England Trott along merrily

Australians get off to solid start

At the close of the third day, Australia had reached 80 for no wicket with six sessions remaining. Th

ey need at least a draw to retain the Ashes after squaring the series 1-1 in the fourth Test at Headingley.

West Indies recorded the highest fourth innings winning total six years ago when they reached 418 for seven against Australia at St John's in Antigua.

Trott, who was run out for 41 in the first innings, became the first England player since Graham Thorpe in 1993 to score an Ashes century on debut.

Andrew Strauss and Trott took the overnight total of 58 for three to 157 before the England captain was caught at slip off Marcus North for 75 shortly before lunch. It was Strauss's second half-century of the match.

Trott showed admirable composure on a pitch which held few terrors after 15 wickets had tumbled for 243 on Friday.

He drove the ball handsomely through the off-side reaching his 50 in the morning session from 89 balls.

After Matt Prior had run himself out for four, Andrew Flintoff came to the wicket to a standing ovation in his last test innings.

He struck four quick boundaries but was caught at long-off for 22 trying to hit North out of the ground. North, who took over the off-spinning duties after Australia omitted specialist Nathan Hauritz, took four for 98 from 30 overs.

SCORE BOARD

England (I Innings) 332

Australia (I Innings) 160

England (II Innings, O/n: 58/3)

Strauss c Clarke b North    75
Cook c Clarke b North    9
Bell c Katich b Johnson    4
Collingwood c Katich b Johnson    1
Trott c North b Clark    119
Prior (run out)    4
Flintoff c Siddle b North    22
Broad c Ponting b North    29
Swann c Haddin b Hilfenhaus    63
Anderson (not out)    15

Extras (B-1, LB-15, W-7, NB-9)    32
Total (for 9 wkts decl, 95 overs)    373

Fall of wickets: 1-27, 2-34, 3-39, 4-157, 5-168, 6-200, 7-243, 8-333, 9-373.
Bowling: Hilfenhaus 11-1-58-1, Siddle 17-3-69-0, North 30-4-98-4, Johnson 17-1-60-2, Katich 5-2-9-0, Clark 12-2-43-1, Clarke 3-0-20-0.

AUSTRALIA (II Innings)

Watson (batting)    31
Katich (batting)    42

Extras (B-4, LB-1, NB-2)    7     
Total (for no loss, 20 overs)    80

Bowling: James Anderson 4-1-13-0, Andrew Flintoff 3-0-14-0, Steve Harmison 5-1-24-0, Graeme Swann 5-0-19-0, Stuart Broad 3-1-5-0.