Langer defends decision to go off for light but Giles admits surprise

The decision cost them somewhere in the region of 75 to 80 minutes, although Langer's calculations put the figure a lot lower.

"You can look at the decision with the benefit of hindsight, but we've only lost I think half an hour or maybe an hour. And as the cricket has been played throughout the series with matches finishing in four days there is plenty of time left. Particularly as we have seen how great Shane Warne bowled yesterday.

"The wicket is very dry. In my opinion, it will spin a lot on the last two days and it might even get a bit up and down as well." And Langer added a further reason for going straight back in after the tea interval. "We discussed it briefly with Ricky [Ponting the captain] and 'Gilly' [Adam Gilchrist, the vice captain] and they said to treat this like any other Test match.

"Matthew and I could have batted on, but you always have to make the decision when considering the possibility of losing a wicket in dark conditions.

"Before tea today 'Freddie' Flintoff was reverse swinging the ball. If one of us had got out the new batsman would have had to come in to a reverse swinging ball in what would have been poor light to him.

"And we were not to know that the weather would close in and write off the whole of the final session." England's Ashley Giles stoutly shepherded the last three wickets until they had added more than 50 precious runs to the overnight total, and those runs (and the time it took to winkle out the tail) might yet prove crucial in deciding the fate of the match and the ultimate destiny of the Ashes.

"It is always frustrating for the fielding side when the last few wickets put on runs like that," Giles said. "Steve Harmison did a good job. And 373 was a good total in the end." But Giles said Australia's decision to take the light had caught out England. "We were ready to start and we were surprised and shocked when they took the light. But I don't know what we would have done in the same situation. It was quite dark and if we had got three wickets if they had stayed on they would have found themselves on the back foot."

The recently retired England batsman Graham Thorpe won a Test for England against Pakistan in Karachi in December 2000 by batting in stygian gloom. He understood the dilemma facing Australia's batsmen, but said: "They might have cause to regret the decision in the end, but you have to make the decision at the time and stick to it.

"In my case in Karachi I had been in for three and a half hours. The light faded fast once the sun had gone behind the stand and we were batting in the dark. It was like being in a mist. But my eyesight was adjusting with the changes of light and once I had clarified with the umpires that they would not be offering the light to the fielding side I was happy to stay out there."

England certainly regretted it in the first innings against South Africa at Headingley in 2003 when Mark Butcher and Marcus Trescothick accepted the offer and went off for around half an hour. When they returned they were both soon out and England ultimately crashed to defeat.

That is something the Australians are determined to avoid and Langer reckons that the fact that he and Hayden are finally doing what they do best has lifted the whole side.