'Best-placed England side for 30 years' - Broad

England have not been in a better position in a Gabba Test for 30 years and can still "put Australia under pressure," according to Stuart Broad.

England endured a torrid final hour on day three, losing two wickets and seeing their captain, Joe Root, suffer a crashing blow to his helmet from a Mitchell Starc bouncer. They ended the day with a slender lead of seven runs and Australia's bowlers - pace and spin - gaining more from the surface than they had managed.

But Broad, who earlier bowled with admirable control and skill, felt England still had an opportunity to win the match if they could "take the pressure" at the start of day four and get through the first hour or so against a ball that is only 16 overs old.

"After three days, we're probably the best-placed England side here in 30 years," he said. "If we have a good day tomorrow, we set ourselves up in the Test match.

"If we have a couple of batsmen apply themselves and play with great patience, we can build a really good score and put Australia under pressure on the last day. It's in our hands. Day three and four should be best time to bat on this pitch, which is good news for us.

"It was a wonderful time for them to bowl tonight. They had a new ball, they were fresh and they could charge in with nothing to lose. Yes, we were disappointed to lose two wickets but it could have been much worse.

"It's a new ball pitch. Once the ball is 20 overs old it gets quite slow. It's quite hard to force a mistake from batsmen.

"A lot of batsmen on this pitch have got themselves out. I can't think of too many jaffa balls that have got batsmen out. It's been a lack of concentration, or pressure applied from a bowling unit. If we can take the pressure well, we can put ourselves in a good place."

England have not won a Test at the Gabba since the 1986-87 Ashes. While they arguably enjoyed the best of a draw here in 2010-11 - they declared their second innings on 517 for one - it was only after conceding a first-innings deficit of 221. So Broad was probably right when he pointed out the relative strength of their position. He also pointed out that some of Australia's bowlers were being made to work very hard for their wickets which, with another Test just around the corner, could prove vital.

"We have to bat 90 overs and make them bowl 20 overs each. Generally we bowl about 40 overs a Test and you get into critical workload if you bowl more than that. The Australian bowlers are a spell off 40 overs. If we can take them into 50-55 overs for the Test, we put ourselves in a great position."

Broad also defended England's plans after Steve Smith suggested they were "defensive from the outset" against him. Smith was made to work hard for his century, with England utilising some unusual fields and Anderson and Broad delivering 54 overs between them - 20 of them maidens - and claiming five wickets for 99 runs.

"We know they like to score quickly," Broad said. "If we can restrict them from scoring boundaries, we'll have periods of taking wickets. "It's slow, flat and hard to get movement. So a seamer's job is to restrict scoring. If they had got away from us we would be thinking we'd put ourselves under pressure.

"We're in a lot of control after three days. It's in our hands to bat big and set them above 250 or 300 on a final day pitch. The fewer balls we can bowl at Smith, the better for us."