| Scores | Upcoming | Results |
Cardiff: Australia need 412 to win the first Ashes Test after an authoritative display from England on the third day at Sophia Gardens, Cardiff on Friday.
The hosts claimed Australia's last five wickets for 44 runs on Friday morning to bowl them out for 308 and secure a first-innings lead of 122.
Ian Bell and Joe Root both scored 60 and Ben Stokes 42 as England surged further ahead in the afternoon session to the delight of a buoyant Cardiff crowd.
And although wickets fell regularly in a frenetic finale to the day, Mark Wood's unbeaten 32 helped England reach 289 all out to set Australia an improbable 412 to win.
Only two teams in Test history have successfully chased that many runs, with Australia's best effort the 404-3 by Don Bradman's 'Invincibles' at Headingley in 1948.
Ruthless England
England set the tone for a near-perfect day with an electric performance on the third morning, executing their plans to perfection to finish off the Australia innings.
Shane Watson's vulnerability to lbws was brilliantly exploited as Stuart Broad dismissed him for 30 in the second over of the day before Wood pinned Nathan Lyon in front of his stumps.
James Anderson found swing with the new ball to induce edges from Brad Haddin and Mitchell Starc, with Broad removing Mitchell Johnson in between.
In little more than an hour, England had advanced from a position of relative strength to one of total control.
After a nervy start with the bat - failures for Alastair Cook and Gary Ballance left England teetering on 22-2 - their second innings found momentum.
Adam Lyth showed his mettle with a fluent 37, but the main catalyst was Bell, who put a dreadful sequence of 56 runs in nine innings behind him with fine 60.
The Warwickshire batsman went on the front foot from the off, lashing two cover drives in one Mitchell Starc over and peppering the third man boundary with his trademark late cut.
He reached fifty off 75 balls, and underlined his new-found confidence by crashing Johnson over cover for his 11th four.
The next ball brought Bell's undoing however as, clearly expecting the short ball, he backed away slightly and was clean bowled to give Johnson his first wicket of the match.
By the time of Bell's dismissal, England were flying and the in-form duo of Root and Stokes kept them airborne, with both finding the boundary nine times.
A mini-collapse from 207-4 to 245-8 in the last session gave Australia a glimmer of hope, only for England to find inspiration from an unlikely source.
Swinging from the hip, Wood took the lead role in a 43-run partnership for the ninth wicket with Moeen Ali and was still at the crease when Anderson became Lyon's fourth victim in the very last action of the day.
Brief scores
England - 430 (Root 134, Moeen 77, Ballance 61, Stokes 52, Starc 5-114) and 289 (Bell 60, Root 60, Lyon 4-75
Australia - 308 (Rogers 95, Anderson 3-43)
Status - Australia need 412 runs to win
