Vaughan: 'We were better than at Edgbaston'

England's domination of the match came to nothing in the end as tailenders Brett Lee and Glenn McGrath survived four hostile overs from Andrew Flintoff and Stephen Harmison to deprive Vaughan's side of the one wicket needed for victory.

But Vaughan said that the improvement England had shown by winning the second Test at Edgbaston last week and then going so close to clinching the third was an indication of the giant strides taken since their humbling in the first Test at Lord's.

"We were one wicket away from going 2-1 up and a lot of people will say we must be disappointed, but I'm very proud of the way the team have responded since going 1-0 down at Lord's," he said.

"To win at Edgbaston was tremendous and it can be hard to produce two good performances on the trot. But despite playing under such high pressure, we were outstanding in this game, better than at Edgbaston.

"We lost a day to weather, yet we still came within a whisker of beating them. Three weeks ago we were being written off, when we were hearing people talking about 5-0, yet here we are at 1-1 and playing some very good cricket."

Although Lee and McGrath saw Australia to safety in the end, it was Ricky Ponting's epic 156 that did most to frustrate England. But the tourists' captain, whose captaincy has been under the spotlight, admitted that he thought he had handed victory to Vaughan's side when he was dismissed, leaving Nos 10 and 11 to face a torrid ordeal at the hands of Harmison and Flintoff.

"I had a little tantrum in the dressing-room when I lost my wicket because I thought the game was going away from us," he said. "I did not have a lot of faith in them, to be honest. But they did a fantastic job. It was probably one of my best knocks in any situation. It is nice to be able to put your hand up when it matters and do the right things as a leader and a batsman."

Ponting conceded that England were asking questions of Australia's batsmen with their bowlers' ability to exploit reverse swing. "When the ball is reverse swinging it is the most difficult time in the game to bat and Andrew Flintoff does it very well," he said.

"He uses the angles well and goes around the wicket a lot of time to left-handers and swings it both ways as much as anyone in the game. And he does it at 90mph as well. All of our left-handers have been really troubled against him."

None the less, Ponting said he did not foresee changes in Australia's batting line-up, although he admitted that out-of-form pace bowler Jason Gillespie might be left out. "Jason has been struggling for form all summer and his position is something we have to look at," Ponting said.