RICKY Ponting's batting is more about quality than quantity these days.

With his side at 1-60 in reply to England's 435 in day three of the Ashes first Test at Cardiff, he strode to the wicket with Andrew Flintoff and Stuart Broad steaming in at Sophia Gardens.

Crowd favourite Flintoff had brought the ground to life with his fiery opening spell that led to Phillip Hughes' demise and had the fans in a frenzy as they booed Ponting to the crease.

But if Steve Harmison's bouncer slashing Ponting's cheek in 2005 didn't bother him too much, then good luck to the punters.

He produced a chanceless innings on the slow pitch, seemingly unperturbed by anything England could throw at him until he reached the 90s.

On 99, in the last over of play, he became particularly edgy and there was a fear he might just throw his wicket away.

But he didn't, pushing Flintoff to the off side on the second-last ball ,and he thoroughly enjoyed his celebrations, running a big arc towards his team-mates in the dressing room.

The performance showed that he was still the man for the big occasion.

Ponting's partner at Cardiff, Simon Katich (104no), said the captain was as hungry as ever to make up for the 2005 series defeat in England.

"You can just tell about the way he goes about his business," Katich said.

"Ricky does not have to say much to obviously get everyone going.

"Those of us who went through what happened four years ago, it hurt and you can't forget that hurt.

"From that point of view there are a few of us that are really keen to make amends (for the 2005 series loss)."

By his high standards, Ponting's numbers have dropped off in the past year but he has still scored 961 runs at a healthy average of 43.68.

More importantly, he has regularly performed when his team has needed him most.

He partly conquered his demons in India last October by hitting a hundred in Bangalore in the opening innings of the series.

Then on a difficult opening-day wicket in the Boxing Day Test, Ponting was the only man to bat with authority as he scored a memorable hundred.

On the first day of the return series in South Africa, he somehow managed to punch out an 83 at Johannesburg that would have been worth double anywhere else.

Ponting's innings on Thursday made him the fourth batsman to score 11,000 Test runs and he has the highest average of the elite quartet.

India's Sachin Tendulkar (12,773) and West Indian Brian Lara (11,953) lead the standings and Ponting is fast closing in on Allan Border's (11,174) title as Australia's highest runscorer.

Ponting told Fox Sports before play on Friday morning that he felt confident entering the match, despite a run of low scores in recent matches.

"I felt really good right the way through the last couple of weeks, our preparation, I was seeing the ball clearly and actually hitting the ball quite well at training," the skipper said.

"But now it's all about Test matches for us and how you get through and react to the pressure moments and big moments and yesterday afternoon was a pretty big moment in the game for us."

He explained that they had batted as Katich always approaches an innings, compiling groups of ten runs.

"I knew I was on 99 going into that last over, as you could see with a couple of rash shoots that I played and I was a bit edgy ... obviously I got a bit better sleep last night on a hundred not out than on 99 not out."

Can Australia win the First Test?

Michael Clarke and Marcus North continued the fine work of their top-order team-mates on Friday but the weather could end up thwarting Australia's pursuit of victory in the first Ashes Test in Cardiff.

With Australia well placed at 5-479 at stumps on day three, in reply to England's 435, the weather bureau is predicting showers on Saturday.

Clarke (83) and North (54no) steadied Australia's reply by putting on 143 for the fifth wicket after the visitors lost 3-32 to slip to 4-331 just before lunch.

Clarke fell during the half hour of play that took place under lights in the final session, following a two-hour rain delay.

Play was halted not long after Clarke's dismissal, as the artificial light was judged to have overtaken the natural at Sophia Gardens.

Brad Haddin (4no) is the other unbeaten batsman.

Clarke remained confident that Australia could push for a win in the series opener.

"If the rain stays away I definitely think we can get a result," he said.

"I think tomorrow is a really important day for us, if we can make another 100, 150 runs.

"I think that wicket on day five is going to continue to spin and I think the bounce is going to be more inconsistent.

"So tomorrow is pretty important for us."

Clarke had no complaints about returning to the field under lights and becoming the first man to be dismissed in a Test in such circumstances in Britain.

He looked in excellent touch and was set for his first Ashes hundred in Britain before gloving an attempted hook shot off Stuart Broad's bowling.

"It would have been special but not so much for that, I just felt for the team I would have liked to have been there at the end of the day's play," he said.

"We were in a really good position. Marcus and I played pretty well while we were out there."

He thought England were starting to wilt after being in the field for four and a half sessions.

"I think they are obviously very tired, spending a couple of days in the field it would have hurt them yesterday definitely with Ricky (Ponting) and Simon's (Katich) partnership," he said.

He felt his NSW teammate Nathan Hauritz could make an impact in England's second innings.

"He bowled a lot slower than the England spinners and I think that (he) generally got a lot more spin and a lot more bounce," he said.

"So like I say, we will see what happens come our second bowl.

"But I do think there is enough spin out there in the right areas as well."

James Anderson (2-80), who rebounded from an ordinary day two to remove Simon Katich (122) and Mike Hussey (3) with the second new ball, said his side wasn't thinking about a draw.

"We've got a big session tomorrow morning which will probably decide whether we can win the game or not," he said.

"We're going to have to work out how we're going to get the final five wickets, and pretty quickly."

Australia's first-innings score should be heartening for the tourists given that they failed to pass 400 in any innings during the 2005 series.