The best thing that can be said about England's efforts on the second day at Perth is that it was by no means their worst day of the series. At one stage, when Alex Tudor rolled back the years and produced a carbon copy of his Waca '98 delivery to bowl Steve Waugh, England had taken five wickets for 222 runs - small beer by Aussie standards, but gratefully supped by a side thirsting for the slightest droplet of success. Unfortunately, Australia's bowlers were so eager to get stuck into England that they didn't even have the decency to wait for their own new ball. Instead they hijacked England's, and from 348 for 7 with a shiny new cherry to play with, Messrs Warne, Lee, Gillespie and McGrath plundered 108 runs in less than 18 overs. It was exhilarating and exasperating in equal measure, but precisely the sort of thing that happens for teams who lead by two Tests and 163 runs.

By this stage, of course, England were once again a strike bowler down, and this time on the fastest wicket in the world. To lose one paceman could be considered unfortunate, but to lose three in consecutive Tests, however, smacks of carelessness. In one sense, the loss of Chris Silverwood - following Andrew Caddick at Adelaide and Simon Jones at Brisbane - could be taken as a perverse justification of England's persistence with five bowlers, and no doubt England's spin doctors would like to dress it as such.

But on the flip side, England's best bowling performances have all come with just the four frontline bowlers to choose from. At Brisbane, England picked up eight wickets for 128 on the second morning. At Adelaide, Craig White and Steve Harmison whipped out Australia's middle order once Caddick had been laid low. And now at Perth, Harmison and White again, along with Alex Tudor, kept England in some sort of touch, at least until the tail turned nasty.

Perhaps five bowlers provides too much of a comfort zone. Perhaps there are too many places to hide when someone else can be called upon to bowl at a rampaging Ricky Ponting. And perhaps the challenge of juggling a depleted attack brings out the best in Nasser Hussain, who has lost his Midas touch in this series but cannot have gone from hero to zero overnight. At least Mark Butcher was finally called upon to do some bowling, though Matthew Hoggard must have looked on wistfully at the way he wobbled the ball into the Fremantle Doctor.

The biggest difference between this Test and the first two, though, was that England were effectively reduced to three frontline bowlers, as Richard Dawson bowled all of five overs in the innings. It is well known that spinners make little impact at the WACA - even Warne has managed just 21 wickets in nine and a half Tests there, at an average of over 40. Dawson later batted with enormous courage as the nightwatchman, and is undoubtedly a find and a shoo-in for Sydney - but surely another batsman would have been more use. Then again …

Dawson replaced Marcus Trescothick, whose difficult series continued. Secretly, Trescothick might have been pleased that Lee was handed the new ball ahead of that man Gillespie. At least balls whistling around his head would not be arcing around his outside edge. Nobody, however, had bargained for quite what followed. Lee has been uncannily ineffectual in previous matches against England. This evening, however, he was irresistible. Perhaps the greatest tribute to his spell is that, at the other end, the great Glenn McGrath was made to look utterly pedestrian.

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