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England in need of early wickets England facing Melbourne struggle
(about 4 hours later)
England need to polish off Australia's tail as quickly as possible on day three of the fourth Ashes Test. England faced a battle to avoid another heavy defeat in the fourth Ashes Test after reaching lunch on day three on 28-0, still 234 behind in Melbourne.
The home side are already 3-0 up in the series and will resume in Melbourne on 372-7, with a lead of 213 and Andrew Symonds on 154 not out. Sajid Mahmood finished with 4-100 and Steve harmison dismissed Andrew Symonds (156) as Australia were out for 419.
England seamer Matthew Hoggard said: "We've got three wickets to get and then hopefully bat for a long time. Shane Warne made an entertaining 40 not out and England were lucky early on when Alastair Cook survived a confident leg-before appeal from Glenn McGrath.
"Everyone from one to 11 has to go out, knowing there are no demons in the wicket, and apply themselves." McGrath was impressive and Australia remain firm favourites to go 4-0 up.
The leaking of England's plans for the various Australian batsmen took some of the attention away from the performance of Symonds and Matthew Hayden, whose 279-run partnership put their team in control of the game. They resumed on 372-7, with England desperate for quick wickets.
But that was just one more frustration for skipper Andrew Flintoff and his team, who were right in the match with Australia 84-5 when Symonds walked to the middle. It went to plan for them when Symonds got a thick edge trying to play an expansive drive off Harmison and was caught behind.
The afternoon and evening sessions belonged to the home side, however, until Sajid Mahmood picked up the wickets of Hayden and Adam Gilchrist before the close. Warne was determined to enjoy himself in his last Test in his home town and the seamers obliged with plenty of poor fare for him to gobble up.
class="bodl" href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/606/A18421148"> 606 DEBATE: Give your thoughts ahead of day three Mahmood was square-cut and pulled before a half-volley and long-hop from the Lancastrian were carved away through the covers and mid-wicket.
"We had a lot of close decisions not go our way. On another day we might have got them and it would be a different story. The inconsistent Mahmod finished with decent figures
"Hayden and 'Roy' [Symonds] played really well. It was a good pitch to bat on, the ball got softer, they got their eye in and we got tired," said Hoggard. Mis-hit shots dropped just short and wide of fielders to add to England's frustration before Mahmood enticed Stuart Clark and Glenn McGrath into nibbling away outside off-stump.
Former Test opener Geoff Boycott told BBC Five Live England had "lost the plot" after the lunch interval and paid the price. Chris Read finished with six catches and Mahmood with decent figures but it needed the visiting batsmen to pull out something special.
"We are only as good as the sum of all 11 parts and too many of the parts have not performed. It finds you out eventually," he said. Brett Lee immediately found some swing, while McGrath consistently made the ball move away off the seam to make life tricky for them.
"Test cricket is not about one hour, it's about six hours a day for five days. For short periods we can compete but we can't do it over five days." Cook played the first aggressive shot in the fifth over to pull Lee for three before caressing him away through the covers for three more to achieve 1,000 runs in his first calendar year of Test cricket.
Andrew Strauss clipped McGrath through mid-wicket for three and cracked Lee through the covers too to confirm batting was far from impossible on this MCG track.
But Cook should have been given out lbw when McGrath rapped him on the pad with a straight delivery that held its line.
South African umpire Rudi Koertzen, not for the first time in the game, mistakenly ruled in favour of the batsman and the openers went off relieved.