Australian paceman Glenn McGrath has explained why his skipper Ricky Ponting did not enforce the follow-on thereby extending the first Test match at the Gabba well into a fourth day.
He did not reveal though, how long Australia will bat for on Sunday morning and extend their current 626-run lead.
And after another disappointing performance by England's bowlers in the afternoon, McGrath agreed that the loss of specialist coach from the 2005 series Troy Cooley could be a factor, but did not hold back on troubled speedster Steve Harmison saying his confidence has been "shot to bits."
"When we decided not to enforce the follow-on it was more about being only two-and-a-half days through the Test match - It is not about how quickly you can try to win a match," said a delighted McGrath after taking 6-50 on another successful day for the home team.
"We wanted to freshen up our bowlers a little bit even though we were keen to go again if required."
"Each day the wicket is getting worse and worse with the cracks opening up more and more that is something that will be playing on the English minds - the longer the game goes the tougher it will be to bat."
There was some thought that the Australians might deny the opposition some valuable bowling practice by making them bat again which would have left the tourists short of a run for Adelaide next week, but McGrath dismissed the suggestion.
"When your confidence is down and you bowl again and go for plenty not taking any wickets, that can even have a worse effect on your confidence," he said.
"But in the end that was not a concern to us - it is about how we go and our batsmen getting time out in the middle, our bowlers bowling to a plan and if we do those things right there are not too many teams that will come close to us."
The Aussie paceman described as a 'big loss' the defection of specialist bowling coach Troy Cooley and the effect it has had on the English attack especially Harmison , whose confidence McGrath declared must be "shot to bits."
"I have enjoyed working with him [Cooley] but I am not sure what 'Harmi' can do from here but he needs to find some confidence somehow," he added.
"When your confidence is down it seems a pretty big hill in front of you and you have to work very hard to get out of it.
"As a bowler you are sympathetic but as an Australian probably not."
The 36-year-old who was criticised about his age heading into the series was naturally delighted to answer those same critics with his 29th fifth-wicket haul.
"After being out of the game for so long I could not have asked for a better comeback to Test cricket - I was happy," he said.
Nevertheless, cracks or no cracks McGrath had the last word on how the Gabba pitch has played so far.
"It probably has been a little drier this time," he conceded. "But in saying that you have seen how our guys have batted on it and we have lost 10 wickets for 780 runs - so you would say it is a pretty good deck!"
