Australia face tough fight to save series

Australia haven't lost a one-day series for more than a year, but that could all change on a Sunday afternoon in Old Trafford if Ricky Ponting's men can't rein in a confident England. There might be nobody at the cricket, which clashes with England's World Cup fixture against Germany, but defeat would still hit hard for an Australian group used to winning.

Adding to the pressure, Nathan Hauritz as now flown home with a foot injury and there remained a doubt over Ryan Harris, who was their best bowler in the series opener in Southampton but missed the Cardiff game with a groin strain. Harris walked laps of Old Trafford with the team physio Alex Kountouris on Saturday and did some light jogging, but took little part in more energetic warm-up activities.

If Harris is ruled out it will mean a key role for Shaun Tait, who is mainly seen as a Twenty20 specialist these days but insists his body can handle ten overs. The spin duties will fall to Steven Smith, whose bowling has developed over the past year but for whom containing an in-form England batting group will be a big challenge.

"It's going to be difficult," Smith said on Saturday. "They're batting pretty well, so I'm going to have to bowl well. The pitch out here is supposed to turn a little bit, so hopefully I'll get a bit of turn here tomorrow and get a few wickets.

"We've had a little meeting today. You can't panic, you've got to keep coming out and trying to play better cricket. We haven't played our best cricket so far and we've got a little bit of work to do. We know that, and we're really looking forward to the contest tomorrow."

The problem for Australia is the sense of belief in the England camp. There have been few passengers in the squad and after their Ashes victory last year and their triumph in the World Twenty20 in the Caribbean, they will have the advantage over Australia in every format if they complete a 50-over series win.

"They're on a bit of a high," Smith said. "Beating us in the World Twenty20 final, I'm sure that gives them a bit of a high. They're 2-0 up and they're playing good cricket. But we can't really think about what they're doing, it's just about our attitude and if we come out tomorrow and play our best cricket we'll definitely be in the contest."

The Australians haven't lost a series since they went down 3-2 to South Africa last April, but England have enjoyed a purple patch of their own in ODIs over the past few months. The allrounder Tim Bresnan said his colleagues wouldn't get ahead of themselves despite their 2-0 lead.

"We haven't achieved anything yet," Bresnan said. "We've still got a lot of hard work to do. There's three games left and we'd like to wrap it up in style. We're playing well, there's a lot of confidence about, the guys are playing well, dovetailing quite nicely and that's how you win cricket matches as a team. We're certainly a confident side but we're ever improving."