Australia finished the third day of the third Test in a position of such overwhelming command that not even Mark Waugh would give you odds on an England win. England, 160 for three overnight chasing Australia's first-innings 391, cracked on nicely for an hour and then went into their habitual tailspin as the pace of Glenn McGrath opened the door and the leg-spin of Stuart MacGill wove a web from which there was no escape.
The end was merciless: Damien Fleming will bowl his first ball of the England second innings on a hat-trick. All out for 227, England conceded a deficit of 164, which by the close had been extended,
through generally cautious but occasionally flamboyant batting by 150 for the loss of Mark Taylor. Once Michael Slater launched Mark Ramprakash's off-spin straight for a vast six, a carry of at least 120 yards. In just over four hours he had made 74; in 88 minutes fewer Justin Langer had made 34.
The passage of play which almost certainly has decided the outcome of this game came after Ramprakash, batting brilliantly, and Nasser Hussain, scarcely less accomplished except against the leg-spin, had taken their fourth wicket stand to 103.
Ramprakash had reached 61 when Taylor called up McGrath and in his first over, with a ball 69 overs old, he found bounce from nowhere, took the edge and Mark Waugh at second slip completed the catch. It precipitated another decline of epic proportions as McGrath, MacGill and Fleming filled their boots against hapless, gutless batting.
John Crawley embarrassed, Graeme Hick bludgeoned a couple of boundaries and was then held at slip driving leadenly, and Dean Headley, Darren Gough, Alan Mullally, and Peter Such, number 11s all of them it seems, mustered three noughts between them, two of them first ball.
Only Michael Atherton, Ramprakash and Hussain, who was left stranded on 89, reached double figures as the last seven wickets tumbled for 40 runs, the last six for 32 and the last five for 17 in 21 balls.
Despite the McGrath jinx, Atherton has made good starts in four of his seven innings, doing so once more on Saturday when he reached 41 in no apparent discomfort before a dismissal of bizarre and controversial proportions. Pushing forward to MacGill's leg-break, he edged a chance low to Taylor, the solitary slip, who reached forwards and appeared to scoop up the ball.
Although Taylor appeared to claim the catch - but later said he had expressed doubts about its validity - Atherton, quite correctly, stood his ground awaiting a verdict from the umpires Steve Buck nor and Steve Davis who, having consulted, called for an adjudication from the third umpire.
The replay as shown was so inconclusive as to whether the ball had bounced fractionally in front of Taylor that the argument was still going on yesterday morning.
