Until the last three quarters of an hour of another frenetic day, when Shane Warne spun his web of intrigue and began to catch some English flies, this really had been too close to call. By stumps, with the England top order in tatters, the peroxide genius might just have handed the Ashes to Steve Waugh with figures of 5 for 25.

Five blows - the early one of Marcus Trescothick, caught off a rebound from short leg, and then, as the close drew near, Mike Atherton, Alec Stewart and Mark Ramprakash in the space of nine balls and White with the penultimate delivery of the day - pulled the game round to Australia.

For England it will be an uphill struggle for in a low-scoring game it is Australia who are in the ascendant. They will resume this morning on 144 for six, a slender lead of 139 after Australia had recovered from 105 for seven overnight to reach 190, a first innings lead of 5.

The pitch remains awkward, something reflected in the scores where Trescothicks first innings 69 remains top score, but it will be a big task now for Darren Gough, Andy Caddick and Alex Tudor to find the inspiration to repeat the stirring stuff of the first evening.

Atherton, the anchor of the innings, feels at home here. No other batsman has scored in excess of 1,000 runs on these acres, as has he. Five of his 16 Test match centuries have been registered in front of the Trent Bridge crowd.

Yesterday there were torrid moments, not least when Brett Lee cranked the speedgun up beyond the 90 mile per hour mark. Atherton did not flinch, not even when Lee whistled down a bouncer that struck him a glancing blow on the jaw as his head whiplashed out of the way.

However, Warne was to do for him, although not without controversy, as replays suggested he had not made contact with the leg break that ended up in the hands of Adam Gilchrist. It sparked the demise of the middle order, for in rapid succession.