White Inspires England Fightback

The Yorkshire all-rounder hit an unbeaten 85 after over three hours at the crease on the third day to prevent the tourists completely capitulating after they slumped to 118 for six in reply to Australia's imposing first-innings total of of 551 for six declared.

His efforts in guiding England to 270 all out provided the platform for England to reach 111 for two at the close after they were forced to follow on 281 runs adrift with Michael Vaughan hitting an unbeaten 55 to take his tally for the calendar year to 1,397 Test runs.

White hit three sixes off leg-spinner Stuart MacGill and nine other boundaries in his superb innings spanning over three hours at the crease and dominated a crucial 55-run stand spanning 23 overs with wicketkeeper James Foster.

But for White's impressive efforts, England would almost certainly have been asked to follow on with a far bigger deficit having lost three wickets in the opening eight overs of the day after resuming on 97 for three still 454 runs behind and a further 255 runs adrift of making Australia bat again.

Nightwatchman Richard Dawson was the first to fall in the fourth over of the morning when he attempted to drive a sharply-turning MacGill leg-spinner and edged to Martin Love at slip to give him his first Test catch.

New batsman Robert Key fell just six balls later when he was trapped leg before to the second delivery he faced when an inswinging Brett Lee yorker hit him on the toe.

Nasser Hussain, who resumed on 17 overnight having battled for 52 minutes the previous evening, lasted another three overs before becoming MacGill's second victim of the morning.

Attempting to sweep, Hussain got an inside edge onto his pad which looped up off his forearm and enabled Matthew Hayden to take a brilliant catch after diving from short leg to take the catch.

At 118 for six, England looked set for a speedy capitulation but instead John Crawley teamed up with White in the first of three important lower order partnerships which at least took England to within 100 runs of the follow on target.

Their stand was only ended when Jason Gillespie was introduced into the attack and struck with his second ball when Crawley mis-timed an attempted pull and spooned the ball high in the air for Justin Langer to run in from mind-on and collect the catch.

His dismissal teamed Foster together with White and frustrated Australia enough during their 88-minute stand for captain Steve Waugh to introduce himself into the attack and make the breakthrough with his 11th ball.

Attempting to clip an attempted yorker off his toes, Foster mis-read the swing and was hit on the boot to end his impressive innings of 19 and although Andrew Caddick resisted for a further nine overs, both he and last man Steve Harmison were dismissed in quick succession by Gillespie with the new ball.

Having watched White dominate the Australian attack, the England openers set about trying to repeat those tactics and succeeded for 16 overs until umpire Russell Tiffin produced the latest in a long list of errors by adjudging Trescothick leg before to a delivery which hit his pads outside the line of the stumps.

That error was compounded by the loss of Mark Butcher nine overs later when he played away from his body to Gillespie and edged low to Love at slip, leaving Vaughan and captain Nasser Hussain to bat out the remaining nine overs until the close.