus when the day began. But he has spent his career defying expectations, so perhaps we shouldn’t have been surprised.
Supported by the unusually watchful but watertight Marsh, Labuschagne looked like himself again at Old Trafford. Defence was secure, decision making was precise and the odd attacking flourish was perfectly executed.
The only disappointment was that it ended when it did. He was 12 minutes away from the tea break and the rain that would eventually end play. Had he and Marsh made it through to the close of play unbroken, Australia’s confidence would be soaring.
As it is, there is still a mountain of work to do on day five. Cameron Green is a lot of things, but he hasn’t yet proven to be a man for this sort of occasion. Alex Carey could be, but his batting has been erratic since he became the most hated man in the UK.
Australia trails by 61 runs, but this is now a game of time. How much of it will be playable, and how much of it can Australia survive?
As ever, Accuweather provides the answers we seek. Or the ones directly related to the forecast, anyway.
It’s going to rain early in the morning, but clear up in time for the start of play. Rain will arrive during the first session, but there will be another period of sun in the afternoon that will allow for a couple more hours of play. Then the afternoon and evening look bleak.
Australia might still have three or four hours to negotiate on day five. That is still a lot of time, a lot of cricket to be played.
Labuschagne and Marsh have proved Australia is up for a fight. But it’s really only just getting started.