'Once they forged that last partnership we needed to get as many balls into their batsmen as possible. A few other minutes were taken up by other things. Two left-handers being in, two offspinners being on, I thought we could create some chances.'

England skipper Andrew Strauss would not criticise Ponting's tactics, but felt the tailenders would have found paceman Mitchell Johnson more difficult to face.

'I could understand what he was doing but personally I thought Mitchell Johnson would have been harder for these two to face,' Strauss said.

'Each captain sees things differently, I suppose. It's a difficult situation when you're trying to rush through overs when you get to the back end of the game there.

'I remember against the Aussies at Old Trafford in 2005, you always have regrets at the end of a game like that because you think if you'd done this differently you might have taken a wicket.

'The reality was that it was a very flat wicket and it was difficult to prise people out, especially if they showed application, which the second half of our order did,' said Strauss.