12.07pm Right, I've watched enough rain. Here's Gnasher to watch some cricket. Thanks Miller. Here we go...

12.04pm Stephen: "As good as Ali is I don't think we will ever again have a real all round cricketer as impressive as (according to me) Mr Cricket himself Jacques Kallis" I'm inclined to agree. He was a monstrous presence as a batsman alone, yet also chimed in with 292 Test wickets, not to mention exactly 200 Test catches

11.57am Never one to be outdone for long, Gaurav Sundararaman has narrowed those allround parameters and produced a field more elite than Tuesday's 400m final at the World Athletics Championships. Hadlee... check. Procter ... check. Davidson... check. Botham ... check. Imran... check. Moeen ... check..." Kapil and Sir Garry, what went wrong?

Slats: "Nonsense all-rounder stat. Surely it should be judged on match-changing performances; batting, bowling and fielding? Cannot be produced in a statistical enquiry" Lies, damn lies and statistics. A stat is a stat is a stat. And stat's the final word on the matter.

11.53am Johan: "A bit premature on that Moeen allround ranking there. Still a full innings to bowl at the Saffers. Could still end up with a higher bowling average." Or claim 10 for 10 and become a Hedley Verity-esque immortal. The possibilities are endless!

Jamie Dow: "How has the pitch looked towards the end of Eng's 2nd innings? I see a headline saying it's "increasingly capricious". Would you agree from what you've seen?" I would, seeing as I wrote those words! But yes, I expect uneven bounce, oodles of turn out of the rough, and a tough time for batting. That said, the rain on the outfield may soften the ball a touch, so England will want to start well and establish early dominance.

11.43am "Covers slowly coming off," adds Melinda Farrell ... and look, there's even a restart time. Play will resume at 12.10pm. Jolly good, just enough time for a cuppa. And lunch has been pushed back to 1.30pm. Tea will be at 4.40pm, and the close at 7pm - 89 overs now left for the day.

11.41am Jambo: "Moeen has had the 'best' all-round series since Shaun Pollock in 2001. Where 'best' is ranked on the batting minus bowling average for players who have scored 200+ runs and taken 20+ wickets in a series. Gosh, now there's a list of mighty names. And look, he's officially Better than Botham 1981

11.36am "It's stopped raining!" exclaims Firdose, who has donned her sowester to brave the arctic conditions.

saqib: "why dont they load up the XBOX console and start the run chase on DON Bradmon cricket 2017 and just relay the action on the big screen in the ground so the fans dont miss out" It's only a matter of time... eSports are on the march.

11.30am Well, that band of dankness is now determinedly parked right over the ground. The heavy covers are coming out, so we've got a hefty delay in prospect. We do have an extra half-hour already factored into the day's play, so sit tight, we'll get some action soon enough.

Dilip: "Who else is predicting a Amla - Faf Epic and a probable SA win?? I am serious guys..#ENGvSA" Well ... it's not out of the question, but the trouble is, not everyone in South Africa's line-up is as adept at digging in. And it's not just South Africa who have such problems. Remember this rearguard from the winter? 75 for 0 in 50 overs ... 158 all out in 97 ...

Rain stops play... Good (old) Old Trafford, you can always rely on the weather up here. On comes the hover-cover... but no groundsheets just yet.

jim: "I'm starting a pool on how long it will be before Broad goes off for a shower and rub down - I'm guessing after 6 overs" I think he saw you coming, Jim. I reckon he's got the Radox out of his kitbag as we speak

11.21am So, here we go. Joe Root leads England's players onto the field, and gets them into a huddle as they begin what must surely be a victory push ... but nope ... it's raining!

11.14am Well, that was short and sweet. Seventeen deliveries, two wickets, 20 runs. South Africa need 380 to win the match and square the series. Back in a jiffy

Marcus: "Has anyone pointed out that Flintoff's 20/200 was in a 5 match series, MA's was in a 4 match series. Yes, I thought so." ... they have now... 252 runs at 36.00, 20 wickets at 16.10, and the promise of more to come. He has had an immense time of it this year

Uetian31: "Pathetic cricket from England and Moeen at least!! If SA win from here, Its solely because of Moeen's inability to cope the situation and dealing with the tail!!!" Never feed the trolls? Nah, don't buy that. Feed the trolls to the people! This ladies and gents, is Uetian, and he's a clown-doctor.

Stefan Sowerby: "Stupid from Broad, he should have been rotating the strike to Ali not getting out and leaving Ali stranded!" I'm not sure hanging around was part of England's plan this morning. I suspect the day off tomorrow is a greater incentive than Moeen's century ambitions

Brian: "I guess that should be "pause"....." Yeah, applause, pause ... either way, good old Doug has been remembered. And England have black armbands too

So, 17 off the over, spread over two days. Here's Morkel to apply the handbrake

10.57am Looking at how the ball is scooting low, South Africa have little option but to come out and bat positively in their chase. Before that though, there's this simple matter of trying to remove Moeen Ali, who has tormented them all series.

We're all set to go. Any guesses on how Moeen's going to bat today? Kagiso Rabada has four balls to finish from last night. We're set to go

10.55am There will be a minute's applause before the start of play to remember the former England and Essex batsman, Doug Insole, who passed away over the weekend at the grand old age of 91.

10.52am Here's some more required reading before we get underway. George Dobell watches Joe Root bat as if on another planet, let alone another pitch. And some required viewing as well ... Is Moeen Ali the greatest? Calm down, it's only a Polite Enquiry.

10.50am mc: "My predictions for today, half an hour of Moeen whacking it around, SA to be 3 down by lunch and all out shortly after tea, all accompanied by increasingly desperate tweets by ABDV" Ah yes, South Africa's ever-chirpy clown-doctor cheerleader ... Firdose Moonda has been following his Twitterings this summer ...

10.47am Troy: "Interesting points about Woakes being back available, surely the answer is YJB to 5 who looks more than capable, leaving Ali and Stokes to still have a thrash further down the order?" It is an obvious move, although as Nasser Hussain rightly pointed out on Sky, Bairstow at 7 brings with it a daunting air for the opposition - not dissimilar to the feeling his own England team used to get when Adam Gilchrist marched out at five-down. Instead of feeling, 'we're halfway through this innings', there was a sense they hadn't yet begun. That said, Australia never had as many gaping holes in their top five as England are stacking up at the moment.

10.43am Chris in Taunto: "Does George Dobell's statement - "dry here" - refer to the state of his nose or the weather?" George's nose is always wet, like that of a police bloodhound - a sign that his sniffer-dog tendencies are in full working order.

10.40am George Dobell has recovered from his bout of sniffles - he thanks you all for the flowers and grapes - and reports thus from the front line. "Morning. Dry here. dry and grey. like Theresa May. Dawid Malan is bowling a lot in warm-up. Leggies. Looks decent."

10.37am Richard Ward: "Can anyone explain why, when the bowler runs in and doesn't deliver the ball the umpires always signals a 'dead ball'. Well of course it is dead! It's not going anywhere is it? What do they will think will happen if they don't do the wavy knees thing?" Well, the scorers might look at one another and think, 'did we miss something there?' And, in their subsequent confusion, then the fabric of the sport's statistical space-time continuum would be fatally ruptured. I think a bit of wavy-armyness is a small price to pay for peace in the scorebook, don't you think?

10.30am Morning all, and welcome back to Old Trafford for the fourth - and potentially final? - day of the fourth Investec Test. Rain interrupted Moeen Ali in full flow last night, but it's fair to say that his innings was the exception that proved the rule. This pitch is deteriorating quickly, so the best means of defence could turn out to be attack. And that, in turn, could herald a lively finale when South Africa's turn comes to bat some time in the coming couple of hours.

With the likes of Quinton de Kock and Hashim Amla in their ranks, South Africa have the weapons to pull off something extraordinary - while, on the flip side, Faf du Plessis has proven in the past, not least on debut against Australia in 2012 that he can drop anchor with the best of them. But, let's be realistic. England's lead of 360 and climbing is already formidable.

***

5.30pm Play has been called off for the day. No hanging around from the umpires who have just had a quickly look and decided there's no chance of being back on by six o'clock. So that's that. The forecast better for tomorrow - after a wet night tonight - but not so good for Tuesday. It's all in England's court. Can Moeen take the lead to 400? They should have plenty already on a pitch playing a few tricks. How much fight do South Africa have left for the final two days of the series? Join us at 10.30 tomorrow to find out but, for now, from Gnasher, Alan and Andrew it's goodbye and thanks for joining us.

5.25pm Not that England look short of allrounders right now, but Chris Woakes has made his comeback today.

Farhan Ahmed: "The question that should be asked is do Ali,Stokes and Bairstow have a game of rock paper scissors at the beginning of each innings, to decide whose going to do the damage..."

5.20pm Alastair: "I've been arguing for a while now that Moeen is wasted at 7/8. It makes me physically sick that Malan was given 5 before Mo..." All this talk of players wasted in certain positions...do they play well because they are in those positions?

Arvind: "England look like world beaters with the batting lineup and the fast bowling resources they have. I just wonder what makes them lose test matches and series like they do now and then." A flimsy top order, mainly

Philip M McCart: "To have batsmen all the way through to no. 8 is such a luxury ... if, that is, you ignore no.2, no.3, and no. 5 ... :/"

Maaz: "I am strongly of the view that Mo/Stokes play well cuz of the position they bat at. Just YJB maybe has a case for promotion. England's problem currently is the period when the ball is new as every batsman loves playing shots which is difficult given the new ball. No one except Cook is interested and seeing off the new ball."

5.15pm And the players are leaving the field as rain stops play. It's been lurking for a while and the umpires have decided it's too heavy. If the forecast is to be believed, that could well be it for the day. Liam: "Fantastic knock from Moeen so far. Perhaps England should try him at number five next test. Or three. Or two..."

KT: "superAlisgoneballistic SAareatrocious" Well played.