England Draw After Gruelling Day In Field

It was the bowlers' turn to try and adapt to conditions against a Western Australian line-up missing eight first-team players.

They began badly with Andrew Caddick, Steve Harmison and Matthew Hoggard all struggling to find the right line and length for Australian wickets, as Mike Hussey and Chris Rogers compiled a century opening partnership to whittle down England's 221 all out.

Things looked even bleaker when Marcus Trescothick became the latest member of the Ashes squad to suffer an injury scare and visited a local doctor for a pain-killing injection on his right shoulder.

But just as Hoggard made the first breakthrough shortly before lunch, England's fortunes improved off the pitch too with news that Trescothick's injury was not as serious as first thought and he shouldn't miss any matches.

By the end of the two-day practice match, WA had progressed to 313 for six - with Shaun Marsh, the 20-year-old son of former Australian opener Geoff, standing out as another massive talent coming off the local production line with a superb 92.

Caddick followed up Hoggard's success by claiming England's second wicket just two overs after lunch removing Rogers, who hit seven boundaries in his enterprising 57 before also edging behind to wicketkeeper James Foster, who had taken over from Alec Stewart in mid-morning.

Four overs later the Somerset fast bowler had Murray Goodwin mistiming to Harmison at deep fine-leg .

But it was another 31 overs before England claimed a further success when left-arm spinner Ashley Giles, who had received some early punishment from Hussey, took his first wicket with Marcus North pushing forward and edging straight to John Crawley at short leg for an entertaining 38.

England received further reward for their gruelling efforts in the hot sun in the final session when Harmison ended Marsh's superb innings, which included 15 boundaries. He edged to Mark Butcher at slip. Kade Harvey then fell to Hoggard in identical fashion.