Stewart and McGrath shine in gloom

Ponting has begun impressively in the second innings

Fourth Test, Headingley: Australia 447 and 59-1 (close) England 309

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Australia finished the third day of the fourth Test with a healthy lead of 207 after a lively exhibition at Headingley.

A dazzling 30 from Ricky Ponting overcame the early loss of Michael Slater to help the visitors to 69-1 before bad light curtailed the proceedings.

Glenn McGrath finished with a seven-wicket haul, but Alec Stewart was not to be outdone - he blasted an unbeaten 76 off 83 balls as his colleagues provided little resistance.

McGrath finished with 7-76

The Yorkshire crowd also endured a two-hour rain break as England eventually reached 309 to avoid the follow-on, before Darren Gough gave them hope with an early wicket in the final session.

Resuming the day on 155-2, England begun in calamitous fashion, as Nasser Hussain, Mark Butcher and Usman Afzaal were all back in the pavilion within the opening 45 minutes.

McGrath bowled skipper Hussain lbw for 46 in only the third over of the day and there was worse to follow for the hosts.

Butcher's fine work on Friday was undone in a moment of madness as he was run out by a diving Brett Lee as he looked for an optimistic single.

McGrath continued to cause havoc as Afzaal became his second victim of the day, edging to Shane Warne after a quickfire 14.

Lee finally enjoys a wicket

A ferocious spell by Lee eventually gained reward - he ended Mark Ramprakash's (40) valiant effort and then forced Andy Caddick (5) to edge through to Gilchrist.

Alex Tudor (2) was also undone by the magic of McGrath, before a Gough slog ended up in Slater's hands.

Stewart continued to show little respect for any of the bowlers, crashing boundary after boundary with orthodox stroke-play not the order of the day.

The vistors' innings was soon ended, though, with Alan Mullally playing to Simon Katich off McGrath, leaving Stewart frustrated and without any further batting partners.

If England are to gain anything from this Test they will need to quickly extinguish the fire in Ponting's belly on Sunday - after scoring 144 in the first innings his confidence will be sky high.

Or perhaps the hosts may just be hoping for the dark clouds to continue gathering over Headingley.

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England: Nasser Hussain (captain), Michael Atherton, Marcus Trescothick, Mark Butcher, Mark Ramprakash, Usman Afzaal, Alec Stewart, Alex Tudor, Andy Caddick, Darren Gough, Alan Mullally.

Australia: Adam Gilchrist (captain), Michael Slater, Matthew Hayden, Ricky Ponting, Mark Waugh, Simon Katich, Damien Martyn, Shane Warne, Brett Lee, Jason Gillespie, Glenn McGrath. 12th man: Justin Langer.

Umpires: DR Shepherd & S Venkataraghavan (Ind).