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Edgbaston: Australia never seemed likely to erase their 1-0 series deficit at Edgbaston, but a bullish Ricky Ponting believes enough positives were drawn from the third Test to indicate his side had finally turned the corner ahead of the final two matches at Headingley and The Oval.
The apparent deterioration of Andrew Flintoff's knee, the revival of Mitchell Johnson and a stoic fifth-day batting performance have convinced Ponting that, despite an unconvincing first-innings performance, Australia are finding their rhythm after a month of frustration and disappointment.
"I'm sort of feeling now that things today went a bit more to plan than they have at other times in the series," Ponting said. "Some of the guys who missed out in the first couple of Tests got some results going their way, and that should probably put us in a good frame of mind going into the next game.
Losing two days from this game and being in the position we were, could have developed into a really good game. It would have been hard to bat. We've done what I expected us to day today and we've kept England in the field for a full day, which is a really good thing for us."
Astonishingly, the tourists possess four of the five leading wicket-takers and five of the six leading run-scorers after three Tests, but have thus far fallen short in the key moments due to form, confidence, experience and team balance. Key to those failures have been the performances of Johnson who, after a horrid July, appeared to find some semblance of form during 21 straighter overs at Edgbaston.
