Positive tactics help cause

Kevin Pietersen acknowledges the crowd on reaching his half-century © Getty Images

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Kevin Pietersen insists that England still have a chance of saving the third Test after Australia moved into a major lead at the WACA.

The Hampshire batsman top-scored with a battling 70 as England were dismissed for 215 on the second day and by the close Australia had forged into a 148-run lead after reaching a commanding 119 for one.

It was a major disappointment for the tourists just 24 hours after their hopes of remaining in the series were lifted by Monty Panesar’s five-wicket display to dismiss Australia for a lowly 244.

But Pietersen believes England still have the belief to fight back in the remaining three days and save the Test to keep the series alive for the final two Tests in Melbourne and Sydney.

“Maybe the stats and the scoreboard don’t look too bright for us, but I thought the pitch played really well in the third session,” said Pietersen after watching Matthew Hayden and captain Ricky Ponting forge an unbroken 119-run partnership.

“I also think it’s going to play even better and the wicket is going to get flatter and flatter - if we make Australia battle for every single run tomorrow the who knows?

“If our batters bat well - and we do have some really good batters - we could still claw this back and if the worst comes to the worst we will hopefully go to Melbourne only 2-0 down.”

Pietersen’s 70, which included eight fours and a six, was achieved despite having to bat the majority of his innings with the tail after yet another middle-order collapse.

Pietersen asks for advice during his long stay at the crease © Getty Images

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He was twice given instructions from the dressing room after initially playing a defensive role during an 11-over partnership with Matthew Hoggard before finally opening out to hit 15 off one Shane Warne over.

“I was given plan A, plan B, plan C, plan D - they all came out,” explained Pietersen. “I thought I wasn’t batting positively enough with the tail and I didn’t think I was batting positively enough with Hoggard.

“I just got some clarification about whether I should play a bit more positively at the first five balls instead of just knocking one down for a single and the game going nowhere - I don’t like the game going nowhere, I’d rather it went somewhere.”

Those tactics helped England add 87 for the final three wickets with final pair Steve Harmison and Monty Panesar forging a 40-run stand - the biggest of their innings - to limit Australia’s first innings lead to 29.

“We gave ourselves a chance of bowling England out for somewhere near our score and it turned out better than that,” said Australian seamer Stuart Clark, who finished with 3-49.

“They batted well towards the end. The ball was doing a little bit, especially when it was hard, so if we got it into the right spot we were always going to be in the game.

“We’ve played some good cricket today and we’ve put England under pressure for tomorrow but all that can be undone very quickly if we have a bad session first up tomorrow.

“Our focus will be to make the first hour a good one and follow that with the second one and take it from there.”