England were 167/3 at the end of the second day’s play in the fifth and the final Ashes Test match. Australia had earlier been bowled out for 280.

On the whole, England will be happy with the situation that they find themselves in. However, given that they will bat last in the Test and the Sydney track is known to take a lot of uneven turn on the fourth and the fifth day of the game, the third day will make for interesting viewing.

On the second day, Australia had resumed from their overnight score of 134/4 but lost for wickets for the addition of just 55 to put the home team in strife. Two of these included Michael Hussey (33) and Brad Haddin, both of whom failed to add too much to their overnight score.

The rescue operations came from the unlikely partnership of Mitchell Johnson and Ben Hilfenhaus, who added 76 for the ninth wicket to propel the Australians to something of a challenging score. James Anderson picked up four wickets while Tim Bresnan had three to his name.

In reply to that, Andrew Strauss took the Aussie bowing by the scruff of its neck and slammed a 58-ball 60 in an almost Sehwag-like manner. This formed a 98-run stand with Alastair Cook and while the English side did lose two wickets in quick succession, they ended on a decent 167/3. Cook was still unbeaten on 61.

However, nothing short of a 100-run lead will satisfy England in their first innings. There is no doubt that the pitch will take turn towards the last couple of days and chasing anything about 200 may not be as easy as it is now. SportingBet offers 3/4 for an English win but if Australia can make early inroads on the third day of the Test match, the odds for an Australian win (4/1 at BetFred) could only shorten.