Fletcher still eyeing victory

England coach Duncan Fletcher has not given up on a win in Adelaide despite his side needing to post a target and bowl Australia out with just one day remaining in the second Ashes Test.

The pitch - which yielded just 16 wickets over the first four days - will be the key to England's intentions when it resumes on Tuesday at 1-59 with an overall lead of 97.

"We'll just have a look and see what the wicket does in the first hour or two tomorrow," Fletcher said on Monday night.

"We want to come in here tomorrow and reassess where we are, we'll have a discussion tonight, have a look at it tomorrow morning and then make our plans once we get a feel for things."

"If Steve Harmison fires and Andrew Flintoff fires and Matthew Hoggard has shown that he can bowl - there's enough bowlers there to do it. It's been very difficult on this wicket though, both sides have struggled."

Talismanic skipper Andrew Flintoff - who underwent surgery on his left ankle in July - bowled just four overs on day four, but Fletcher was quick to dispel any fears of a breakdown.

"He just felt a slight discomfort there and he just wanted to make sure everything was alright," he said.

"He's played back-to-back Tests, he's done quite a bit of bowling and it's just having played a lot of cricket. There's no worries at the moment, we're just going to have to wait and see off the next couple of days, but from the advice that we've been given, we're not even going to send for a scan at this stage. They (the medical staff) feel it's just having over-bowled in back-to-back Tests.

"He could've bowled today, in fact we discussed it and there was a good chance he was going to take the new ball."

Regardless of the eventual outcome of the match, Fletcher felt that England now had a foothold in the series after a shaky start.

"After that result in Brisbane a lot of people asked, 'would we get back into this series?' and we said that this side's done that on numerous occasions and it's done it again (here)," he said.

"It's shown a lot of character and come back and really played good cricket for four days. That's important with a youthful side - we talk about being consistent over long periods of time - and they've shown that here."

"They've come along and put in session after session where they've been playing some very good cricket."

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