Three days too late for England, the Ashes became a contest rather than an exhibition yesterday. With a second new ball to claim at once, Australia will be confident of securing victory on the final day, as they deserve to do, but if the England bowlers can improve as quickly as the batsmen, there is a chance that fears of a huge anticlimax will prove misplaced.

If that is to be the case, it will need a massive effort by England to pull themselves together in the three days before the second Test starts in Adelaide and find the collective will to bowl and bat with much more discipline than they have here.

The heedless shots played by Andrew Strauss and Andrew Flintoff in what was supposed to be a rearguard action played into Australia’s hands after Ricky Ponting’s decision not to enforce the follow-on and a declaration delayed only until Justin Langer had reached his 23rd Test hundred, five overs into the fourth morning.

Experts say that it takes a day for every hour’s difference between two time zones for the body fully to recover from jet lag, but getting used to different cricket pitches adds to that and it was not until three weeks after their arrival in Australia that England began to look acclimatised.

It was too late to save the first Test, but for an hour or two during a combative partnership of 153 for the fourth wicket between Kevin Pietersen and Paul Collingwood it was possible to feel again that marvellous tension and suspense that made the 2005 series so thrilling.

Shane Warne was the main fourth-innings wicket-taker, making Flintoff his 300th Test wicket in Australia alone, but he looked a tired and bedraggled bowler by then and he finds it less easy than he once did against England batsmen who have played him with more conviction since the cricketing benison that is Pietersen knocked on the dressing-room door, as welcome to a team needing a touch of class and conviction as an abandoned kitten appearing on the doorstep of a lonely old lady.

Australia allowed themselves 11½ hours to bowl out England, but after Strauss had irresponsibly hooked Stuart Clark to deep fine leg and Ian Bell had played outside a ball from Warne that slid on towards the leg stump, the going got tougher after lunch. Alastair Cook held on for 30 overs, never fully settled but playing some fine shots before Warne had him caught at short leg off an inside edge on to his pad. But by now the leg spinner was more or less on his own.

On reputedly the fastest pitch in the country, Brett Lee had taken only one wicket for 132 in the match before the second new ball. Worse for Australia, Ponting ricked his back when hooking at a ball from Stephen Harmison and did not take the field on the fourth day. Glenn McGrath, the first-innings hero, had to have a painkilling injection on a sore heel and must be a doubt for Adelaide.

Although McGrath looked as dangerous as ever with the new ball, bowled his usual meticulous line and hit the cracks on the pitch regularly, Pietersen frequently drove him through extra cover and more than once walked casually down the pitch to play him as if he were bowling with a tennis ball. It was not the only sign of England defiance embodied in Pietersen’s innings.

He had occasional moments of good fortune, escaping a stumping chance on 80 when he played over a full toss bowled by Warne from round the wicket into the rough, but he also counter-attacked Warne with shrewdness and bravado, on-driving and sweeping him against the spin but with no suggestion of error.

When Warne threw a ball back towards the wicketkeeper but fired it instead at Pietersen’s neck, causing him to jab the ball away with his bat, he gave his Aussie friend a piece of instant Anglo-Saxon, learnt originally in Pietermaritzburg, no doubt, that made it plain what he thought of him and where he could go. Pietersen had the last say in this duel, but Warne the final laugh against Bell and Cook early in the innings and Collingwood and Flintoff later.

Collingwood overcame early difficulties, uppercutting Lee for six to third man as Alan Knott once treated Lillee and Thomson, and driving crisply off front and back foot. He had hit 13 fours and a second six, over long-on, off Warne before losing the broader picture as the prospect of a Test hundred against Australia hovered tantalisingly. Trying to hit a leg break back over Warne’s head, he was stumped with elan by Adam Gilchrist, the acting captain.

Flintoff’s dismissal followed only eight overs later when he pulled to deep mid-on as a short ball bounced on to him more quickly than he had anticipated. Langer was smiling before he caught it. It was the look of a man who knew that the thirtysomethings were going to beat the twentysomethings by a huge margin, no matter how imperiously Pietersen was driving the ball.

Collingwood, however, put into words after his innings England’s determination to put their feeble start to the series behind them. “We wanted to fight today,” he said. “Today was about fighting, pride, not just talking about it but going out there and doing it. The first three days have been hugely disappointing for us, but we can take a lot of credit for the way we’ve played today. It was important we played some positive cricket. I get a bit excited in the 90s. He tossed it up, lured me down. Enough said.”

Vaughan hope

Michael Vaughan is hoping to be fit for the Melbourne Test on Boxing Day. “I’m quietly confident that within a month or so I may be available for selection,” he said in Brisbane yesterday.