CRICKET/Ashes series: Shamed at Lord's, England threatened reprisal and few took them seriously. But yesterday, in what has become the spiritual home of the team, they came back as strongly as any England side can have done against Australia.

Put in to bat by Ricky Ponting - to general surprise - they annihilated a high-class attack, albeit one deprived of Glenn McGrath through a cruel, pre-match accident that could, at worst, see him miss the rest of the series. It was exhilarating.

Runs came at a heady rate all day, in excess of five per over. Bowlers were dismissed as novices, reputations counting for nothing. Shane Warne tried to spin his web and picked up four wickets, but rarely can he have been treated with such contempt that he conceded four sixes, and he dutifully raised his hat to the crowd when his hundred came up.

At the other end of the scale, Brett Lee, one of the fastest bowlers on earth, was struck for five sixes and disappeared at more than a run a ball.

It ought to send Michael Vaughan's side into the second day in the best of spirits.

And yet, perhaps it was just too frenetic. Maybe the Australians settled back in their dressingroom last night and reflected that, under the circumstances, they might just have got out of jail.

Australia now have time to play the game at their pace, which is usually heady in any case, and, with the pitch playing slow and well thus far, they will have their sights on a lead of 200.

They were allowed the best start yesterday when the anticipated rain showers arrived just in time to save Matthew Hayden and Justin Langer from a testing last half-hour in murky light.

England were put in to bat and as such their score looks good. But they would have chosen to bat in any case and in that circumstance they might feel they underachieved.

Not a single person in the ground can quibble at the nature of the entertainment: 132 runs came in the 27 overs of the first session, as Marcus Trescothick found form and timing and went on to make 90. That was the hors d'oeuvre.

Between lunch and tea a further 157 came from the same number of overs, as Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff counter-punched brilliantly after a good start had been threatened by a tumble of wickets. Their fifth-wicket stand of 103 came in only 18 overs. Flintoff was extraordinary, hitting six fours and five sixes in his 68.

For the third innings running Pietersen looked a player of the highest quality, his 71 the third successive half-century he has made. A six and 10 fours came from him, some of them remarkable as respectable deliveries outside off-stump were whipped through the on-side with a right hand biffing in like a steam hammer.

It is hard to estimate the effect of McGrath's injury on either Australia or England. He was doing his warm-ups when he trod on a stray ball and turned his ankle so wickedly that he was driven from the ground on a golf trolley and then to hospital. Ligament damage was diagnosed.

Now, though, it is down to the England bowlers, with the spotlight sure to fall on Matthew Hoggard and Simon Jones rather than Steve Harmison and Flintoff. The treatment meted out on Lee in particular showed the danger inherent in banging the ball in.

SECOND TEST

England v Australia (at Edgbaston)

England first innings

M Trescothick c Gilchrist b Kasprowicz 90

A Strauss b Warne 48

M Vaughan c Lee b Gillespie 24

I Bell c Gilchrist b Kasprowicz 6

K Pietersen c Katich b Lee 71

A Flintoff c Gilchrist b Gillespie 68

G Jones c Gilchrist b Kasprowicz 1

A Giles lbw b Warne 23

M Hoggard lbw b Warne 16

S Harmison b Warne 17

S Jones not out 19

Extras (lb9 w1 nb14) 24

Total (79.2 overs) ... 407

Fall of wickets: 1-112, 2-164, 3-170, 4-187, 5-290, 6-293, 7-342, 8-348, 9-375.

Bowling: Lee 17-1-111-1, Gillespie 22-3-91-2, Kasprowicz 15-3-80-3, Warne 25.2-4-116-4.