IN ALL probability, the inclement weather will put paid to the second Test as a contest. But in the 92 minutes of play that was possible yesterday morning there was sufficient evidence that the Australians have been stung deeply by England's win at Edgbaston and are not about to lie down and roll over.

In the sort of conditions about which any seam bowler worth his salt would dream, the Australian attack, led superbly by Glenn McGrath, reduced England to 13 for three before Nasser Hussain and Graham Thorpe, clinging on by their fingernails, sowed the seeds of a recovery with an unbroken fourth-wicket stand of 25.

It may not sound much, and 38 for three is still in the depths of the jungle rather than out of the woods, but runs yesterday were at an absolute premium.

Until he conceded boundaries to Thorpe from the final two deliveries of a 10-over spell, McGrath, from the Pavilion End, was outstanding, taking all three wickets to fall in his first six overs at a cost of eight runs.

In Birmingham he had been unable to adjust the hard wicket length he had been bowling in Australia and South Africa, now he was a changed man.

The first hour was desperate. Mark Butcher might have hoped for a happier time after his failures in the first Test, but there was to be no respite. Time and again he was beaten inside and outside the bat by McGrath and Paul Reiffel.

He scored just a single and one involuntary boundary edged off McGrath high over the slips before he pushed forward to the last ball of McGrath's fourth over and edged a looping catch to short leg via his pad.

Half-a-dozen more deliveries from McGrath, and Atherton was also walking back to the pavilion. Taylor's low catch at first slip was classy. The situation was then compounded at the end of McGrath's next over when Alec Stewart shouldered arms and saw the ball come back and clip the top of the offstump.

England's only slice of luck came before Thorpe had scored when he edged McGrath low to Ian Healy, who plunged forward rolled over and came up claiming a catch. Thorpe, rightly, stood his ground, and the umpires Shepherd and Venkat had to confer.

At this point, Healy approached them himself and indicated that the catch, in fact, was not clean after all, something born out by the television replay.