Cricket Ashes Series To the 42 laws of cricket, the Marylebone Cricket Club, guardian and protector of the codes that govern the game, may consider adding another. We can perhaps call it Parkinson's Reverse Law, one that no longer considers that work expands to fill the time available, but instead dictates that the more time allocated to a cricket match the quicker the players shall endeavour to finish it.
The first Test is offering such little respite that those who have forked out for Sunday's tickets can, barring inclement weather, be looking forward not to a day at the home of cricket, but a nice little refund. England are on the rear end of the match, just as they have been since Glenn McGrath's burst with the new ball on Thursday evening. To stay in the game they needed parity on first innings and then to lay waste again the Australian batting when they went in for a second time.
It was not to be. Three wickets had fallen by the time 100 was on the board (time enough for Ricky Ponting to pass 7,000 Test runs), an overall lead at that stage of 135, and England were still clinging on. Instead, Damien Martyn, the elegant natural successor to Mark Waugh, and Michael Clarke, a perky young newcomer, pulled the game almost certainly beyond England's reach. At 279 for seven last night, a lead of 314, they must already have sufficient - anything further today is mere icing.
Martyn, with immense application and skill, made 65, passing 4,000 Test runs on the way, and can rarely have played better before he was trapped on the back foot. These were runs hewn out the hard way.
Not so with Michael Clarke, who was badly missed by Kevin Pietersen at extra cover in the last over before tea when 21 as he drove at Simon Jones. His ebullience was a counterpoint to Martyn. But for a red mist that saw him wander down the pitch and attempt, unsuccessfully, to hit Matthew Hoggard into Regent's Park, he would have walked in to the dressing-room last night to find his century already marked on the honours board in sticky tape. His 91 contained 15 fours. Next ball, from Harmison, Martyn was indisputably lbw. Their fourth-wicket partnership of 155 surely has all but settled an issue that McGrath, Brett Lee and, on a wearing pitch, Shane Warne will not let go.
England suffered in the latter stages of the day as the batters dominated. All the symptoms were there with Pietersen's miss a big moment (the third chance he has dropped in the game, incidentally, two of them routine catches at this level), along with the shy at the stumps, which on a good day would have run out Martyn when he had 44 but instead careered to the boundary for four overthrows, a no-ball from Flintoff compounding the error.
Moreover, twice in the space of a few overs, Hoggard misfielded lumberingly on the boundary, and was punished as only this mercurial bowler seems to be on an off-day.
Ashley Giles was not helped by a bizarre field placing that gave him seven on the offside as he drifted into the pads of the two right handers. They must have grinned inwardly, and simply milked him through the vacant legside acres. Michael Vaughan's side had been laid bare.
Clarke played solidly through the leg side, before unleashing a blaze of shots through the off side as his innings reached its crescendo. This was not a landmark approached in intrepid fashion as he flung the bat merrily through the 80s and into the 90s, a bloke having immense fun or a numnut, depending on the viewpoint. What after all is a ton at Lord's but the ultimate? He may come to regret his indiscretion.
That England had fought their way back into the game during the first hour was down to the astounding eye, hitting ability and confidence of Pietersen and a little late-order swatting from Simon Jones, who made an unbeaten 20: 92 for seven overnight quickly became 107 for eight when Hoggard dabbed Warne to slip, and it prompted Pietersen, mentally anyway, to swap his whites for the coloured garb of the one-day game.
McGrath was lifted high over mid-off and drilled through extra cover to take the batsman to the first half-century of the match.
There was time for Pietersen to haul Warne into the grandstand for six but then he was stunningly caught by Martyn at deep midwicket.
Scoreboard
OVERNIGHT: Australia 190 (S J Harmison 5-43); England 92-7 (G D McGrath 5-21).
ENGLAND: First Innings
K P Pietersen c Martyn b Warne 57
M J Hoggard c Hayden b Warne 0
S J Harmison c Martyn b Lee 11
S P Jones not out 20
Extras b1 lb5 nb5 pens 0 11
Total (48.1 overs) 155
Fall: 1-10, 2-11, 3-18, 4-19, 5-21, 6-79, 7-92, 8-101, 9-122 .
Bowling: McGrath 18-5-53-5; Lee 15.1-5-47-3; Gillespie 8-1-30-0; Warne 7 2 19 2.
AUSTRALIA: Second Innings
J L Langer run out 6
M L Hayden b Flintoff 34
R T Ponting c Sub b Hoggard 42
D R Martyn not out 49
M J Clarke not out 57
Extras b9 lb3 nb5 pens 0 17
Total 3 wkts (50.3 overs) 205
Fall: 1-18 2-54 3-100
To Bat: S M Katich, A C Gilchrist, S K Warne, J N Gillespie, G D McGrath.
Bowling: Harmison 12 4 20 0 Hoggard 8 0 32 1 Flintoff 11.3 3 55 1 S P Jones 11 1 46 0 Giles 8 1 40 0.
Joyce selected to make his England debut
By James Fitzgerald
Irish cricketer Ed Joyce could make his first appearance in an England shirt at Lord's on Monday as 12th man in the first Ashes Test although it is now thought extremely unlikely that the match will last that long.
The replacement until now has been Somerset's James Hildreth, whose catch at point dismissed Aussie captain Ricky Ponting yesterday. But Hildreth is back on county duty from Monday and Joyce has been selected to replace him should the game go into a fifth day.
Joyce, who has been having a wonderful season for Middlesex and Ireland, is widely tipped to be selected for England's winter tour to Pakistan. He became eligible for his adopted country on July 1st after serving out his four-year qualification period.
