Victory awaits Australia

NORMAL ASHES service was resumed at Old Trafford yesterday as only by the skin of their teeth did the England batsman avoid the indignity of being bowled out in less than two sessions. Instead, they must resume today knowing - and here we must be realistic - that nothing can prevent Australia from taking the Test and squaring the series.

In the morning, armed with the new ball, the England seamers set the agenda by conceding 30 runs from the first three overs, and when Mark Taylor halted the Australian second innings at 395 for eight 20 minutes after lunch, 132 had been added in 37 overs.

Steve Waugh reached his second century of the match, Shane Warne the second half-century of his Test career and the ninth-wicket pair of Paul Reiffel and Jason Gillespie had knocked about the remnants of the attack with an unbeaten stand of 62.

It left England requiring 469, but a more realistic ambition was to try and bat through the minimum 122 overs they could expect to receive.

It did not go well, five wickets going for 84, four of them dismally for 11 runs in five overs,

Gillespie's pace and Warne's twirl, before John Crawley's half century and another exemplary display of doggedness from Mark Ealham saw England through the final 17 overs.

Even Crawley had his good fortune for, on 10, his fierce cut was only parried by Matthew Elliott in the gully. Even so, 130 for five on a wearing pitch and with the weather set fair is not a promising position to start the last day from.

England will have gone back to their hotel last night pondering the difference between a positive attitude, even in adversity, and wantonness.

For more than an hour though, as Mike Atherton and Mark Butcher appeared to have taken the sting out of the new ball with an opening stand of 44, it at least appeared as though Australia would be made to work for their victory.

There was little of the playing and missing of the first innings from Butcher, and when Atherton swivelled and hooked Gillespie into the crowd for six anything seemed possible.

However, Atherton played back to Gillespie to be leg-before, and a sorry procession started that saw Alec Stewart beaten by Warne's flight and dip.

Nasser Hussain was also leg-before to Gillespie (although he might have had grounds for complaint; the ball struck him high on the pad), and Butcher's exhuberance got the better of him, McGrath doing wonderfully well to sprint and dive at long leg to cling on to a top-edged hook.

Even Thorpe, never one to sell his wicket cheaply, got into the spirit, spending nearly an hour over seven and then dabbing tamely at a wide ball going wider and edging it to Ian Healy.

The morning session belonged to Steve Waugh, who had already put Australia in the driving seat with his 13th Test hundred in the first innings. For five hours, he had winced his way through Saturday, playing with no bottom hand after it had been smacked by a ball from Caddick, but still managed to get to 82.

This was one century he was not going to flag away. Singles took him from 97 to 99, and finally a clip through mid-wicket to his second hundred.