CENTURY-making debutant Jonathan Trott advanced England towards Ashes glory by rising to the occasion in magnificent fashion in the deciding Test at The Oval.

The South African-raised Trott (119) completed a memorable hundred by turning Ben Hilfenhaus for four behind square to a deafening roar from an exuberant south London crowd and with his mother sobbing in the stands.

Set a near impossible victory target of 546, Australia were 0-80 at stumps on day three with fine weather predicted for the final two days of the clash on a deteriorating pitch.

Simon Katich (42no) and Shane Watson (31no) were unbeaten and the touring side's long road continues on Sunday.

Both openers edged balls that fell short of slips with the occasional ball dying off the dusty deck.

The highest successful fourth innings run chase at The Oval is 263 and the highest in Test history is 418.

On another dirty day for Australia, Ricky Ponting spat blood from a nasty blow to the face in the field as the urn slipped further from his grasp.

As if facing becoming the first Australian captain to lose two Ashes series on English soil in 119 years wasn't enough punishment for him.

England captain Andrew Strauss (75) earlier set up his side's second innings of 9(dec)-373, Trott built it up and tailender Graeme Swann (63) helped finish off the job against a demoralised Australian attack.

Trott, who made 41 in the first innings, exuded a calmness that should have been beyond a rookie on such a grand stage.

Like his name would suggest, his innings was far more circumspect than that of fellow South African-born batsman Kevin Pietersen's thrilling 158 that helped secure the 2005 Ashes series for England at the same ground.

But his knock is expected to be of equal importance to the national side as they must win the match to regain the Ashes.

Ponting earlier copped a ball in the side of the mouth at short cover on the stroke of lunch as a Matt Prior (4) drive hit the ground and bounced up and hit him flush on the face.

The skipper started spitting blood on the ground and his problems only deepened as the day progressed.

Strauss earlier became the leading runscorer in the series with his patient knock and he has now scored 474 runs at 52.66 for the series.

After resuming at 3-58, the South African-born pair of Strauss and Trott set about cautiously creeping along on a dodgy deck.

Stuart Clark tried to pin down the skipper by bowling into some big footmarks in an intriguing battle before Strauss became inventive by advancing down the pitch as if playing a spinner.

Strauss fell just before lunch trying to drive off-spinner Marcus North (4-98) and Katich continued his super match in the field by producing his second run out with a direct hit to remove Prior.

Ponting shook Andrew Flintoff's hand after the big all-rounder arrived at the crease for the last bat of his Test career and he swiped a quick 22.

Stuart Broad (29) had a bit of fun and Swann really rubbed salt into the wound with his freewheeling knock.

But when Trott fell an hour after tea, Strauss called his troops in.