McGrath: First session key
McGrath hopes to be celebrating at the end of the game
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Wednesday, 03, Jan 2007 10:24
Glenn McGrath says the first session of the third day's play in the final Ashes Test of the series will be vital in deciding who goes on to claim victory.
Australia are 188-4, 103 runs behind England, and with three days to go the match is in the balance waiting for one side to claim the ascendancy.
McGrath said: "The Test match is reasonably evenly poised I guess. The first session will be quite important.
"If we can get through that without losing any wickets, or not too many, and get some runs on the board, then I'd say we're in front.
"They have got a bit of an opportunity but it'll depend on how things go in the morning. If we can put on a good partnership first off then we can take it away from them."
Both sides are still hopeful of gaining a first-innings lead at this stage, which would give either set of bowlers something to aim for in the second innings, but McGrath is confident that, either way, his side is capable of winning.
"We feel if we play as well as we can it doesn't matter who we're playing.
"Even if we're behind we feel we can still turn it around from any situation and win," he added.
McGrath is playing in his final Test match and will be hoping to claim victory and go out on a high, especially having predicted a five-nil whitewash.