Brisbane Test, Day 3
Saturday, November 9, 2002 Today may have been an anticlimax for England, but Australia did exactly as I'd expected. They tidied up the discipline of their bowling and, after an aggressive start yesterday, they took a couple of slips out and put an extra man in the covers and another on the leg side. That combination of an improved bowling effort and fewer gaps made the runs harder to come by, and the chances came.

Australia still had to take those opportunities, and they did that today – their fielding was much better. But it was good bowling that was the key, especially Jason Gillespie, who found that uncertain, front-footish length to the lefthanders. He's the expert at that and kept the slips interested at all times. I don't know what treatment he received for his calf injury, but I guess he just had to get out and do a job after making himself 100% fit and available for this match. He was a bit ginger at first, but I thought he was fantastic today. But Glenn McGrath struggled a bit, despite his four wickets. He was consistently short of that ideal length.

The pitch certainly helped, as it has retained its bounce, although it is getting more and more variable as the match progresses. But ally that to a great line and length and you're always going to create problems. England lost five wickets for 50 at the end of their innings, much as Australia did yesterday.

Another indication of Australia's dominance was the fact that none of the England batsmen made a century. There was never any let-up – it's a hard slog, over by over, against this attack, and you can never quite settle in. One day though, one or two of the English batsmen are going to get past 100, and then maybe there'll be no looking back. But today they lost wickets in pairs, which was a bit of a worry – they need to concentrate on building partnerships more regularly. Still, they fought back each time it happened, and proved there's a fair spirit in this side.

Australia have a lot of weapons to choose from, and with the pitch starting to play up, spin is going to come into play before long. Actually, I think the wicket is about half a day early in its deterioration. The state it is in now shouldn't really be reached before tea on the fourth day. It's not ideal, but it's a pretty good Test-match wicket.

England have got a longish tail which is another worry for them, and unless they can get runs from Craig White they are going to have trouble this series. Giles is an honest batsman – and he seemed to get an unfortunate decision today – while Caddick can be dangerous on his day. Then there's Hoggard and whoever comes in for Jones. It's not the strongest line-up, and you can be sure Australia will target them fiercely.

England were still a bit unclear and patchy when they bowled second-time around. Their objective had to be to keep the runs down and eat into the time left in the match, which in turn would have raised their prospects of taking wickets. Instead they were too impatient – they tried to grab wickets and there were too many loose balls on offer which the Aussies put away. Langer had four boundaries in his first 20, Hayden is not in superlative form but has still strolled to 40. England bowled on two lengths and two lines.

Stephen Waugh won't be worried about the declaration just yet. Even if they bat normally for the first session, they'll still be leading by 370 with five sessions to go. I'd imagine they'd aim to send England in before tea, with a target of 450 or so. They'll want to give England a sniff, but a very remote sniff.

At Brisbane, black areas of rough materialise on the fourth day, almost without you noticing. When I was keeping here, year after year it would always be the case – they'd be black as anything and turning as well. At the moment they are not super-black, but one or two balls have been playing up already. It all depends on how much they develop overnight, but I'd put England's chances of survival at about 30%.

Ian Healy, who kept wicket for Australia in six winning Ashes series, will be providing his Expert View at the end of each day's play in the Tests. He was talking to Andrew Miller.

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