England on the ropes after Miller's triple strike

Australia have one hand on the Ashes urn after the unlikely figure of Colin Miller caused England to stumble late on day four in their bid to save the third Test at the Adelaide Oval on Monday.

Miller captured the wickets of Nasser Hussain (41) eight minutes before stumps and nightwatchman Dean Headley (2) four balls later to have England reeling at 4-122, still 321 short of an impossible victory target of 443. The tourists' hopes of survival rest with noted fighter Mark Ramprakash (43), who was promoted in the order ahead of his out-of-sorts captain Alec Stewart, who has yet to face a ball.

England's hopes nosedived early when openers Mark Butcher and Michael Atherton were back in the pavilion before tea. And their predicament could have been worse had Mark Taylor held a tough one-handed chance low down to dismiss first innings top-scorer Hussain.

Damien Fleming may have been the unlucky bowler in that instance, but he was handed the wicket of Butcher (19) who slashed at an ordinary ball short and wide of off stump only to feather a bottom edge to keeper Ian Healy. Soon after Atherton (5), who laboured for 43 balls, popped a Miller arm ball straight to Mark Waugh at bat-pad to leave England rocking at 2-31.

But as they did in the first innings Hussain and Ramprakash looked the men most likely to save England's skin, adding 89 for the third wicket, before Miller broke through. Bowling around the wicket, Miller trapped Hussain lbw on the back foot, with umpire Steve Bucknor taking his trademark eternity to deliberate before raising his finger. Headley followed in the same over when Taylor made amends for his earlier miss, to give the Tasmanian Test-best figures of 3-36.

But it is Miller's spinning partner Stuart MacGill who perhaps poses the biggest threat to England on Tuesday. The NSW leggie is starting to find his range and extracting some prodigious spin and bounce from the wearing Adelaide wicket.

Earlier, if England's spirits were low after their diabolical batting effort Australian captain Mark Taylor sought to crush them by setting the tourists a world record 443 to win.

England have to score the highest fourth innings total ever to win a Test and level the Ashes series, after Taylor declared Australia's second innings closed on 5-278, with Mark Waugh (51 not out) notching his 34th Test half-century and Healy on seven. India holds the previous highest winning score of 4-406 against the West Indies in 1975/76.

After resuming on 1-150, Australia continued to pile on the misery with Michael Slater scoring his second century of the series and Waugh putting a tumultuous week behind him by returning to his usual stylish self.

Slater (103) easily added the necessary 26 runs to bring up his 10th Test century before a Darren Gough yorker trapped him lbw with the score on 188. After a cautious start on Sunday, Slater raced to his century off 185 balls with eight fours and a towering six over the longest boundary in Australia at deep mid-on.

As he did with his century in the first Test at Brisbane, Slater guided Australia to an impregnable position, sharing a 134-run partnership with Justin Langer. England gained a minor victory soon after when they finally snared the wicket of the first innings centurion, but not before the West Australian left-hander scored his sixth Test half-century.

Langer (52), who punished England in the first innings with an unbeaten 179, was dropped twice on Sunday evening before falling to a superb catch by substitute fielder Ben Hollioake. Langer's 183-ball stay ended when he lofted off-spinner Peter Such to mid-on where Hollioake dived forward to scoop the catch inches off the ground.

Steve Waugh (7) also fell to a smart catch, this time Butcher at square leg snaffling a head-high chance off Headley. The fall of wickets was virtually meaningless as England went through the motions with the game slipping from their grasp, but Ricky Ponting's departure could nevertheless prove significant.

The Tasmanian right-hander, a controversial selection at the start of the summer when he replaced Darren Lehmann, played across a Gough delivery to be bowled middle stump. Ponting has scored just 47 runs in four innings this series, and given the selectors' omissions of Jason Gillespie and MacGill so far this summer, his days could be numbered