Taylor sews up middle order

Claire Taylor uses her powers of concentration to bat for over five hours © Getty Images

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England middle-order stalwart Claire Taylor battled for over five hours for a brilliant 79 but admits she was disappointed to get out when she did.

The 32-year-old combined with her captain Charlotte Edwards in a record-breaking third wicket partnership, their experience shining through after the loss of both openers.

"It's great batting at the other end with someone who has got that much experience," Taylor told ecb.co.uk.

"We have batted together before so we were able to deal with most of the stuff the Aussies threw at us, in terms of changing the way they bowled and changing their field settings."

Once again, the weather was more like a wet day in Derby than a glorious Australian summer, which gave Ellyse Perry and Emma Sampson plenty of swing with which to work.

"The ball was nipping about a bit early on," Taylor admitted. "There was drizzle and showers for the first hour and a half.

"The ball did a bit and they managed to get our openers out early. But as Lottie (Edwards) and I batted for longer together the pitch started to flatten out."

Taylor and Edwards had a plan, and continued to build their partnership by breaking it down into mini goals.

"We were just talking about small targets really - team scores or good partnership scores to get to," she said.

Lisa Sthalekar claims the crucial wicket of Claire Taylor for 79 runs © Getty Images

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"We were talking about putting on a 100 partnership, and then the next target was to get to their total without any further loss of wickets. And then to get to 150 partnership and so on - just looking to build in small totals."

Having put on 159 for the third wicket, Edwards perished to Perry, but Taylor continued to ensure England had a handy lead of 68 by the close of play.

“My feelings from today are mixed," she added. "I’m happy to have batted for so long with Lottie but disappointed that I didn’t see the day through and help the team into a stronger position.

"Batting for a long time requires a lot of concentration so I got a bit tired towards the end of the day."

Taylor also paid tribute to Australia's attack, two of whom in Perry and Sampson were making their Test debuts.

"They did very well today, actually," Taylor agreed. "They assessed the situation quite well after we had overtaken their score and set some fairly defensive fields.

"But they bowled very well to those fields and made it very difficult to score runs in the last session this afternoon."

Australia, as a cricketing nation, are known for their sledging, but Taylor revealed that the women are not as bad as the men when it comes to 'mental disintegration'.

"They were spinning some yarns amongst themselves so I listened to a bit of that and smiled at them," she admitted. "But no, it was quite good-natured today."

Australia captain Karen Rolton was happy with her side’s fight back and effort in the field, saying: “To take five wickets in that last session was a brilliant effort.

The Australians made runs difficult to score

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"We thought if our bowlers stuck to their lines and length during the middle session then we might get a wicket with Kirsten Pike and Sarah Andrews bowling really well.

"We just had to hang in there and I am glad that the girls fought really well until the end.”

Rolton also added that the Australian’s had not lost hope of winning the Test and regaining the Ashes.

“We are still hopeful," she said. "We are going to fight this down to the last ball of the last day. They have a 68 run lead but we are confident about taking the last few wickets and putting up a good fight from there.”

With two days left of the match, and only a draw needed for England to retain the Ashes, the visitors are also feeling confident.

England’s acting head coach, Mark Lane commented: “The team has played with a lot of discipline, which is apparent with the stand of 159 between Claire and Charlotte.

“The batters have played with the same consistency and intensity we displayed in our bowling performance yesterday, which are both areas we have been working on. The foundations have been laid for us to build a decent first innings lead and put us in a strong position for this Test match.”

Taylor concluded: "We are still positive, we still feel we are in the box seat here.

"We've got three more first-innings wickets left. We are in the lead and we are looking to build on that lead tomorrow morning as far as we possibly can.

"It is really down to the Australians to set a total and see where they want to take the game."