Captains praise spirited display by England

England skipper Nasser Hussain praised the courage of his two opening bowlers for testing Australia's nerves before the hosts managed a five-wicket win on the final day of the fourth Test in Melbourne.

Despite the drama of the fifth morning, England are now 4-0 down in the series, but not before Steve Harmison and Andrew Caddick troubled Australia, who were chasing just 107 for victory.

"It was a good morning for us," Hussain told Sky Sports. "We still lost the Test match but at least we showed we can do something out here and that we've got a bit of character. That was about as enjoyable as we've had it out here this winter.

"Cricket must be a mind game really because Australia have a history of struggling to chase low scores, and that was a really low score. The two big lads ran in hard and did well. It wasn't an easy pitch to bowl on but they bowled well and all credit to them."

"There will be some tired legs because we've gone in with four bowlers here and lost one of them with Craig White getting injured. So we'll have to get the balance right as Sydney is a different pitch and we'll have to look at what we need to do."

Australia captain Steve Waugh paid tribute to the spirit shown by the tourists.

"England bowled really well this morning and they made us fight hard for our win," Waugh said. "We didn't play all that well today but all credit to England, they really gave it a go."

"We've had some problems in the past chasing low totals - I think you can get yourself into problems when you don't play your shots and play your natural game," admitted the Australian captain.

"England came at us really hard this morning and once you lose a wicket in the first over you start to doubt yourself a fraction in the dressing room, then you lose a couple more and all of a sudden it's game on - any side is vulnerable under pressure."

Waugh himself was the subject of a belated appeal for caught behind, made after England's wicket-keeper James Foster and other fielders had seen a replay on the big screen.

"They appealed only because of what they saw on the screen, partly in shock and disbelief and also because of the rollicking they knew they were going to get from me at drinks that they hadn't appealed for one of the greatest batsmen ever to play the game," Hussain said.

"But you can't see something on the big screen and appeal on that, you can't play the game like that. Most of the time we appeal on gut feeling and what we see and what we hear, that's the way we play the game and it probably shows credit to our boys that they didn't hear anything so they didn't appeal."