Adelaide Test, Day 3
Saturday, November 23, 2002 I'm having dinner with Andy Bichel tonight, and I'll be telling him to bowl just the one over a day – but make it the last one! That's two hammer blows he's delivered to England's chances now – Michael Vaughan in the first innings, and now Nasser Hussain in the second, and tomorrow Australia can really get stuck into England's batting. The youngster, Robert Key, didn't look too certain in the first innings, Alec Stewart is not in the best of form, Craig White isn't in any form at all, and then there's a longish tale. There's definitely the danger of another double-figures total tomorrow.

At least Vaughan was batting with confidence, but the situation is impossible for England. Just impossible. They won't win it, they won't save it, and more than Vaughan, the only factor in their favour is the weather. It's a windy, grey, muggy type of evening at the moment, there's rain predicted for tonight, and tomorrow will be showery. But even if they only play for one more day, England won't survive.

Vaughan has to go out there and play his shots, like all the batsmen who have prospered on this wicket. Once you start to worry about the deterioration of the pitch, you'll go nowhere. He has to play naturally, and if something happens that brings about his downfall, then so be it.

Ricky Ponting has been absolutely phenomenal of late. He's moving up every statistical list there is, and the ratio of hundreds per innings is improving all the time. He's really playing a role for Australia at No. 3 now, and although he wasn't too secure 12 months ago he's doing a fantastic job now. I've never seen him in better touch – he's waiting for the ball, he's not going too hard at the ball, and he's picking the bad balls and scoring both in front and square of the wicket.

England's bowlers, though, got nothing from the wicket today, absolutely nothing. Andy Caddick was down, troubled by a back spasm, and when he was on the park, he was overpitching and underpitching. On and off the field, things are not good in that department. Richard Dawson was solid in conditions that didn't really suit him – he'll need a big spinning pitch to rip it at any rate – but Matthew Hoggard struggled for ideas.

Steve Harmison was the pick of the bowling. He was great – it was a tough experience for him, but he seemed to be quite enjoying it. He bounced back time and again, and even when he was stiff at the end of the day, he warmed up and got into a spell. It's a great sign.

And White wasn't bad either. He was a bit of a handful for the Australians, and he now looks to be reaching a bit of fitness. He was as stiff as a board in the first Test, as he hadn't had a lot of bowling, especially in the second innings, just the odd game of club cricket in Adelaide. He gets the Aussies playing shots square of the wicket – and today he got four of them.

I didn't read too much into that life for Steve Waugh at leg gully. He was a bit timid in the first Test, but this time he's really been forcing them off his hips, and that sort of shot will always take some catching. After that, though, England gave him far too much room outside off stump, though they did eventually get him out to a cut shot. It was aggressive stuff from Waugh – he was in the right frame of mind, and put the bowlers under pressure. But England enjoyed that little session, it was probably a 50:50 stage of the day.

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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