Former England and Yorkshire off-spinner Richard Dawson writes ofr The Northern Echo.

THE second morning could not have gone much worse for our batsmen, apart from Kevin Pietersen, and we've now got it all to do if we are to stay in the series.

All of the top order would have been looking to ram home the advantage the bowlers created on the first day but it never happened and they were saved by KP and the heroics of Steve Harmison and Monty Panesar.

KP proved again what an outstanding player he is and the Aussies didn't really know where to bowl to him.

They had a lot of fielders out in the deep and that just proves how highly they rate him - they were desperate to keep him away from the strike.

And it was a different KP innings, he really had to graft for every run.

He got great support from the tail and once Harmy arrived he really opened his shoulders and hit some wonderful shots - another half hour of his hitting and England could have had a lead.

The big problem for England was that they never put any partnerships together throughout the innings.

When the highest partnership is the last pair then you are always going to struggle.

Monty and Harmy batted brilliantly to add 40 and that could prove crucial in this match and the series.

It's strange that the batsmen have struggled so much - the pitch looks like the one at Brisbane, where there were big runs scored.

It's not as quick as it used to be and seems to be like a typical English wicket that you would find at Old Trafford, with plenty of runs for the batsmen.

They would have been looking for a lead of 100-plus but the Australian attack deserves a lot of credit for the way they bowled, they gave the batsmen very little.

It was a bizarre innings because we scratched around. We can't afford to do that in the second innings.

Andrew Flintoff looked like he had the weight of the world on him when he was out and he probably has. He's the captain and a big player for the team but he's struggling for the runs his team needs desperately at the moment and I feel for him.

The shot Geraint Jones played is going to bring the pressure back on him now.

It was a loose stroke when he hadn't scored and there's going to be a lot of debate about his position before the next test if he doesn't produce with the bat in the second innings.

There's going to be a definite positive result now, with the amount of time left in the match, and we've got to produce with the ball again on day three.