Ashley Giles, England's left-arm spinner who took four wickets in Australia's first innings in the Brisbane Test, has uttered the words that will cheer all England's followers, to say nothing of the team management. At the close of the second day he articulated the spirit that helped his side get back as a competitive force in the match by saying, "We'll fight for every run and every wicket."

Giles went on, "We may not be as talented as this Australian team but, if nothing else, we've got plenty of character. As soon as you take your foot off the gas they will hit you hard, so we've got to dig in again. It has been a great partnership between Marcus and Butch but now they need to do it all again.

"We need to get close to the Aussies' score. It's a good wicket; we hope it stays that way for a while and we can get a good score on the board.

"It was fantastic today. After the disappointment of yesterday when we let ourselves down a bit with our bowling and fielding we really fought back today and competed.

"We were pretty low last night after a long hot day in the field but it's a lot better now. The guys are very focused. We've got to get about these guys and we've done that well today.

The England camp will have noted that Australian fast bowler Jason Gillespie only bowled three overs on the second day of the match after returning from a lay-off with a calf injury.

Physiotherapist Errol Alcott explained, "He didn't bowl as a precaution this afternoon. When Jason was batting he went over on his ankle, came straight off at the end of the innings and went out to bowl.

"He started to feel tight in that area after his third over and I hadn't really had time to review it so I asked the captain not to bowl him and give us time to review the situation.

"With all injuries like this we like to look at it again after he has had eight hours rest and then have a look at him in the morning."

Australian captain Steve Waugh admired the way England's openers went about the task facing them. "We always knew Trescothick and Vaughan would go after our bowling early on and all credit to them, they played very well."

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