The England batting seems to go in fits and starts. That is the way it was again at Adelaide Oval when Nasser Hussain and Mark Ramprakash attacked the spinners and added 23 in the first half an hour. Enter Glenn McGrath and the run scoring came to a grinding halt as only four more were added before drinks. As if that wasn't tempting fate enough they remained stagnant on 187 (the Australian devil's number) for five overs and eventually McGrath surprised Ramprakash with a steeply lifting delivery and the edge was well taken by Mark Waugh. That was the start of an English downward spiral.

McGrath then found a gap as wide as the M1 motorway in JohnCrawley's defence and Stuart MacGill spun a leg-break sharply to claim Graeme Hick. I don't know where England will search now for suitable batting, as it must surely be the end for two players who have been found wanting on too many occasions. Fortunately for England they had avoided the follow-on by this stage as the tail crumbled quicker than a dry biscuit.

So disastrous was the collapse that the unfortunate Hussain was robbed of a Test century he deserved. Hussain was on 69 when Ramprakash was dismissed and he remained 89 not out as he witnessed the carnage from the other end. Amazingly, he faced only nine balls from the fall of the fifth wicket -- a terrible indictment of a team that chose seven specialist batsmen.

Hussain had fought hard and played his shots at every opportunity, but when the final wicket fell his shoulders slumped as he trudged off the field -- an indication that it was going to be difficult for England to lift themselves and continue the fight.

England fell short of Australia'stotal by 164 and then after the loss of Mark Taylor, out to Such for the sixth time in ten Test innings, Michael Slater and Justin Langer remorselessly ground their opponents into the Adelaide Oval turf. Slater showed a bit of enterprise once lofting a huge six the length of the ground as he posted his highest total at the Oval, while Langer was content to accumulate more runs to add to the security of tenure he'd achieved with his first innings century.

Apart from the occasional burst the England bowlers at least made runs hard to come by. It's just as well England has shown a big improvement in bowling on this tour. According to one London scribe, former England captain Percy Fender writing on the 1921 Ashes series said the home side couldn't field and the Australian tail made a lot more runs than their counterparts. It would be fair to say that nothing has changed about English cricket in seventy seven years, posing the question, `When will they learn'?

SCOREBOARD

Australia (1st innings):391

England (1st innings, overnight 160-3): M Atherton c Taylor b MacGill 41, M Butcher lbw Miller 6, A Stewart c Slater b Miller 0, M Ramprakash c M Waugh b McGrath 61, N Hussain not out 89, J Crawley b McGrath 5, G Hick c Taylor b MacGill 8, D Headley lbw MacGill 0, D Gough c Healy b MacGill 7, A Mullally b Fleming 0, P Such lbw Fleming 0. Extras (lb3, b1, nb5, w1): 10. Total (all out in 82.5 overs): 227

Fall Of Wickets: 1-18, 2-83, 3-84, 4-187, 5-195, 6-210 ,7-210, 8-226, 9-227, 10-227.

Bowling: McGrath 18-4-48-2, Fleming 10.5-2-34-2, Miller 23-6-71-2, MacGill 28-6-53-4, M Waugh 3-0-17-0.

Australia (2nd innings): M Taylor lbw Such 29, M Slater batting 74, J Langer batting 34. Extras (lb10, nb2, w1): 13. Total (for one wicket, 60 overs): 150.

Fall Of Wicket: 1-54

Bowling: Gough 10-2-28-0, Mullally 11-4-12-0, Headley 11-1-42-0, Such 16-3-32-1, Ramprakash 11-1-25-0, Hick 1-0-1-0.