England swept away by Gillespie as Australia take control

Resuming at 294 for four and in a promising position, England lost their last six wickets for the addition of 47 runs inside 27 overs, with four wickets falling to Jason Gillespie and two to Shane Warne. Matthew Hayden and Justin Langer got Australia off to their customary flying start, but both were out when in sight of fifty and it was left to Ricky Ponting and Damien Martyn to take their side through to a position where they trailed by 95 runs with eight wickets in hand at the close of the second day.

Mark Butcher has been vulnerable when resuming his innings on this tour, and suffered again as Gillespie ran in with gusto. Playing on his home ground, Gillespie induced a nick from the left-hander and he was caught behind by Adam Gilchrist without adding to his overnight score.

Gillespie struck again when Craig White hooked him to long leg where Andy Bichel took the catch. White had been subjected to a good deal of pressure by persistent bowling and when the ball was banged in short could not resist the attacking shot when given the opportunity.

Richard Dawson played a sensible supporting role for Alec Stewart, but the introduction of Warne into the attack proved his undoing. Dawson was out lbw when the ball hit the pad right in front before making contact with the bat and the decision was a good one.

While Dawson had survived to face 39 balls, Andrew Caddick lasted just four. In Warne's next over, he bowled Caddick behind his legs sweeping and time was running out for England.

Warne had done his job and when Gillespie was brought back into the attack he trapped Stewart in front first ball. Stewart had put the disappointment of his pair at Brisbane behind him and batted solidly for his 29, with only one boundary in his 72-ball stay at the crease.

Matthew Hoggard edged Gillespie to the `keeper for the bowler to finish with four for 78 to show how important it is to keep going on this pitch. Wicketless overnight, he stuck to the job in hand to take four for ten as England saw their hopes of a total in excess of four hundred blown away.

Had England's new ball bowlers, Caddick and Hoggard, applied the same pressure to the Australian openers, they might have made up for the disappointment of the morning. However, Hayden and Langer launched into some wayward offerings and Australia were racing away. Hoggard went at five an over, Caddick at six an over and the tempo was set.

It fell to the other three bowlers used to drag the scoring rate back to reasonable bounds and show what could be done with controlled bowling. Even so, 125 runs were scored between lunch and tea, but England did claim two wickets.

Hayden looked set for yet another massive score when, four short of a fifty, he went to hit White back over his head but only succeeded in lofting it to mid-off where Caddick made no mistake. Three overs later, Langer was adjudged out caught behind off Dawson, though replays suggested that lbw might have been the correct decision.

England would have been delighted to have dismissed the Australian openers for under fifty apiece, and they could have made further impressions on the batting order. Dawson found the outside edge of Martyn's bat only to see Stewart ground the chance. Then, when Steve Harmison came back for a second spell towards the end of the day, his second ball was deflected by Martyn to Stewart's right at a comfortable height but the `keeper failed to lay a glove on the ball.

Dawson bowled very tidily to finish the day with one for 63 from 20 overs, Harmison and White impressed, but Ponting was batting with ominous ease towards the end of the day as he went past his fifty and on to 83, while Martyn was just two runs shy of his first milestone when stumps were drawn.

The third wicket pair realised that Australia would not want to lose further wickets after the openers had fallen within 13 runs of one another in three overs and, while they did not spurn any run-scoring opportunities, they progressed at a steady rather than frenetic pace.

Now they will want to continue in similar vein on the third morning with a view to leaving Australia as small a target as possible in the fourth innings on a pitch already offering turn to the spinners and the odd instance of unpredictable bounce. That is, indeed, if there is a fourth innings in the match.