Cook says England won't give up without a fight

PERTH, Dec 17 (Reuters) Alastair Cook said England had not given up hope of saving the third Ashes test against Australia despite heading into the last day five wickets down.

Cook held the Australians at bay for six and a half hours to score his maiden Ashes hundred but fell for 116 three overs from the close Nightwatchman Matthew Hoggard lasted only two balls before he too was out, leaving Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff to battle through to stumps with England on 265 for five and needing to bat through the last day or chase down a world record 557 to keep the series alive.

''It would have been nicer if we were still three down.

Obviously we were a bit disappointed with the last 16 balls but we're still in there still fighting hard,'' Cook told a news conference after the fourth day at the WACA.

''So if we can get through the first hour, the first session then we'll obviously score a few runs because KP and Freddie don't hang about so who knows?'' Cook's hundred was his fourth test century since he made his debut this but the 21-year-old said he rated this one the best because it was against Australia.

''Playing Australia in Australia is quite tough and it's nice to come out with a few runs at the end of the day,'' Cook said.

''You've got someone who's taken almost 700 wickets (Shane Warne) and another with 500 wickets (Glenn McGrath) coming at two ends so it's hard work.

''You don't get a respite, there's no free runs out there, you're made to work for every run.

''Sometimes you've just got to battle through it and I thought I did that quite well today.'' England scored 246 on the day to leave themselves needing 292 on the last day to win but Cook said the tourists were only concerned about surviving Sunday rather than looking ahead at a possible run-chase on Monday.

''Today was a setting up for tomorrow. Unfortunately the last two wickets have probably set us back a bit,'' he said.

''But there's still a lot of fight left and some people due some runs and hopefully they can perform tomorrow.

''We grinded them well in the first session and just started to grind them again in the second session. We just tried to concentrate as much as we could and get through every over and not make any silly mistakes.'' REUTERS PM RK1720