The Australians will be disappointed that the weather thwarted their hopes of hitting back quickly and levelling the series at Lord's.

When the weather did clear, their chances were dashed early on the final morning with Mark Taylor spilling a vital chance.

There was a touch of irony in Taylor dropping the struggling Mark Butcher at Edgbaston it was Taylor playing for his cricketing life which he rescued with an innings of character, whereas at Lord's it was a Butcher who needed a score to extend his Test career. Taylor would have had some empathy with the Surrey left-hander's predicament but that would have been cold comfort for him when he only got the finger tips to an edge from Paul Reiffel's bowling.

Not only would that wicket have got the Australians started, it would have also enhanced Reiffel's reputation as a good bowler to left-handers. He had already got rid of both Butcher and Graham Thorpe in the first innings, however, with that chance missed Butcher slowly grew in confidence as the deficit was steadily overhauled.

The Australians would have expected to have put England under more presssure in the first session. Apart from Taylor's dropped chance there was only a catch to Ian Healy off a Michael Kasparowicz no-ball and the odd false shot to show off for two hours of toil. It could be that Australia in the next Test will have to deploy the pace bowlers a little differently with Kasparowicz, a swing bowler, using the new ball and Reiffel acting a first change seamer.

Whatever changes Taylor decides on in the bowling line-up it is obvious that Australia needs McGrath to strike early. In most of Australia's recent successes, the lanky quickie has got at least one early breakthrough and that has tended to boost the rest of the bowlers.

Along with Shane Warne, McGrath is the bowler Australia will expect to collect a bag of wickets, while Reiffel and Kasparowicz are more likely to produce contributory performances.

With the deficit wiped off, Australia's hopes of a victory were gone but they still gained some momentum from this match. McGrath lifted his rating at Lord's and this only left Australia needing Warne to collect a few wickets. The leg-spinner has shown steady improvement since a lacklusture first innings at at Edgbaston and he must be delighted with what he produced at Lord's in the second innings. He curved the ball a long way and spun it sharply on occasions to trouble most batsmen and claim some impressive scalps. He is on his way back to being the blonde bamboozler.

SCOREBOARDAustralia (1st innings): M Taylor b Gough 1, M Elliott c Crawley b Caddick 112, G.Blewett c Hussain b Croft 45, M Waugh c Malcolm b Caddick 33, S Warne c Hussain b Gough 0, S Waugh lbw Caddick 0, M Bevan c Stewart b Caddick 4, I Healy not out 13, P Reiffel batting 1. Extras (b 1, lb 3): 4. Total (for seven wickets declared): 213.

Fall of wickets: 1-4, 2-73, 3-147, 4-147, 5-147, 6-159, 7-212

Bowling: Gough 20-4-82-2, Caddick 22-6-71-4, Malcolm 7-1-26-0, Croft 12-5-30-1

England (2nd innings): Mark Butcher b Warne 87, Michael Atherton hit wicket Kasprowicz 77, Alec Stewart c Kasprowicz b McGrath 13, Nasser Hussain c and b Warne 0, Graham Thorpe not out 30, John Crawley not out 29. Extras (8 b, 14 lb, 7 nb, 1 w): 30. Total (for four wickets declared): 266.

Fall of wickets: 1-162, 2-189, 3-197, 4-202.

Bowling: McGrath 20-5-65-1 (2 nb), Reiffel 13-5-29-0 (2 nb), Kasprowicz 15-3-54-1 (3 nb), Warne 19-4-47-2, Bevan 8-1-29-0, Steve Waugh 4-0-20-0.

Man of the match: Glenn McGrath (Australia)

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.