Brett Lee led from the front in scorching heat, finishing with three for 64 from 19 hostile overs.

Lee picked up Wasim Jaffer in his second spell -- for the fifth successive time -- but his best effort came after tea, when he harried and hustled Sachin Tendulkar and scalped the maestro during a hostile burst of 5-2-5-1.

"I now know when to go up and down a gear," Lee observed. "There are times when you're bowling at 95 percent and trying to get the right line and length, but there are times when you have to go full tilt, like when you need a wicket. You've just got to work out when to do it and when to pull back."

Lee began from the Prindiville End and sent down four fruitless overs for 25, before switching to the Lillee Marsh End and striking immediately.

"I wanted to take the wind first up, but the ball didn't swing for the first couple of overs because it was coming over my left shoulder instead of my right," he explained. "I was asked to go to the other end after four overs and it started swinging immediately and I took the wicket of Jaffer. If the wind is coming over your right shoulder, it's always happy days."

Acknowledging the significance of buying the wickets of Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman late in the evening, Lee said, "We are hoping for a quick clean-up tomorrow. If we had them four down for 300, it might have been a different story. But with those two late wickets, making it six down, Australia are in a pretty good position."

The Aussies will be hoping to spend as little time as possible in the field on the morrow, what with mercury expected to touch the high 30s. On Wednesday, it was in the mid-30s.

"When four quicks are steaming in off 30-odd metres on hot days, it's tough. But the weather was more of an issue," Lee reasoned as he tried to account for Australia's 84 overs in 392 minutes.

"When you see seagulls walking around with their mouths open, you know it's a pretty hot day. A few of our guys were doing it as well. It was tough out there, but you've just got to hang in."