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England strives to keep Ashes Test series alive

Alastair Cook made 118 and Ian Bell 87 to demonstrate England's firm reluctance to surrender cricket's Ashes on the fourth day of the third Test against Australia at Perth's WACA Ground yesterday.

Cook and Bell, later Kevin Pietersen who was 37 not out at stumps, nurtured the flame of resistance in an England team backed against the wall by Australia's 2-0 series lead and the 556-run deficit it faced as it began its second innings.

Cook batted from the last half hour of the third day to the last half hour of the fourth to raise England's hopes of saving the Test but was out at 6:32pm, 16 balls from stumps in gathering gloom and in an over in which two wickets fell.

England lost only two wickets in the first six hours of the day before Glenn McGrath dislodged Cook, then nightwatchman Matthew Hoggard within three balls, three overs from the scheduled close.

The end of Cook's six and a half hour vigil -- caught behind by Adam Gilchrist -- and Hoggard's cursory appearance, ended when he lost his off stump, restored Australia's sturdy grip on the match and series.

When Australia declared its second innings on Saturday at 527 for five with more than two full days of this Test remaining, England faced the end of its Ashes tenure after 15 months, the shortest term in 124 years.

It had no realistic hope of winning the match: no team in Test history has scored so many runs in a fourth innings to win. Even the task of batting through two long days to draw the match, and to keep the five-Test series alive, seemed beyond an England team dismissed for 126 and 215 in its last two innings.

But guided by Cook, Bell and the doughty Pietersen, and despite the cheap dismissals of Andrew Strauss and Paul Collingwood, England found a resilience which has rarely been manifested in its batting in this series.

It batted throughout the fourth day yesterday, through 87 overs and the late introduction of the second new ball, to score 246 runs for the loss of only two wickets before McGrath tipped the balance.

England must survive a similar day tomorrow, with only five wickets still at its disposal, to earn a draw and leave the series alive ahead of the Boxing Day Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

Bell batted for 234 minutes yesterday for his 87, his third half century and highest innings of the series so far. He shared a second-wicket partnership of 170 with Cook; a stand which endured for all of the first and most of the second session on the fourth day, soaking up valuable time.

Bell was out at a score Australian batsmen hold to be unlucky when he drove a ball from Shane Warne uppishly to Justin Langer at short cover after a partnership that had endured for 343 balls. His innings included eight fours and two sixes, both struck lustily from Warne.

His wicket was Warne's first off the innings, his second of the match and the 696th of his illustrious career. His hunt for his 700th victim, a figure nobody in Test history has previously approached, will continue today on an aging pitch.

Cook carried on with great caution after Bell's departure to reach the fourth century of his 12-test career, his first in an Ashes Test, in 335 minutes, from 257 balls.
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