For such a joyless ground, Headingley has an uncanny knack of warming the cockles. After Nasser Hussain and Mark Butcher's go-slow yesterday evening, Alec Stewart abandoned the rusty old banger he has been driving of late and hitched a ride on the daredevil dragster of old. The mesmeric accuracy of Glenn McGrath means England may still lose this game, but at least they haven't lost more respect. And they even reached 300 for the first time in nine home innings against Australia. It really was an unconventional day. Yet for the first four overs both teams reverted to type. Hussain was unlucky to attract the sort of grubber that has haunted him throughout his Test career, while Butcher was just careless. To be run out by a yard was bad enough. To do it the over after the dismissal of your captain was even worse.

After that it was a case of four bad shots and one bad decision as England went down kamikaze-style, amid a blaze of strokes and an explosion of bouncers. The 12.1 overs between lunch and tea produced 68 runs and four wickets: not for the first time in the series, Test cricket was doing a passable impression of the one-day stuff.

The touch-paper was lit by Mark Ramprakash, who either side of lunch played with the sort of natural timing and flair that should have made him a regular in the England side for the past 10 years. But it was Stewart who really set the innings alight. A glorious lofted six over extra cover off McGrath into the new West Stand was a champagne-and-caviar moment, but it also hinted at what England might have achieved in the series if they had taken the attack to McGrath throughout, rather than let him dictate terms.

Even so, McGrath was in another league. He's so consistent that even the best cricket writers have been stretched to compare him to anything other than a well-oiled machine. Today he was at his, well, robotic best, and while he snapped up 7 for 76, the bowlers at the other end combined to take 2 for 228, and one of those (Andy Caddick) wasn't even out.

For Stewart, it was the second time in the series that he has found method in madness. At Edgbaston he put on a scarcely credible 103 for the last wicket with Caddick as the bowlers lost their line; now he passed 50 again, revelling against the second new ball (Australia's first of the series) and trusting that ageing eye. It might not be of much use against Harbhajan Singh this winter, but for now it was just what England needed.

They bowled poorly in the evening session after missing Ricky Ponting at slip, but their best chance now is to delay the declaration for as long as possible. Rain may yet have its say.

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