CRICKET/Ashes Series:It is hard to decide which opened wider at The Gabba yesterday. Was it the cracks in the pitch, into which even before play began yesterday a commentator already could insert a little finger? Or was it England's facade which after two days, is showing signs of crumbling even before the series has really got going.
In Australia, there are many who have airbrushed the Ashes series of 2005 from the memory. Others dismiss the Australian loss as an aberration, the status quo, as one newspaper reported it, restored at a stroke. Or many strokes to be exact, for the most part sublime by Ricky Ponting.
With the exception of the magnificent Andrew Flintoff, little the England team had achieved over the first two days of this opening match had gone far down the road of disabusing Australia of either notion. The task of staying in this Test would make Sisyphus stay in bed.
By stumps yesterday, England, at 53 for three, had been deeply wounded after Ponting's declaration at 602 for nine, designed perfectly to inflict maximum psychological damage on a side exhausted by more than five sessions fielding in a cauldron, had left them probably an hour and a half to bat. Wickets for Glenn McGrath on his return to Test cricket were as predictable as a lame soap-opera plot and Stuart Clark made an admirable new-ball deputy for the ferocious Brett Lee who retired for attention to a knee lacerated by a colleague's spikes.
As Flintoff watched Ian Bell and Kevin Pietersen playing out time with the predators round the bat, he must have regretted calling heads where tails would have done the job. This is a pitch that started slowly but has gathered some pace. But with it, from the cracks, comes erratic bounce, the bane of a batsman's life.
Then there is the Shane Warne factor, a genius who had seen Pietersen gain turn from the pitch on the first day and found his fingers twitching at the prospect. He had but a single over as the shadows closed in, but it was enough to make a point, delivering a variety of allsorts that would have had Mr Bassett salivating.
In spite of everything, there have been opportunities for England in the match, specifically on Thursday when Australia were 198 for three and yesterday at 467 for six, when ruthlessness might have brought a swift end to the innings and made the follow on look less daunting. In the first instance, though, Ponting and Michael Hussey took the game out of reach with a fourth-wicket stand of 209, ended only when Flintoff bulldozed through Hussey's defence, while later the Australian tail wagged like a Crufts winner, the last four wickets producing 135 runs.
There was a period after lunch when Matthew Hoggard began to swing the ball, beat the bat more in the space of 15 minutes than England had managed in the entire innings and in the same over dismissed both Ponting after seven hours when four short of a fifth Test double hundred and Adam Gilchrist for 196 fewer.
Steve Harmison, too, produced a better response later, although he had begun the day with more derision from the crowd as he mixed wide balls with straight and long hops with half volleys. For a spell, from the Vulture Street end, he bowled with real purpose, striding back to his mark, and generating genuine concentrated well-directed pace.
James Anderson, though, suffered a torrid time and may not be given an opportunity to rectify matters in Adelaide next week. As it was, Flintoff was head and shoulders above the rest, deserved better than his four wickets and would be adamant he had a fifth when Ponting, on 167, appeared to glove a snorter to the wicketkeeper. But he can't do it all alone.
If at first Andrew Strauss and Alastair Cook had looked comfortable against Lee and McGrath, searing pace and the surgeon's scalpel, batting diligently, watchful outside off stump, then a single madcap moment allowed McGrath in and, in all probability, cast aside any talk that this Test might be his last. On such threads do careers hang.
The ball to Strauss carried no malice, short of a length and heading outside off stump. He could have, should have, disregarded it. Instead he opted to pull, a stroke aggressive in intent but ill-conceived that he will ponder with 20-20 hindsight. The top-edge spiralled between two fielders placed on the leg boundary for such an eventuality and it was Hussey, the squarer of the two, who kept his eye on the ball, held his nerve and the catch, his spikes slicing into the kneecap of the other fielder, Lee, who promptly left for attention.
Next ball, Cook pushed forward, and edged to first slip a dismissal predicated on what had preceded. Paul Collingwood's flat-footed prod that brought Clark his wicket somehow seemed inevitable.
Guardian Service
FIRST TEST - Australia v England
(Brisbane)
Overnight: Australia 346-3 (R T Ponting 137 no, J L Langer 82, M E K Hussey 63 no).
Australia First Innings
R T Ponting lbw b Hoggard 196
M E K Hussey b Flintoff 86
M J Clarke c Strauss b Anderson 56
A C Gilchrist lbw b Hoggard 0
S K Warne c G O Jones b Harmison 17
B Lee not out 43
SR Clark b Flintoff 39
G D McGrath not out 8
Extras b2 lb8 w8 nb7 pens 0 25
Total 9 wkts dec (155 overs) ... 602
Fall: 1-79 2-141 3-198 4-407 5-467 6-467 7-500 8-528 9-578
Bowling: Harmison 30 4 123 1 Hoggard 31 5 98 2 Anderson 29 6 141 1 Flintoff 30 4 99 4 Giles 25 2 91 1 Bell 1 0 12 0 Pietersen 9 1 28 0
England First Innings Close
A J Strauss c Hussey b McGrath 12
A N Cook c Warne b McGrath 11
I R Bell not out 13
P D Collingwood c Gilchrist b Clark 5
K P Pietersen not out 6
Extras lb4 nb2 pens 0 6
Total 3 wkts (17 overs) ... 53
Fall: 1-28 2-28 3-42
To Bat: A Flintoff, G O Jones, A F Giles, M J Hoggard, S J Harmison, J M Anderson.
Bowling: Lee 4 1 13 0 McGrath 6 0 25 2 Clark 6 2 9 1 Warne 1 0 2 0.
