England nearly steals unlikely victory

PERTH, Oct 30 AAP - Young England quick Simon Jones put up his hand for a berth in the opening Ashes Test after the tourists almost won the drawn three-day match against Western Australia today.

The 23-year-old Welshman's five-wicket haul restricted the West Australian second innings to 248, leaving England with a thrilling run chase of 135 runs in 20 overs at the WACA ground.

And the visitors went so close, falling just five runs short of the target with opener Robert Key (59no) and captain Nasser Hussain (7no) guiding England to 5-130.

The tourists had to score 12 runs off the final over but Key and Hussain could extract just seven from WA quick Brad Williams.

However the performance was just the tonic the Old Enemy needed ahead of the first Ashes Test in Brisbane starting Thursday week after a sub-standard opening week of its tour.

Key and Marcus Trescothick started well with a 52-run partnership before Trescothick's middle stump was knocked out after he backed away from Williams.

Allrounder Craig White (12) was introduced but was run out taking a risky single by WA captain Justin Langer before spinner Brad Hogg then put a major block on the tourists' assault removing Mark Butcher (7) and John Crawley (0) in consecutive balls.

Alec Stewart fell for a quickfire 26 off 21 balls before the final charge.

Earlier, Jones impressed with his persistence on a fairly flat pitch to finish with 5-78 off 19 overs.

Jones, who is on the way back from a side strain, suffered the injury in his only Test appearance against India at Lords in the northern summer.

Test rival Stephen Harmison (0-28) was unable to follow up his encouraging first innings performance.

Jones picked up Michael Hussey (14) early in the morning session, with the 27-year-old Test aspirant top-edging a ball to the fine leg with Andy Caddick taking a fine sprawling catch.

Scores of 0 and 14 would hardly have been the returns Hussey would have been seeking in front of national selector David Boon.

Test opener Langer (68) strode to the crease and he and Chris Rogers' 141-run third wicket partnership looked like ensuring the match would be drawn.

Langer, who made just 13 in the first innings, opted not to open against the England attack for the final seven overs of yesterday's play because of a sore neck.

But he faced the music today and lived a little dangerously early on before finding some form against England ahead of the first Ashes Test.

Jones had dragged himself to lunch with the unenviable figures of 1-45 off nine overs after being harshly dealt with by Langer and Rogers.

However allrounder Craig White parted the combination after tempting Langer with a wide delivery and then removing Marcus North next ball to open up the home side's batting order.

But it was not until Jones trapped Rogers (86) in front that the tourists looked any shot of actually forcing a result with the Warriors reduced to 5-178, a lead of just 64 runs.

Jones, who has a particularly slow run-up before a whipping motion, then removed Brad Hogg (18), Matthew Nicholson (2) and then Ryan Campbell (25) to set the unlikely scenario after tea.

Left-arm spinner Ashley Giles chipped in with the wicket of Brad Williams after the tailender hit a solid shot only for the ball to strike John Crawley's midriff before he took a superb juggling catch.

Jo Angel (10) was run out to end the WA innings.