BBC SPORT | Cricket | The Ashes | England on the ropes

Third Ashes Test, Perth, day two (stumps). England 33-1 & 185; Australia 456

England face a nigh-on impossible task to avoid slumping to a third consecutive Ashes defeat after Australia produced another dominant performance on Saturday.

Their batsmen, led by Damien Martyn with 71, all enjoyed themselves despite the wicked pace of the Waca track, to leave England 238 runs behind at stumps.

Jonathan Agnew's verdict

In the few overs they had at England's batsmen, Marcus Trescothick fell to a pumped-up Brett Lee, bowling at express pace.

England's Craig White took five wickets but they came at the hefty cost of 127. And England struggled without the unfit Chris Silverwood to help out with the bowling.

Silverwood ruled out

Boundaries flowed from the bat of every single batsman on the Australian side, five of them, including Jason Gillespie at number 10, hitting sixes.

White removed Ricky Ponting (68) and Darren Lehmann (42) before lunch.

He was assisted by Alex Tudor to get rid of Adam Gilchrist when the fielder took a fine catch just inside the rope at fine leg.

Tudor did well to catch Gilchrist

In typical style, Gilchrist smashed 38 off just 28 balls.

Before lunch, Ponting produced a series of stunning pulls and drives, while Martyn took longer to get into gear.

White's first wicket, removing Ponting in his first over of the day, came when he found some extra inswing to bowl the batsman off the inside edge.

The second came on the stroke of lunch, when Lehmann foolishly miscued a pull to fine leg.

Both batsmen should have been given out caught off the glove off the luckless Steve Harmison, though neither added many runs before getting out.

More pictures from Australia's innings

After lunch, Martyn was dismissed in the first over of a Tudor spell, edging a loose shot behind to Alec Stewart.

Gilchrist came in and hit some terrific shots, assisted by a let-off on six when he was caught off a no-ball.

After tea, Tudor bowled Waugh for 51 with a terrific delivery, but Shane Warne (35) and Brett Lee (41) then came together in a fine stand of 68 for the eighth wicket.

The final act was Lee's dismissal of the out-of-form Trescothick, who clearly gloved a merciless short ball behind to a gleeful Gilchrist.

Trescothick stood his ground, before being sent on his way with a nod of the head by umpire Steve Bucknor.

Australia: Steve Waugh (capt), Matthew Hayden, Justin Langer, Ricky Ponting, Damien Martyn, Darren Lehmann, Adam Gilchrist, Shane Warne, Brett Lee, Jason Gillespie, Glenn McGrath.

England: Nasser Hussain (capt), Marcus Trescothick, Michael Vaughan, Mark Butcher, Robert Key, Alec Stewart, Craig White, Richard Dawson, Steve Harmison, Alex Tudor, Chris Silverwood.


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