Headingley Test, Day 5, Tea
Monday, August 20, 2001

Well, England are favourites now ... but not by much. That wicket late in the session puts it in a different light. There's still around 100 runs to get, and that won't be easy – you tend to find that things get tighter and tighter as the pressure mounts, and the wicket starts to go uneven again.

Nasser Hussain played very well. He might have been a bit unfortunate with his catch behind, but then he'd been given not out just before when Hawk-Eye said the ball would have hit the stumps. I thought the Australians handled the turn-down decision pretty well. You win some, you lose some – that's been the same in cricket since the first day it was played.

Mark Butcher has been very impressive. He's set out to play attackingly from the word go, and he's managed to carry it through from 50 to 100, which England have been failing to do this summer. Actually he's been in the right frame of mind all match – I saw him at practice before the game started and he was hitting it well and looking as if he was determined to enjoy the match.

One thing Adam Gilchrist might have to do after tea is attack less. If he can keep the runs down that pressure will keep on rising, and anything might happen. His main problem is that two of his bowlers – Warnie and Brett Lee – haven't been bowling that well. It looks as if Lee has decided to bang it in as quickly as he can, which is a legitimate tactic. It's hard to score off, anyway.

Ian Healy made a record 395 dismissals in 119 Tests for Australia, and was on the winning side in the last six Ashes series. His comments will appear on Wisden.com at the end of every session for the rest of the series. He was talking to Steven Lynch

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