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Improved Harris let chance to cement spot slip: Ponting

Marcus Harris eased the pressure with a hard-fought half-century in Melbourne but former Australia captain Ricky Ponting lamented that the opener did not press on to see off England's best effort of the series with the ball

Marcus Harris broke his run of low scores to shore up his spot in Australia's Ashes side, but Ricky Ponting suggested the opener wasted a golden chance to do even better.

Under pressure coming into the third Vodafone Test after a slow start to the series, Harris defied a Jimmy Anderson-led attack for three times as long as any other Australia batter in their first innings of 267.

The left-hander made 76, his highest Test score in nearly three years and his third career half-century, as he endured for 189 deliveries. The next highest number of balls faced by any batter on a seaming MCG surface so far has been Joe Root's 82 in the first innings, while Cameron Green's innings lasted 63 deliveries.

Ponting last week called for Harris to retain his spot despite scores of 3, 9no, 3 and 23 to begin the series but nonetheless said his home Test could potentially make-or-break his international future.

And while the former Test captain praised what he labelled Harris' most important Test knock, he also suggested it marked a missed opportunity.

"It definitely is (his best Test innings) but it might just be one that's got away from him," Ponting told cricket.com.au.

"He had to work so hard to get past fifty today. When he got to fifty it looked like he just relaxed a little bit.

Harris with timely 76 in front of home fans

"There were a lot more errors after he got to fifty than there were before he got there, and he got stuck in the middle of a great spell of bowling.

"His scoring rate plummeted just before he got out and that's what Test match cricket is all about – bowlers putting pressure on batters, but also batters finding a way to combat that and still rotate the strike.

"That didn't happen there and it led to a couple of dismissals - Travis (Head) as well and then Marcus Harris soon after."

Harris's dismissal, edging behind off Anderson from around the wicket, capped a 17-over period after the lunch break that yielded just 33 runs and also the wicket of Head for 27 following a 61-run partnership.

Spellbinding Anderson's morning of brilliance

Jos Buttler missed a stumping chance from Jack Leach's bowling when Harris was on 63, while the Decision Review System saved him on 36 having initially been given out lbw to a ball off Ben Stokes that he inside-edged.

Harris, who said he had strong support from coach Justin Langer and head selector George Bailey leading into a Test in which some had questioned his position, took a glass-half-full view.

"I was happy that I found a way to grind it out and occupy the crease," the Victorian told cricket.com.au. "Disappointing not to go on and a get a hundred but just to be out there for a session and a half was a really good.

"In a low-scoring game to get a good score is probably pretty good. You always want to make hundreds but sometimes it's not meant to be.

"To be out there, occupy the crease and do a job for the team is pretty good."

'Pretty happy with that in a low-scoring game': Harris

Harris may have breathed a small sigh of relief when Stuart Broad, who has dismissed Harris five times in his Test career including in both innings during the Adelaide Test, was left out for the MCG contest.

Broad's success against Harris has come from around the wicket, an angle of attack Harris has worked tirelessly on countering.

The 29-year-old has introduced a small trigger movement across his crease just before the bowler releases the ball, but Ponting believes there is still work to do.

"His front foot movement is a little short and pushing out from his body," Ponting said.

Final hour collapse undoes Anderson-led bowling effort

"That around the wicket angle does that to left-handers – they're too scared to go forward in case they get trapped in front, when they probably need to be doing that.

"They probably need to be making a bigger stride from that around the wicket angle to get outside the line.

"He might have look at that and think about it."

Ponting on Green's technical adjustment: HCL Vantage Point

"There was a change in his stance, his movements are still the same – his big back and across movement outside his off-stump – but he'd squared his feet up, he was nowhere near as open, which allowed him to move his front foot into the line of off-stump better than he had in Brisbane and Adelaide.

"That's really commendable stuff from him, it's a hard thing to change mid-series or even mid-Test match but sometimes you have to. He's obviously worked hard on that leading into this game and made that little technical change.

"The big (area for) improvement I see is he's got to find a way to score off the back foot against fast bowling in Test cricket. You look at what he's doing now with such a wide stance and a big stride forward, he's taking away his back-foot game, which then makes the margin for error for the bowlers so much greater.

"If he starts scoring off the back foot, bowlers will go fuller then he'll get his drives away and score down the ground. It's going to be a confidence thing for him, we know he can do it."

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