Cricket/ Ashes Series: The thousands of supporters who made the journey to Perth in the hope of an England revival were just that little bit more sombre as they snaked down Hay Street yesterday evening, as if they had been to visit a sick relative and found the news not good.

They may well be right. After a second day of fluctuating fortunes in which Kevin Pietersen, brilliantly and not without idiosyncrasy, aided by some stout support from the lower ranks, had hauled England significantly closer to Australia than they might have dreamed at one stage, Ricky Ponting and Matthew Hayden, with a century stand and a half-century apiece, had pulled Australia remorselessly away in the final session.

It will take an exceptional performance now from England to prevent defeat; not impossible on a pitch that has offered just enough assistance for the bowlers to keep the batsmen honest, but unlikely. The Ashes are all but lost, with the prospect of Melbourne and Sydney being one huge baggy-green lap of honour.

Ponting and Hayden made batting look as easy as at any point in the match after Matthew Hoggard, with the first delivery of the innings, had swung one in between Justin Langer's pad and bat to bowl him, the second time he had heard his stumps rattle in successive balls.

The Australian captain lived on his wits and technique early on to survive some more testing bowling from Hoggard and, later, Monty Panesar posed sufficient questions for Hayden from what rough there was for Shane Warne, treated disrespectfully again yesterday, to anticipate that his time will come once more. But there are runs to be had, and at 119 for one, a lead of 148, Australia must have known they had knocked the top from the series.

England batted poorly yesterday, failing to take account of conditions that were a world away from the featherbed at Adelaide but which with application, the sort demonstrated by Ponting and Hayden, could be overcome. This is a pitch with true bounce, sufficient for the length ball to be ignored if necessary in the knowledge that it would clear the stumps even if straight. Extravagant strokeplay was rendered dangerous by the extra lift in the pitch and England traded a positive outlook for a reckless one.

Shortly after lunch, the scoreboard read 128 for seven, with Hoggard plodding to the crease to join Pietersen, each wicket having fallen to a catch in the arc between wicketkeeper and backward point. Of the six yesterday, two went to Stuart Clark, again the best seamer on display, one to Glenn McGrath, a shadow of his former self but canny enough to work Paul Collingwood out early on and, unforgivably, a brace at almost no cost to Andrew Symonds. It capped a display that, with some scintillating fielding, would have won him a man of the match award in a one-day game.

If Ponting had a hunch that the dreadlocked one would be a better bet with the ball than Warne, then he must be a nightmare for bookies on his visits to the racetrack. Maybe there is an element of batsmen relaxing after toiling against the frontline attack. But Andrew Flintoff was lured into a stroke of such feebleness by a gentle away swinger that currently he does little to merit the soubriquet "batsman", while Geraint Jones, who had never previously scored a duck in Test cricket, ended that world-record sequence by slicing straight to backward point another ball that drifted enticingly away.

Pietersen, meanwhile, had reined himself in, having also seen Andrew Strauss driving without care and attention at Brett Lee (although the batsman's demeanour and numerous replays suggested that whatever noise Rudi Koertzen heard, it was not that of leather feathering willow). Twice in successive innings now Strauss will feel hard done by when well set.

By the time Sajid Mahmood swatted haplessly outside off-stump, Pietersen had spent the best part of two hours accumulating 29. Now he found staunch allies, first of all in Hoggard, the pair adding 27 before Hoggard edged Warne to slip, and then Steve Harmison, a more talented batsman than his position in the batting order suggests.

He and Pietersen managed a further 20 runs, the latter past his half-century now and intent - with the aid of strokes in turn exotic, robust and orthodox - on hurrying on while he could. When Symonds made short work of a nasty steepler to long-off, to see him off for 70, the groundsman could be forgiven for starting the roller.

Panesar has been insisting his batting had improved considerably. Yesterday he showed this was no idle chatter. He looks balanced at the crease, moves into line properly, sways or ducks away from the bouncer easily, and possesses an impressive range of strokes.

Twice Warne was hit neatly over midwicket, while no one has played a stroke of more technical or aesthetic excellence than the on-drive from Clark that brought his third boundary. When Harmison finally chipped a catch to mid-on to end the innings, the last pair had added 40 and taken England to within 29 of Australia.

For what it is worth Panesar has now been dismissed only five times in 14 innings.

• Guardian Service

SCOREBOARD

THIRD TEST - in Perth

Overnight: Australia 244 (M Hussey 74 no; M Panesar 5-92, S Harmison 4-48) England 51-2.

England First Innings

A Strauss c Gilchrist b Clark 42

P Collingwood c Hayden b McGrath 11

K Pietersen c Symonds b Lee 70

A Flintoff c Warne b Symonds 13

G Jones c Langer b Symonds 0

S Mahmood c Gilchrist b Clark 10

M Hoggard c Hayden b Warne 4

S Harmison c Lee b Clark 23

M Panesar not out 16

Extras (w1 nb10) 11

Total (64.1 overs) ... ... 215

Fall of wickets: 1-36 2-37 3-55 4-82 5-107 6-114 7-128 8-155 9-175.

Bowling: Lee 18-1-69-2, McGrath 18-5-48-2, Clark 15.1-3-49-3, Warne 9-0-41-1, Symonds 4-1-8-2.

Australia Second Innings Close

J Langer b Hoggard 0

M Hayden not out 57

R Ponting not out 57

Extras (lb4 w1) 5

Total (1 wkt, 36 overs) ... 119

Fall of wicket: 1-0. Bowling: Hoggard 7-2-21-1, Flintoff 8-1-23-0, Harmison 8-1-30-0, Panesar 10-1-29-0, Mahmood 2-0-12-0, Pietersen 1-1-0-0.