CRICKET TEST MATCH:AFTER ALL the ballyhoo leading into the Ashes series there have been higher-octane starts than that played out in Cardiff yesterday.
England stuck their noses to the grindstone while Australia grafted away diligently. It was cricket representative of the austerity of the times.
Until the last hour or so, in which Matt Prior and Andrew Flintoff pulled England away from a precarious 241 for five with a sixth-wicket stand of 86 at a decent lick of 95 deliveries, the honours had just about been shared.
The Australian bowlers chipped away and gained reward for perseverance more than inspiration, while the England innings was underpinned in its mid-section by a century partnership for the fourth wicket between Kevin Pietersen and Paul Collingwood, remarkably the most productive of all England pairings for that wicket.
Each might have scented a century; neither made it, Collingwood succumbing tamely to the wicketkeeper for 64 and Pietersen following shortly for 69, the manner of his dismissal gift-wrapped and attached to a card with kisses on it, so bizarre as to challenge rational description.
England will resume this morning on 336 for seven, a good scoring rate, with James Anderson and Stuart Broad at the crease, as both Flintoff (37) and Prior (56) dragged Peter Siddle on to their stumps with the close in sight, as the bowler found some movement with the second new ball.
This is a challenging score, though, better than it might appear.
The pitch is not as trustworthy as its scrubbed-up appearance at the outset perhaps suggested and the outfield is slow. The opening shots from Mitchell Johnson were anticlimactic, giving an early indication of lack of pace and bounce, but attritional seamers operating to appropriate fields will be difficult to get after, the more so if there is the sort of swing managed by Ben Hilfenhaus, the pick of the Australian bowlers, and, at the end, Siddle, who had suffered a chastening day until then.
More telling perhaps in the longer term was the manner in which his new-ball partner Hilfenhaus felt obliged to kick out the footholes at the end of his second over of the day, the follow-through already scarring up. If England’s gut feeling, reinforced by information received, was to include both their spinners in the belief that the surface will offer purchase sooner rather than later and will deteriorate from then on in, then they will have taken heart from this.
If the first session belonged to the Australians, who had collected the wickets of Alastair Cook, Andrew Strauss and an edgy Ravi Bopara inside the first 25 overs, then the afternoon belonged to England. Pietersen and Collingwood are the unlike poles that attract, the artist and the artisan, and somehow their individual characteristics complement one another.
It was not a spectacular alliance, the situation demanding entrenchment. But they played sensibly within themselves, carefully milking the bowling rather than seeking to dominate. Unless there was width, or overpitching, strokeplay was not easy, driving potentially hazardous. No wicket fell in the afternoon, the lunch situation of 97 for three repaired to double that, and the comfort with which they were playing, as the ball became softer, hinted at a chance to nail the game early on.
Instead, as the bowlers found a hint of reverse swing, Australia began the process of pegging England back again. Collingwood had just plundered two rasping boundaries from Siddle when he was seduced into hanging his bat outside off-stump to give Hilfenhaus his second wicket.
The loss of Pietersen was totally avoidable. He had survived two chances, one, an lbw when 61, as Hilfenhaus pitched close to his toes and Billy Doctrove surmised that he had edged the ball into the ground (it was plumb), and the other a sharp catch driven low to short extra cover from the same bowler when 66.
He ought to have capitalised. Instead he paid the price for premeditation, his mind made up that he was going to paddle-sweep Hauritz. Give the bowler credit. He saw Pietersen's movement, sent the ball towards the lone slip, and the batsman, rather than pull out, attempted to fetch it round the corner from another parish. He was on his way even before Simon Katich backpedalled from short- leg to take the gentle top edge. Guardian Service
Cardiff Scoreboard
England won toss
ENGLAND – First Innings
A Strauss c Clarke b Johnson 30
A Cook c Hussey b Hilfenhaus 10
R Bopara c Hughes b Johnson 35
K Pietersen c Katich b Hauritz 69
P Collingwood c Haddin b Hilfenhaus 64
M Prior b Siddle 56
A Flintoff b Siddle 37
J Anderson not out 2
S Broad not out 4
Extras (b9 lb7 w2 nb11) 29
–––––
Total 7 wkts (90 overs) 336
Fall of wickets: 1-21, 2-67, 3-90, 4-228, 5-241, 6-327, 7-329.
To bat: G Swann, M Panesar.
Bowling: Johnson 18-2-68-2, Hilfenhaus 23-5-61-2, Siddle 23-3-93-2, Hauritz 19-1-67-1, Clarke 5-0-20-0, Katich 2-0-11-0.
AUSTRALIA: Phillip Hughes, Simon Katich, Ricky Ponting (captain), Michael Clarke, Michael Hussey, Marcus North, Brad Haddin, Mitchell Johnson, Nathan Hauritz, Peter Siddle, Ben Hilfenhaus.
Umpires: Billy Doctrove (West Indies) and Aleem Dar (Pakistan).
