Close Australia 324 for 2 (M Waugh 48*, S Waugh 12*) Bad light stops play
From the moment Steve Waugh condemned Nasser Hussain to his 14th toss loss in a row, this was Australia's day. On his return to the side Justin Langer scored a century of nuggety grit and left the field only when Andy Caddick cracked him on the side of the head; if you looked closely you could see that the blood was a sickly shade of baggy green. There were also half-centuries from muscly Matthew Hayden and regal Ricky Ponting. England were outclassed, but you had the feeling they were still dreaming about Headingley: this was their most half-hearted performance of the summer.

England's hopes of an early breakthrough were snuffed out by an opening session that was slow as previous ones had been Formula 1. Australia reached 66 by lunch and their only real heart-in-mouth moment came when umpire Willey gave Matthew Hayden, on 26, not out after Caddick trapped him plummer-than-plum in front. Hayden has been on both ends of the series' worst lbw decisions, but this time he made the most of his reprieve.

After lunch he decided to go after the bowling, taking 14 off Caddick's second over and sweeping Phil Tufnell from outside off stump. Hayden moved to his first fifty of an unfulfilled series by driving Tufnell for three, and the more compact Langer followed him there with a rare moment of expansion, lifting Tufnell over midwicket for six.

Then, in the third over after a 25-minute break for rain, Hayden flat-batted Tufnell straight to Marcus Trescothick at deep midwicket for 68 and it was 158 for 1. The pitch was turning now, and Jimmy Ormond, who had begun with a tight 10-over spell of seam for 22 runs, bowled three unthreatening overs of off spin. When he reverted to type, Ponting clattered successive bouncers for to the midwicket fence.

It was 203 for 1 at tea, and Australia were just warming up. Langer moved to his eighth Test century with three fours in four balls (loft over long-on, sweep, cut) off Tufnell, before Ponting took off-side boundaries in consecutive overs from Darren Gough and Caddick with trademark back-foot punches.

Langer's gutsy knock ended - temporarily at least - when Caddick bashed him on the helmet, but the entrance of Mark Waugh merely upped the aesthetic pleasure without compromising the scoring rate. He went poetically down on one knee to steer Gough wide of point, then clipped him behind square leg with a subtle turn of the wrists. Ponting pulled and flicked Caddick for boundaries in the same over, and the runs were overflowing when Waugh cut and straight-drove a distracted Tufnell for two fours in the next.

So it was a surprise when Ponting pushed at Ormond and was caught by Mike Atherton at first slip for an almost inconspicuous 62 (292 for 2). Steve Waugh emerged in the gloom to prove that torn calf muscles don't mean a thing, and Mark brought up the 300 by cutting Ormond's slower ball through the covers.

It was a glum day for England. And Australia are unlikely to declare this time.

England 1 Mike Atherton, 2 Marcus Trescothick, 3 Mark Butcher, 4 Nasser Hussain (c), 5 Mark Ramprakash, 6 Usman Afzaal, 7 Alec Stewart (wk), 8 Andy Caddick, 9 James Ormond, 10 Darren Gough, 11 Phil Tufnell

Australia 1 Matthew Hayden 2 Justin Langer 3 Ricky Ponting 4 Mark Waugh 5 Steve Waugh (c), 6 Damien Martyn, 7 Adam Gilchrist (wk) 8 Shane Warne 9 Brett Lee 10 Jason Gillespie 11 Glenn McGrath

Lawrence Booth is assistant editor of Wisden.com

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