10 Jul 2015 | Cricket
A fluent half-century from Ian Bell guided England to a strong position at the end of the third day in Cardiff.
Bell, who broke a run of abject England form with an attractive innings of 60, was helped by a knock of the same score by Joe Root and 42 from Ben Stokes, before a late cameo of 32* by Mark Wood boosted English hopes.
The Warwickshire batsman admitted he had been worried about his personal form, but lauded the positive atmosphere in the England dressing room, which has seen Trevor Bayliss' team play aggressive - and at the moment - effective, cricket.
Bell said: It's a very good environment at the moment. We've got younger guys who see the game a little bit differently, which is completely different to when I started. These three days have been brilliant [and] the run rates have been high.
It's going to be an exciting day of cricket tomorrow, added Bell.
The experienced No 4, who has played 110 Tests, said he had questioned his form after failing to perform since the first Test in England tour of the West Indies.
From that hundred in Antigua all of a sudden it got tricky, so it's nice to contribute to the team and put us in a good position.
Asked whether Australia could create Ashes history by chasing what would be a record fourth innings target of 412 to win, Bell admitted anything was possible. Yet England wil hope to harness the confidence gained by taking Australia's final five wickets for the loss of just 44 runs, in the morning session.
He added: We know we've got a lot of hard work to do. If we bowl like we did in the first 10 overs today, we know our bowlers have got skills to take 20 wickets.
The trick is to put enough balls in the right area to make it happen for you.
But Bell and his teammates will be confident of finishing the job tomorrow to take a series lead.
We've had real great moments in the dressing room but these guys go out and want to take every option on, which for me is a breath of fresh air.