CRICKET Ashes Series: England lost the first Test at Lord's yesterday and along with it any semblance of momentum they may have felt going into the series.
What had been billed as a tight contest between well-matched sides - the top two teams in the world fighting it out for supremacy - was not even close. Only in 1948, when Donald Bradman's Invincibles won by 409 runs, has a margin of victory on this ground been more for Australia than yesterday's 239 runs.
This was no first set slow start: England took 20 Australian wickets, the key to success many felt, and still managed to succumb. It was a humbling, if not humiliating experience, and it will take an extraordinary turn-around for Michael Vaughan's side to come back.
The rain washed down on St John's Wood yesterday morning and into the early part of the afternoon, prompting thoughts, however unworthy, of the game at least going into its final day. But the skies cleared, the new drainage did its work and play was able to begin at 3.45pm. Capitulation was swift, less than an hour - and 15 minutes of that for a further brief rain break.
Starting at 156 for five, England lost their final five wickets for 24 runs, 22 of them coming from the bat of Kevin Pietersen. He ended unbeaten on 64, his second defiant innings of the match.
Quite simply, England did not measure up. Their batting, with the exception of Pietersen, had little answer to the questions posed by Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne. England's bowling, brilliant at times and wholehearted, was let down by lamentable catching.
When Australia decided it was time to put distance between themselves and their opponents it was like Lance Armstrong breaking Jan Ullrich. It is almost inconceivable that Australia will relinquish the yellow (or should that be gold?) jersey.
On Saturday England had been bamboozled by Warne in a mesmeric display. Yesterday it was again McGrath's turn. He started by having Geraint Jones caught at mid-on and finished up taking four of the last five wickets for three runs in 23 balls. One more wicket went to Warne, giving him four for the innings, so there was no little irony in the manner in which he took, with aplomb, the catch at first slip offered by Simon Jones that brought proceedings to a conclusion.
Warne, the finest spin bowler of this or any generation, has his portrait hanging in the Long Room, so is not unrepresented in the pavilion, but he has never taken five wickets in a Test innings here. He is the most notable of absentees from the honour board in the visitors' dressingroom. He has probably missed his chance. The final ball of what may prove to be his penultimate Test over here spun sharply out of the rough and shaved Jones's off stump by a whisker. Warne then took his sunhat and swished it angrily over the stumps, showing how much he cared. But he is a generous team man, too, and will not begrudge McGrath his wickets nor his status as man of the match. McGrath's five-wicket spell on Thursday, a display of new-ball bowling as near perfect as it gets, could prove to be as influential on this series as Warne's famous delivery to Mike Gatting in England's opening innings of the 1993 series.
England know that unless injury intervenes there will be no respite when McGrath is bowling. Four for 29 in the second innings gave him nine for 82 in the match and a headache for the England batsmen, who coped well enough with the new ball second time around, adding 80, but then collapsed to be all out for 180.
Warne's contribution to this cannot be overstated. He is not the bowler he was: time and a troublesome shoulder have depleted the box of tricks. Unless he is holding something back (and it would be wrong to rule anything out with this fellow) there are no googlies, zooters, shooters, flippers, floppers, flappers or other fripperies now. Instead, he makes do with only two deliveries: first a leg break; next a slider, a delivery sent out of the front of his hand as if pushing confetti at a new bride.
This, though, is like saying a garden has roses, pelargoniums and no other blooms without recognising the infinite variety on offer. His legbreak is decorated with the changes of spin, from the massive turn that lifts Adam Gilchrist from his feet as it fizzes across the batsman's bow, to the blighter that finished Ian Bell, who read the delivery but not the rotation. The quicker slider has a slight indrift to a right-hander but essentially does very little. It is the simplest of counterpoints: who would think that a slow straight ball could wreak such devastation? Pietersen alone of the England batsmen showed the tenacity and technique to cope. He played McGrath skilfully by getting forward, rode the pace of Brett Lee, and appeared to read Warne. It can be done, he was saying, and this a man on debut.
The concern is his catching. Three chances were grounded, two of them routine, the one that gave Michael Clarke a reprieve on Friday the most important of the game.
Just relax, Kevin, and for goodness sake, come out of your shell.
Overnight: Australia 190 (S Harmison 5-43) and 384 (M Clarke 91, S Katich 67, D Martyn 65). England 155 (K Pietersen 57; G McGrath 5-53) and 156-5
England Second Innings
K Pietersen not out 64
G Jones c Gillespie b McGrath 6
A Giles c Hayden b McGrath 0
M Hoggard lbw b McGrath 0
S Harmison lbw b Warne 0
S Jones c Warne b McGrath 0
Extras b6 lb5 nb3 14
Total (58.1 overs) 180
Fall: 1-80 2-96 3-104 4-112 5-119 6-158 7-158 8-164 9-167.
Bowling: McGrath 17.1 2 29 4 Lee 15 3 58 2 Gillespie 6 0 18 0 Warne 20 2 64 4.
Umpires: Aleem Dar and R E Koertzen.
Australia beat England by 239 runs.
