Australia may have completed their fourth victory of the series, but Steve Waugh was full of praise for England's efforts in the latter stages of the fourth Test at Melbourne. "England fought back very well and they had opportunities at five [wickets] down. If they took another wicket, then they were into our bowlers and anything could have happened. I thought England played exceptionally well this morning." Waugh revealed that he was troubled by a migraine shortly before he went out to bat, with Australia at 58 for three and still 49 runs away from victory.

Waugh felt that the turning point of the morning was when he was caught by Nasser Hussain off a Stephen Harmison no-ball when he was on a shaky four. "If that wasn't a no-ball, then England could have gone on to win the match," he said. Waugh admitted that Australian teams had problems in the past chasing small winning targets.

"You get yourself into problems when you don't play your shots and play your natural game, so it was important to go out there and play naturally like Ricky Ponting did," he said. "England bowled very well this morning. They hit the wicket hard and they put pressure on us and that's what Test cricket is all about ... it's never easy to win a Test match batting last, no matter what the total is."

His England counterpart, Nasser Hussain, said he still couldn't believe how his team didn't appeal for a catch that would have dismissed Waugh. Waugh edged Harmison to wicketkeeper James Foster, but amazingly no English fielder appealed amid the noise from the Barmy Army.

The crowd howled when replays on the big screen at the ground subsequently showed a slight deflection off Waugh's bat, but as there was no appeal Waugh could not be given out by South African umpire David Orchard. Waugh was finally out for 14.

"I can't blame them because I didn't hear anything at all at mid-off, if there was any noise [of a snick off the bat] then it was drowned out," said Hussain. "I think a lot of it has to be put down to the noise that the spectators were creating.

"They were roaring Harmy [Harmison] in and I saw a deflection even from mid-off, but there was no noise, we couldn't hear a noise. Foster started to appeal because of the deflection and no one else heard anything and then it came up on the big screen that he looked like he gloved it.

"I was spewing, why didn't we appeal, and then we had a drink and the next ball Harmy ran in again, he [Waugh] hit it to me and I caught it, and I thought 'right, we've got him out now at last' and because of the noise no-one heard Orchard signalling a no-ball."

Hussain said there had to be an appeal to get Waugh out and he was not an advocate of appealing after viewing an incident on the big screen at grounds. "You can't three hours later say ` howzat', and ring them [umpires] up in a hotel room, or something ... that doesn't work."

Hussain described his team's effort in the two hours today as something very special and they showed that their minimal bowling resources could get through the powerful Australian batting order.

"We need to get an early wicket to put Australia under pressure", Hussain declared. "Unfortunately, when one of their openers gets 250 and the other one gets 100 there's not much pressure on the side for the rest of the Test match. That's the key, to get an early wicket."

Australia's victory was Waugh's 33rd triumph in 45 Tests as Australian captain, and it took him past Allan Border's record of 32 victories in 93 Tests from 1978 to 1994. "I haven't thought that much about it," said Waugh. "It's a good achievement, but it's a reflection on the side and the support staff."

But Waugh might not be able to break Clive Lloyd's world record of 36 Test wins as captain, as the selectors may choose to ease him out after the fifth Test at Sydney. Waugh, who will equal Border's record of 156 Test appearances when he plays at Sydney, ranks ahead of his predecessor Mark Taylor (26 wins) and other famous Australian captains, Greg Chappell (21) , Don Bradman (15) and Bob Simpson (12).

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