Head, Carey push England to the brink in Adelaide

Travis Head and Alex Carey forged a defiant late stand at their home Adelaide Oval on Friday to all but erase England's Ashes hopes, the pair leaning on each other through another draining afternoon in the heat.

Head's unbeaten 142 and Carey's stubborn 52 not out helped Australia reach 271 for four at stumps and extend their lead to an imposing 356 runs.

After the pair exited at stumps to a standing ovation from a delighted Adelaide crowd, Head said fellow South Australian Carey had given him the energy to carry on despite fatigue setting in.

"Yeah, he's playing well, so he's probably kept me up and about there," Head told reporters of Carey, who scored 106 in the first innings.

"The last 40-45 minutes, I started (to) waver a bit. I was pretty stuffed.

"We don't really talk much, but you can sense his energy at the crease. You can sense his desire for us to get to stumps ... I was just trying to get through each ball and trying to be there for him.

"So, yeah, we dovetailed off each other really, really well today."

Australia hold a 2-0 lead in the series and need only a draw in Adelaide to retain the urn as holders.

Adelaide Oval is generally Australia's best batting wicket so the hosts will want to be sure to bat England out of the game while leaving enough time for their bowlers to grab 10 wickets.

Head said he thought the wicket was deteriorating but not to the point where he was comfortable writing off England's chances.

Australia were playing the long game, he added, hoping to exhaust England's bowlers with long days in the field before the last tests in Melbourne and Sydney, which have little rest time between them.

"Today was really important -- another hot day to get overs into bowlers," said Head.

"We got back-to-back test matches next and we've spoken about what that can do. We've seen that last year against India, their strike bowlers putting overs in.

"So it's going to be hard work. It's probably a more batter-friendly wicket than we've seen in the past."