The third day was a frustrating one for both sides as England suffered a litany of near misses and Australia's progress was constantly interrupted by rain delays.

Bad light finally ended the day's play forty minutes early at 1819 with Australia in a powerful position, trailing only by 96 runs with eight wickets left. Belated and utterly contrasting centuries from Justin Langer (105) and Matthew Hayden (110*) have got Australia into a great position in the match.

They will probably look to get 150 runs ahead, then declare and attack England, knowing they can knock off any deficit quickly on the final day in any kind of light.

Play began late at 1100 and a hint of the kind of luck England would enjoy all day came when Matthew Hoggard's first ball swung into Langer and had him toppling over, apparently out lbw with the ball striking middle and leg. But Billy Bowden gave him not out, as he had on the second day when Giles had trapped him plumb in front on 43.

At least that first ball promised great things for Hoggard's inswing to the left-handers, and sure enough, later in the same 38-minute passage of rain-interrupted play, he would rap Hayden on the pad in front of the stumps only to be greeted with Bowden's shake of the head once more.

Neither decision would have cost England very many runs if Paul Collingwood had been at his brilliant best in the field. As so often in the series Australia's top order, with their ageing limbs, took too many risks with their running between wickets but England failed to hit the stumps. First Langer was called back to the non-striker's end and Collingwood's shy from backward point missed by a fraction. Then Langer took a quick single to cover and Hayden should have been on his way, but Collingwood fired wide. The England frustration in this first spell of play was compounded by Hayden's fortuitous slash through the slips and his uncontrolled drive inches from Collingwood's grasp at cover.

After lunch the pattern of brief rain-interrupted sessions with their share of annoyance for both teams continued. In 28 minutes before rain Harmison bowled so waywardly that, in the absence of Simon Jones, Michael Vaughan must have despaired of how England could get a wicket.

In one eventful over, there were two vertical wides, a short ball chopped over the slips as Langer reached his 22nd Test hundred, and another bouncer of tennis-ball bounce that Langer chipped over the slips to reach 7,000 Test runs. Then finally, and pretty illogically in view of Harmison's poor bowling, Langer chopped a wide short ball onto his stumps and was on his way, followed from the field by the other players as the rain came down once more.

There is no greater test of a batsman's concentration than constant delays and it is to Hayden's credit that he dug deep enough to reach his 21st Test century in the hour's play possible from 1530 to 1630. It came with two supreme drives down the ground off Flintoff, the second blow delivering him 6,000 runs in Tests in the process. The bully had coolly reasserted his dominance and the mocking fields at short extra cover and short mid off were nowhere to be seen. Billy Bowden's poor day continued as Ponting on 13, inside-edged Giles onto his pads and thence to Ian Bell at silly mid off but was given not out.

The last session's play was again heading inexorably Australia's way as Ponting (35) batted within himself, but took full toll of poor balls, especially Harmison's long hops which were twice pulled to the fence.

But then Andrew Flintoff got one to lift and Andrew Strauss snaffled a sharp chance diving forward at third slip. It gave England a little something to smile about, but they face two long days ahead and, weather permitting, a real test of their mental and technical strength against Shane Warne in the last four sessions of the game.

10 Sep, 2005