Ricky Ponting was understated in his reaction to a day which saw Australia take a vice-like grip on their old enemy in the second Ashes Test at Adelaide, and a personal score of 154 to help them do it. Ponting shared a 242-run third wicket stand with Damien Martyn (95).

"It was another pretty good day," Ponting said. "We fought back hard on the second day and did really well today. Our main goal was to get through the morning session with as little damage as possible and we managed to do that and post a big first innings.

"I was not that happy with the way I batted. I didn't hit that many balls in the middle but I occupied the crease for a long time and had a good partnership with Damien and that has put us in a good position.

"It was not getting any easier to bat and we still had wickets in hand and we wanted to bowl at them tonight, which is how it worked out. We scored quite quickly through the course of the game and we set the game up and hopefully we can bowl them out tomorrow.

"It was a nasty little session (for England). It is always hard to bat in those sort of situations when you have been out in the field for a day-and-a-half. That was the reason behind our declaration and it worked for us."

Meanwhile England all-rounder Craig White urged his team to stay positive, while admitting that the loss of three wickets before the close was a damaging blow to their slim hopes of saving the Test.

"It's not an ideal situation for us losing three wickets at the end," he conceded. "The people who got out are pretty down, but we've all got to front up tomorrow, it's another day and we've got to try and stay as positive as we can because we have a massive challenge ahead of us now.

"We have got a bit of batting to come. You can only do your best and try to save the Test match. They've proved they are the best team in the world and all we can do is try and compete against them, control our game and put the ball in the right areas and as batsman try and be positive and try and play some decent cricket."

White confessed to some sympathy for his sister Andrea, wife of Australian batsman Darren Lehmann, at having to watch him dismiss her husband earlier in the day.

"It was a strange situation," White said. "It's Test cricket and I'm trying to get him out and he's trying to hit me for runs - I'd just like to know how my sister was feeling at the time. At first all I could think about was celebrating a Test wicket and then it sunk in and I wondered how Andrea was feeling at that moment."

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