Australia in England - The Investec Ashes

England lean on Anderson again

It was entirely fitting that James Anderson took the match-winning wicket at Trent Bridge. Never has England's reliance on him been so painfully exposed. Over recent months, England have lent on him like an elderly person might a zimmer frame, or like an alcoholic in search of a drink.

Perhaps that is the better simile, for England's over-reliance upon Anderson is not healthy. The burden upon him, not just in Test cricket, but in ODIs as well, has become immense. While his colleagues lose form, fitness and confidence, Anderson has been consistently excellent for several years, leading his captain to coax just one more over, one more spell from him time after time. England go to the well so often that fears are growing it may run dry.

It looked for a while on the last day as if England had reached that moment. After an immense opening spell of 13 overs that took his tally for game above 50 in unusual heat, Anderson was forced off the pitch with what the England camp insist - an insistence perhaps tinged with hope - was an attack of cramp.

At that stage he might have presumed his work was done. Australia were 80 runs from their target when the ninth wicket fell; his colleagues should have been able to take it from there.

Instead, Anderson was obliged to take on plenty of fluids at the lunch break and found himself forced into service once more after it became painfully obvious that England had no replacement capable of sustaining his match-clinching burst. It took him only two overs to finish the game off and clinch not just his second five-wicket haul of the match but the second ten-wicket haul of his career. His statistics, dented by premature exposure to international cricket, may never show it but his bowling over the last three years has touched a level of greatness to which very few England bowlers have ventured.

Anderson was magnificent in this game. It is not just his skill, but his fitness and reliability that render him such a valuable player. MS Dhoni rated him the difference between the sides after England's Test series victory in India and it was no exaggeration. It is the same in this series: if Anderson were injured, this England attack would hold little fear for Australia.

This surface offered him little. There was just a little conventional swing and seam and minimal pace or bounce. Conditions were much more akin to Ahmedabad or Kolkata than to stereotypical English pitches. But Anderson, with his nagging control and ability to reverse-swing the ball into and away from the batsmen from a well-disguised action, rose above such obstacles to remain a potent force. It was a performance of which Zaheer Khan or Mohammad Asif would have been proud.

He deserved better support, though. While Stuart Broad may be worryingly fragile, he had an increasingly impressive Test, but a couple of other England players would have slipped away from Trent Bridge amid the celebrations, feeling low as result of their personal contributions.

Certainly Steven Finn, cutting a diffident figure for a man capable of such brutish spells, endured a horrible final day. Not only did he miss a tough chance at deep-backward square leg to reprieve Brad Haddin on 62, but he failed to sustain the pressure created by Anderson when he relieved him in the attack. The contrast was unflattering: while Anderson delivered three wicket maidens in the session and conceded only 29 runs in a 13-over spell, Finn was plundered for 15 in his first over and five in his second. He was then removed from the attack and is far from certain to play at Lord's.

James Anderson's post-match press conference

Finn is too young and full of potential to be written off but there is a concern about his lack of progress. He was dropped after the Perth Test in 2010 for conceding four an over but conceded 4.68 an over here. While he bowled one decent spell on the first day and another on the fourth, his lack of control has routinely released the pressure on the opposition in recent months. Again, England insist he is fully fit but the suspicion remains that the shin soreness that troubled him in earlier in the summer has robbed him of some confidence and rhythm.

Had England lost this game, it might have been remembered as one of the lowest moments of Graeme Swann's career, too. He has endured disappointing games before - Cardiff and Edgbaston in 2009 spring to mind, as does Brisbane in 2010 and The Oval 2012 - but rarely when so much has been expected of him in conditions so apparently favourable. England had originally planned not to take the new ball on the final day but so unthreatening was Swann they had to, with Alastair Cook admitting that "it wasn't doing a lot for Swanny, so we changed tactics".

Perhaps expectations were unrealistically high. With England bowling last on such a dry pitch and Swann playing on his home ground, events seemed to have been set-up for Swann to strike the crucial blows. But the pitch turned less than had been anticipated and Swann, who has never taken a five-wicket haul in a first-class game on the ground and had not taken a Test wicket here until 2012, was rarely threatening.

He did, however, produce one good spell, late on the penultimate day, that perhaps suggested there was enough in the pitch to help had he bowled with the bite and turn that we have come to expect.

The miles on the clock may be starting to show. Swann has suffered from back and calf injuries in the last few weeks and underwent a second operation on his right elbow earlier this year. While the sluggish pace of the pitch did little for him, that can be no excuse for the surfeit of full tosses he delivered.

That is more of a worry than Finn's loss of form. Swann's prowess had been considered a key factor in the gap between the sides before this series and a succession of dry pitches are anticipated to aid his spin. If he is struggling for form or fitness, England will become even more reliant on Anderson. Monty Panesar remains the second-best spinner in England but has not been at his best in recent months - he was dropped from the Sussex side a few weeks ago - while James Tredwell, in favour with the selectors but out of form with the ball, has an eye-watering first-class bowling average of 428 this season.

It was somehow typical that Ian Bell's immense contribution to this result was overshadowed by the performances of others. He will be consoled, however, in the knowledge that he played the innings that defined this match and, to this point, the most mature and important innings of his career. After a modest 18 months, his confidence and form is as good as it ever has been and he should have proved to himself as much as anyone that he can produce such performances regularly.

Cook's contribution could easily be overlooked on the final day, too. When he first moved into the slip cordon, he was something approaching a liability. Only a year ago, he put down several chances against South Africa that proved hugely costly for England. But, just as he worked on his range of strokes and his issues outside off stump, Cook worked on his weakness until he made it a strength.

Here, as the sole slip fielder and standing closer to the bat than normal to account for the lack of carry from the sluggish pitch, he held on to a couple of sharp chance, the first off Ashton Agar and the second off Peter Siddle. He did provide a reminder that you have never mastered this game by also putting down a relatively easy chance offered by Siddle but Cook, like his star fast bowler, has proved that with hard work and self belief, continual improvement is possible and can lift players to unprecedented heights. Neither Cook or Anderson would claim to be the most talented cricketers their country has produced, but they may well end their careers as the highest run-scorer and wicket-taker in England Test history.

West Indies Tri-Nation Series

Dhoni keeps his end-over promise

This was not cricket; this was poker. MS Dhoni was too calm, too cool, too sly. He bluffed and bluffed. He raised the stakes even as wickets fell. He rode his luck, survived a close run-out chance, escaped two perilous mix-ups with Ishant Sharma, and closed it out.

Dhoni wasn't even supposed to play this match. And it was clear that he was struggling with injury through his innings. He declined some easy singles and didn't take some twos he would have normally harried through. He was up against the run rate. He was up against a sharp Rangana Herath, Lasith Malinga and Angelo Mathews. And he was up against pressure. He overcame them all.

There is plenty to say about Sri Lanka's batting, India's bowling, and India's top order. There is a lot to write about Rohit Sharma's innings. And there is much to talk about Herath. But let them be for now.

Dhoni walked in at 139 for 4. He tapped and blocked. Occasionally he nudged. It took him 16 balls to get to 4. Meanwhile his partners came and left. Suresh Raina swished at an away-goer; Ravindra Jadeja played back to one that nipped back in; and R Ashwin was done in by the arm ball. Bhuvneshwar Kumar made nothing (though he did hang around for 15 crucial balls), and Vinay Kumar had a popcorn burst in his head when, on 5, he tried to slog a short ball out of the ground.

Twenty runs were needed off 22 balls. With Ishant, the last man, sauntering in. Dhoni played out two balls. Then took a single. And Ishant blocked out the final delivery.

The next three overs tell you the story of India's finest finisher. He waited. And he waited more.

This was classic Dhoni. He bides his time until the game reaches a boiling point, plays out the best bowlers, pushes the required rate higher and higher, and then backs himself to win the face-off. Javed Miandad did this often. As did Michael Bevan. Dhoni has turned it into an art form.

With 19 needed off 18, he faced Malinga. He patted the first ball down the pitch and defended the next one to the off side. The third was slightly wide but he smashed it to cover. He saw a chance to sneak a single but turned it down. The fourth ball was fuller, on off stump, and he wristed it to deep midwicket for two. A typical Dhoni hustle, manoeuvering the gaps with his tennis-ball technique.

The next ball was angled to third man. Again he turned down the single (even with only one ball left). The last ball was a bit wide. He tapped it to point and hollered, "No". Ishant, who was halfway down the pitch, was lucky to survive a run out.

Seventeen were needed off 12.

Ishant stayed on strike for the whole over from Mathews. He was nearly run out off the first ball. He picked off two runs off the fourth. And blocked out the next two.

Fifteen were required off the final over. And Dhoni asked for a change of bat. "A 2kg bat," as he later revealed.

There is a reason India adores Dhoni. For those who followed Indian cricket in the '80s and '90s, he may even come across as a messiah. Those were the days India choked and crumbled. They withered at the first hint of pressure. Their batsmen seemed to know exactly when and how to combust. All would be hunky dory until a slew of wickets wrecked their progress.

 

 

Dhoni bides his time until the game reaches a boiling point, plays out the best bowlers, pushes the required rate higher and higher, and then backs himself to win the face-off

 

Match after match, big tournament after big tournament, India pined for a batsman like Miandad. Or Saleem Malik. Or Bevan. Or Steve Waugh. Or any number of others who could stay ice-cool in a chase. They craved reassurance when the rate climbed. They yearned for some batsman to steer them calmly.

Dhoni's calm can be intimidating. It's as if he absorbs all the pressure as he works himself into a zone. Those watching can feel this. They understand that he gauges the pulse of the game, that he reads the opposition and the conditions. They are so used to his ways in ODIs that they trust him to take the right decisions at the right time.

Fifteen off the final over with a wicket in hand - that's what schoolboy dreams are made of, the kind of scenario that young kids imagine while they stare into a life-size mirror. The first ball of the final over was short and slightly wide. Dhoni tried an almighty hoick and missed. Many other batsmen would have cussed aloud. Or admonished themselves. Dhoni walked away towards square leg.

The second ball was full and wide. It stood no chance against his pendulum swing. A monstrous six. The third ball was on a length. He carved it behind point. Five needed off three. The fourth ball was also on a length. Another meaty swing. Another six. Match over. Tournament won. Let's all go home.

The Sri Lankans were stunned by the assault. Dhoni's team-mates looked shocked too. The commentators were delirious. And those at the ground went bananas. But when all these people sit back and quietly consider the final stages of the match, they will be overcome by a sense of inevitability.

Dhoni is no doubt a badass finisher. He is one of India's finest ODI batsmen. And he is their most decorated captain. But his true contribution goes far deeper. He has managed to turn a fan base inured to close defeats and panicky collapses into a set that refuses to believe that a game is lost as long as he stays in.

There was a time when Indian fans turned off the TV when Tendulkar got out (and Dhoni too has admitted to having done the same when he watched the 2003 World Cup final). But the thinking these days seems to have been turned on its head, almost to a point where fans tune into a game when their captain walks in.

West Indies Tri-Nation Series

India prosper in gruelling conditions

Tri-series, or bilateral ODI series for that matter, aren't usually remembered for long after the final ball has been bowled. Given that the latest one was greedily squeezed in at the cost of a couple of Test series, and followed immediately after the Champions Trophy, there weren't exactly too many looking forward to it. And it is unlikely too many will be remembering it for anything other than MS Dhoni providing the latest example of his superhuman capabilities with the bat. Which is a pity, really, for this series gave us so much of what has become almost alien to the ODI format these days.

There is something about the Caribbean that so often produces thrilling ODIs. You'll like them if your idea of thrill is five-set you-punch-I-counter-punch battles on the clay courts of Paris. In place of 350-plus chases, we got two proper modest-scoring ODI scraps, with West Indies and India winning by one-wicket margins as late as the 48th and the 50th overs. Instead of openers striding forward and murdering length deliveries, we had them fending for survival, taking blow after blow to their bodies. For the first time in a long while, here was a series which could be rightly be called a bowlers' one, one in which batsmen had to fight and earn their runs. Again, it was all down to the pitches, showing, by contrast, just how standardised limited-over cricket has been allowed to become over the years.

Instead of flat or "ideal one-day" pitches, Sabina Park and Queen's Park Oval produced surfaces which, although different, would have made for exciting Tests. Batting first was akin to handling the first session of a Test on a Sabina Park wicket spiced up by rain. It did ease up considerably during the chase, and while that made the toss important, you were still never in as a batsman even in the afternoon, as West Indies' collapse against India showed. Upul Tharanga and Mahela Jayawardene showed big scores were not impossible if superb batting came up against atrocious bowling, racking up a record 348 for 1 batting first against India.

Trinidad only stiffened the challenge for batsmen and also extended it throughout the game on a pitch green and brown in parts. Sri Lanka went for a Twenty20-style chase of 178 in 26 overs against India and were shot out for 96, showing just how lopsided and out-of-place the shortest version can look when the balance tilts in favour of the bowler.

The ODI version chose the final to display just how many twists and turns it can pack in a day's cricket, if the pitch is not dead. Sri Lanka suffered early jolts, rebuilt to reach a position of strength and collapsed in a heap. India kept losing wickets and scoring runs, the latter with difficulty, then had a collapse of their own before turned-down singles and near run-outs climaxed into Dhoni magic in the final over.

This tri-series was not in the FTP, and only Sri Lanka were supposed to travel to West Indies, but it may well be India who have benefited the most from it. They got their first look at the man who is widely seen as the captain-in-waiting. Virat Kohli led India on the field in all league games and came back to carry them to the final, after a heart-breaking one-wicket loss to West Indies and a thrashing from Sri Lanka in Jamaica.

He admitted to missing the calm of Dhoni in the middle, but came back the way he has built his ODI reputation - a match-winning century in a must-win game against West Indies. Four games are not much to go by, but on early evidence, Kohli, unlike Dhoni, likes to stick with his specialist bowlers as much as he can. And he is not averse to packing the infield with men in search of wickets. Though Dhoni's "calm" is other-worldly, Kohli will find his own level of calm as he goes along.

The biggest gain for India has to be that Rohit Sharma went from languid to laborious. He'd not done badly in the Champions Trophy but these conditions were alien to his free-flowing style. He scratched around, he was beaten, he was battered, but was prepared to look ugly and survive against two new balls. In a way, he was playing for his place, but that danger has hardly drawn a similar response from him in the past. He still did not convert the starts after all the labour, but in a series where others struggled to even start, there were consistent signs he is finally starting to respect his talent.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar was outstanding. He took wickets regularly with the new ball and was never easy to score off, which cannot be said about the other two seamers, Umesh Yadav and Ishant Sharma. Umesh is still too erratic for limited-overs and given his tendency to break down, India need to pare down his appearances in the format to preserve him for Tests. Ishant was India's most expensive first-choice bowler in conditions that suited his natural length, although he delivered some crucial wickets.

Shikhar Dhawan came down to earth, but it was Dinesh Karthik who was sorely disappointing with a highest score of 23 in five innings, and Zimbabwe might be his final chance for a while.

However, Zimbabwe won't provide the kind of challenges the conditions and oppositions in this tri-series posed for the Champions Trophy winners. If this is what the core of India's World Cup 2015 side could be, the largely inexperienced bunch could not have asked for a more strenuous workout. Unfortunately, as the World Cup gets closer, this tri-series will fade farther and farther into the blackhole of forgotten ODI events when in fact it may just have laid some important building blocks.

Australia in England - The Investec Ashes

Bell stands tall when England need him

Sometimes it is not the shots a batsman plays that are so impressive, but those he does not.

So it was for Ian Bell on the third day at Trent Bridge. Coming to the crease with the match in the balance - England were just 66 ahead when they lost their fourth second innings wicket a few minutes after Bell's arrival - Bell summed up the conditions and the match situation perfectly in playing an innings of denial, patience and maturity to retain England's hopes of escaping - and yes, it would constitute an escape - with a victory from this Test.

It might just be remembered as his best innings for England. Not his prettiest, not his highest, but his most valuable, his most determined and his most professional.

This is a slow, low wicket. It is a wicket on which attempts to force progress are strewn with danger. Where timing the ball is difficult. Where any attempt to push the bat in front of the body risks the possibility of playing-on, as Kevin Pietersen proved.

So Bell waited. He played straight. He left well and he refused to be drawn into pushing at anything away from his body. He wore down a consistent attack who gained impressive reverse swing and bowled admirably straight, he waited for them to err and he picked them off. He had, by stumps on day three, faced 188 dot balls - from 228 deliveries faced - and not scored a single run between mid-on and mid-off. Ten of his 12 fours came from deflections, either late cuts or leg glances, behind the wicket.

That constitutes a remarkable act of restraint from a batsman as gifted as Bell. He forged his reputation as a strokemaker who could time the ball with a sweetness granted to very few; a man who could make a packed house purr with pleasure and gasp with joy.

But here, like Monet opting to use only shades of grey, he reined in all those attacking instincts to provide the innings his team required. While it would be stretching a point to suggest that he showed the determination to make ugly runs - even Bell's nudges and nurdles are prettier than most - he did reiterate that he is far more than the luxury player that his detractors sometimes suggest.

There are those that still think of Bell as an unfulfilled talent. It is an appraisal that perhaps says more about the great expectations that have burdened Bell than any reasonable analysis of his record: after 6,000 Test runs, an average in excess of 45 and 17 Test centuries, he has already enjoyed a fine career and, aged 31, there are trunk loads still to come.

A persistent criticism of Bell is that he rarely scores runs in the toughest conditions; that his contributions may adorn but rarely define a game. It is a harsh judgement - he has valuable performances under pressure several times, not least at The Oval in 2009, Cape Town in 2010, Trent Bridge in 2011 and Auckland in 2013 - but it has been a tag that has been hard to shed entirely due to lapses of form that have been as maddening as they have hard to understand.

Ian Bell plays a rare cover drive, England v Australia, 1st Investec Test, Trent Bridge, 3rd day, July 12, 2013

Ian Bell in full flow was a rare sight on a day where scoring was difficult © PA Photos 

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By the end of 2011 it appeared Bell had resolved any lingering doubts over his worth at this level. Recalled to the side midway through the Ashes of 2009, he scored 2,023 runs in the next 30 months and 23 Tests, averaging 72.25 and recording eight centuries. But set back by his struggles against Saeed Ajmal in the UAE Bell had scored only 898 runs in the subsequent 19 Tests ahead of this series at an average of 32.07. The doubts and whispers were starting to return.

He will have quelled them here. Perhaps not for long - the vultures never sleep for long - but for a while. On the biggest stage, against a decent attack bowling at their best, on a tricky pitch and with his team under substantial pressure, he delivered. It was an innings without a caveat.

One of the more revealing moments of Bell's innings came when he was at the non-striker's end. Exasperated - not for the first time - by Stuart Broad attempting a heave into the leg side, Bell came down the wicket to remind his partner of his responsibilities to the team. When Broad avoided eye contact, Bell gestured angrily to the fielder and shouted until Broad understood. It was the act of a man confident of his own senior position within the team and a man whose eyes were fixed not on a not out or a personal milestone, but on the team's success. It was as impressive a moment as any in this innings.

"We know how good Ian Bell is," Kevin Pietersen said afterwards. "He does not need to keep proving it to us. But that was an absolutely brilliant innings. He has proven why we think he is a fantastic player. He has come out there and played a very mature innings on quite a tough wicket. Michael Clarke set some very good fields and their bowlers bowled really well."

It would be a shame, then, if Bell's innings was overshadowed by the furore over Broad's decision not to walk for an edge so clear that Stevie Wonder might have given it out. It was a poor decision from Aleem Dar - a great umpire enduring a moment of human weakness - and most batsmen would not have had the gall to remain.

But the moral outrage should be suspended: very few batsmen walk in international cricket and while Broad was guilty of shamelessness, he was also consistent. There is no moral difference between a thick edge and a thin edge and, many of those who do walk tend to do so because they know they are going to be given out anyway.

It would not have been honour that prevented them from doing so in a situation similar to Broad's but an absence of his cheek. Unless the Australian batsmen in this series walk, they have little grounds for their indignation: Broad is no better and no worse than the vast majority of professional cricketers.

Broad batted well. While his batting in recent months has tended to be characterised by the slogs and heaves of a tailender, here he was prepared to graft and wait a little more. It was not perfect - he was still lured into a couple of reckless moments that required fortune to survive - but he lent Bell the support the team needed and had already scored more runs in this Test than any since the 2011 Trent Bridge match against India. A series of long net sessions with Graham Gooch and, perhaps, a change of mentality, have done Broad the world of good.

It might be remembered that two days remain in this Test. To listen to some commentators and analysts - not least Andrew Strauss - you would have thought that England would have benefitted from a more pro-active approach on the third day. It is not so.

There is plenty of time left in this Test and Bell's cautious approach was entirely appropriate. Bell gave the impression of a man who had the strength of his convictions to play the innings his team required; not to please the media or spectators. More hard work lies ahead - the lead respectable but not impregnable - but Bell's fortitude has given England the platform to strike the first blow in this series.

Australia in England - The Investec Ashes

Bell and Broad take control as controversy erupts

          England will be convinced that they finally broke Australia in a heated final session at Trent Bridge, that the 261-run lead established by the end of the third day is already enough to secure victory in the first Investec Test. Australia will suspect as much, but will cloak it in a sense of resentment that could linger all summer long.

          That England achieved such luxury, after an intense battle for supremacy over more than two sessions, owed everything to the serenity of Ian Bell, whose understated innings must be ranked as one of his best, and the effrontery of Stuart Broad, on 37, who shamelessly brazened it out when he was caught at slip, cutting the debutant left-arm spinner, Ashton Agar, only for the umpire Aleem Dar to be misled by a further deflection off the gloves of wicketkeeper Brad Haddin and turn down the appeal.

          Australia were desperate for a wicket: at 297 for 6, on a warm, hazy day, England led by 232, the game tilting towards them. But walking has been almost unheard of in Test matches for 40 years or more and once the initial indignation has died down, it is pointless protesting about what has generally become a convention of the game.

          Broad knew to stay put for an edge as obvious as this was about as embarrassing as it can get, but that it was expected of him and he had no qualms about doing it. His only compensation was that he reddened up so much in the heat that you could not see him blush.

          And so, as the match shifted towards England on a torpid, inconsistent surface, the resentment went the other way. England suffered two dubious debatable decisions by the third umpire, Marais Erasmus on the second day; Dar's blunder infuriated Australia on the third. If they ever lose the Ashes urn, the new ashes could be made up of the burnt offerings of couple of ICC umpires.

          Beyond the emotions, Bell played with inconspicuous authority. The pitch was parched and so were the mouths of the spectators, but Bell exuded calm from the moment he took guard in the 15th over of the day, subtle back cuts and glides to the fore, a sensible approach on such a slow, low surface. He wavered only once, on 77, the over after the Broad brouhaha, when Haddin missed a tough, low chance off Peter Siddle. Haddin's mood, dark enough as it was, turned a shade blacker.

          There were other issues for the umpires to deal with, too. Bell and Broad were warned for running down the centre of the pitch after tea and Pattinson was reminded that when it came to an appeal, once as quite enough as he hollered twice for an lbw appeal against Bell, who got a big inside edge.

          England win these days by wearing down their opponents. Their run rate over their last dozen Tests is lower than any Test nation but Zimbabwe and for much of the day they were at their most painstaking as they battled to make light of a first-innings deficit of 65.

          Only when Matt Prior briefly broke free against the second new ball did they begin to summon an attacking response. Shane Watson, who had been seen as a reluctant bowler in this Test because of a strain or two, delivered 15 overs of sedate medium pace for 11 runs, bringing the ball back with the risk of low bounce, always likely to take a wicket without actually advertising as much.

          Michael Clarke delayed taking the second new ball for three overs but he might have delayed it longer because Prior was still new to the crease, with a single to his name from five deliveries. James Pattinson, in particular, had got the old ball to reverse markedly, England's innings was limping along at less than two runs an over and the slow, low surface was particularly treacherous to Prior who likes nothing more than to feed of off-side width and bounce.

          Against the first new ball they made 176 for 5 at less than two an over; against its successor they made 160 for 1 at 3.2.

          The new ball was much to Prior's tastes, never better illustrated than by his resounding pull, against Mitchell Starc. But on 31, from only 42 balls, the pitch betrayed him as he tried to pull Pattinson, the ball stuck in the surface, and he holed out to midwicket off the bottom of the bat.

          The exhortation in the England dressing room, as they resumed on 80 for 2, only 15 ahead, would have been to bat all day. To make 246 for 4 was more than they dared hope. There was a remorseless mood about Alastair Cook as he registered his slowest half-century in Tests, more than four-and-a-quarter hours, pedestrian progress designed to right the wrongs of England's first innings.

          Since his elevation to the England captaincy, Cook had always turned a Test fifty into a hundred. Agar, a graceful Australian debutant having the game of his life, had no respect for such statistics. Fifty was all he got. Agar outdid him with a touch of extra bounce from the rough as he tried to turn him into the leg side. Clarke's springing catch to his left was a good one; soon followed up by some stretches of his dicky back. Cook's wicket is worth 100 hours of remedial massage.

          Australia were in no mood to allow Cook's staple diet of nudges off his pads. Their tactics are clearly to stifle him by bowling length outside off stump. On another warm morning, Cook impassively watched the deliveries pass by, like a lizard on a rock, waiting for a suitable beetle to come into range.

          Kevin Pietersen, on 64, was England's first batsman to perish, his careworn stand with Cook worth 110 in 49 overs, the memories of England's painstaking progress in Tests in India and New Zealand during the winter revived with every over. He fought hard to play straight, forewarned of the dangers that could befall him if he did not when he whipped Siddle through midwicket and thick-edged the ball through cover, but then he got a ball from Pattinson that said "hit me" and could not resist it.

          Pattinson deserved his moment as he caused Pietersen to drag on, attempting an off-side drive. He had found the edge earlier in the over and must have been wearied by its trundling progress well short of slip on such a torpid surface. Pietersen's error illustrated that a drag-on always a possibility. Bairstow became a second victim for Agar, edging to the wicketkeeper as he pushed at one that turned. Agar looks to be Australia's best chance of producing a regular spinner since Warne, but it is a rum list.

          But Australia were to suffer for their over-excitement by wasting their final review on Pattinson's lbw appeal against Bairstow. Umpire Kumar Dharmasena gave it not out, but when he awarded runs it tempted Australia into a review because they were convinced it had struck the pad, forgetting to factor in that it was passing harmlessly down the leg side.

          It was an embarrassing waste of a review. But it was doubtless not quite as embarrassing as it was for Aleem Dar several hours later.

Australia in England - The Investec Ash

Agar's world records create extraordinary day

No last man has ever made a Test hundred. Ashton Agar came within inches of achieving it in his maiden Test innings. His eyes lit up at the opportunity to pull Stuart Broad and Graeme Swann flung himself forward to hold the catch at deep midwicket. He was denied the ultimate prize, but his extraordinary innings will remain part of cricket folklore forever.

Before Agar's fearless intervention, life was going swimmingly for England. James Anderson was producing a contented exhibition of reverse-swing bowling. Swann was finding substantial turn. Australia lost five wickets for nine runs in 32 balls and were in disarray at 117 for 9. But if England had imagined that a decisive advantage in the first Investec Test was theirs for the taking, as Australia's first innings shrivelled on a parched Trent Bridge morning, they were mistaken.

Agar might have missed a maiden hundred but for the man dubbed 'Ashton Who?' two world records in a day was enough to be going on with. He walked off the ground with a smile and a shrug that won further admiration. His 98 had taken only 101 balls with 11 fours and two sixes. The cricketing world knows his name now.

Agar was the unregarded teenager who told Australia that the game was not yet up. He now holds the highest score by a No. 11 of all time, surpassing Tino Best's 95, also against England, at Edgbaston only last summer. When Best set his mark, that was explosive hitting; this was batting.

He dominated a transformational stand of 163 in 33 overs for the last wicket - another world record - with Phillip Hughes, a specialist batsman who drew strength from his example. He even gave Australia a first-innings lead of 65 and nobody expected that. The Agar family, who had travelled halfway around the world to watch him make his debut, were in jetlag heaven.

England's shock reverberated into the start of the second innings, Joe Root and Jonathan Trott dismissed by Mitchell Starc in 7.3 overs up to tea. Root got a feather on a leg-side flick - his doubts were not strong enough for his captain to agree to a review - and Australia successfully reviewed to gain an lbw against Trott, even though there was no definite proof of an inside edge that the umpire Aleem Dar had suspected.

Maintaining the threat once the new ball had softened was a different proposition. Australia's pace bowlers dried England's scoring rate but found no reverse swing. Alastair Cook was intent on circumspection and even Kevin Pietersen played with utmost sobriety. The last session dripped by. Agar's left-arm spin, although possessing stately promise, lacked threat, although he did have Pietersen dropped at the wicket - a very taxing chance for Brad Haddin - on 25.

Agar will bask forever in the memory of how he twice deposited Swann's offspin straight for six and pulled Steven Finn defiantly to the boundary in a youthful show of Australian defiance. One on-drive late in his innings off Anderson, played with perfect balance, back leg off the ground in the style of Pietersen's flamingo, was a gem.

Australia's innings might have ended on 131 when Agar, on 6, got the benefit of the doubt on Swann's appeal for a stumping from the third umpire, Marais Erasmus. He must know a good story when he sees one. Agar began tentatively but Finn's hapless attempts to browbeat him with short balls on such a somnolent surface failed miserably as the young debutant lived the dream.

Agar pulled him more and more confidently; Finn's tactics looked more and more misconceived. By the time Finn pitched the ball up, Agar had the confidence to drive him eagerly through extra cover. Finn's four overs cost 32 and he has rarely looked so impotent.

England's employment of deep fields to Hughes, a specialist batsman who was blocking, with the intention of bowling to Agar, a No. 11 dismissing the ball to all parts, looked increasingly clownish, a manual that no longer applied.

England had to abandon plans to restrict Stuart Broad to a watching brief. Broad had officially passed a fitness test before play on an injured shoulder but he had bowled gingerly in front of a posse of England backroom staff. He could barely throw the ball in. Until 10 minutes before lunch - a session extended to two-and-a-half hours - he stood there and watched, unemployed for his own protection.

It has been quite a week for Broad. He has had a cortisone injection in his shoulder, been cold shouldered for laddish remarks on Twitter about Andy Murray's girlfriend and then struck on the shoulder by a bouncer from James Pattinson. As the overs ticked by, and he was not called upon, he probably got a chip on his shoulder to complete the set.

Glorious blue skies greeted Australia at the start of play. All it required was some glorious batting to go with it. For half-an-hour, Australia prospered. Hughes punched Anderson confidently in front of point, Steve Smith met the introduction of Swann's offspin by a spritely blow over extra cover to register the first half-century of the series. Thirty-three runs came in untroubled fashion.

Then, as if by instruction, the mood changed abruptly. The ball spun markedly as early as the second morning; it reverse-swung by the 31st over. The nature of Test cricket in England is not what it once was.

England had hinted that they might contest the Ashes on dry surfaces and they have been as good as their word. Australian wickets fell in a rush. The air was rent with England appeals. The skies were still blue, but it no longer mattered.

Smith had played with adventure, but his eye let him down when he drove ambitiously at Anderson and edged to Matt Prior, beaten by just a shade of outswing. Swann, presented with the sort of parched, cracked surface he must have dreamed that his home ground would one day produce, found substantial turn to bowl Brad Haddin, second ball.

Then in the next over Anderson, cupping his hands around the ball, signalled that he felt it was already time for reverse swing, the result of a dry ground and England's wise ball management. Peter Siddle was worked over, dealt in turn a lavish inswinger and then an aggressive outswinger which he edged to Prior.

Anderson proceeded with lithe contentment. Starc was his third wicket of the morning, all to wicketkeeper catches, as he dabbed at a ball that swung away from him.

Pattinson was quickly dispensed with, thrusting forward to an offspinner which failed to turn, the batsman's review of the lbw decision failing when replays showed the ball thudding into leg stump. In walked Agar, about to deliver something quite extraordinary.

Jarrod Kimber

Mega Ashes keeps throwing up surprises

It was the punch heard around the world despite barely touching skin. David Warner started the mega Ashes with a bang. Many words were written, spoken, yelled. Essentially the whole world decided as one that Australia was just as rubbish as they'd thought before, and now they were idiots as well. They couldn't land a punch, let alone win the Ashes.

"Australia are buggered, totally, on and off the field. Everyone knows this."

The intended victim of Warner's technically flawed wild swing wasn't Mickey Arthur. Cricket Australia, noticing that something was wrong, threw Mickey Arthur out the door. The people who hired him, and who gave Tim Nielsen a contract extension that was to take him to the end of these Ashes, still remained. But who could worry about some trifling matters when Australia had found the ultimate messiah. A rotund, smoking, beer-drinking coach, who was actually Australian, and not only that, had worn the baggy green on his perfectly round, bald head.

Boof's boys had replaced Lolstralia. The series would be, we were told, closer than we thought. 'They' rated Lehmann and his solid, old-school thinking, and suddenly, right in front of our eyes, England weren't as good as they had been.

"Darren Lehmann makes everything he touch turn into diamonds and jellybeans."

Then there was a lull. The press ran out of stories of any interest once Fawad Ahmed went home. England walked around talking up Australia. They would fight. They would be better than you thought. They wore caps on their head. They had Aussie heritage. They had two eyes, a nose and a mouth. It was as if England's plan was to drown Australia in endless facile platitudes.

"Australia are good enough for England to beat them and it still matter a great deal. We hope."

On the morning of the first match, several of the Aussie Fanatics had travelled 25 hours by bus from the running of the bulls in Pamplona to see the match. There was a chance that had Australia been sent in and bowled out, the least painful part of the trip would have been sitting on a bus for more than a day after being gouged by a bull.

Instead it was Peter Siddle who did the gouging. Not that he wasn't ably assisted by an English top-order who thought playing consistent loose shots outside off for hours on end was a good idea. And the more wickets Siddle took, the less likely people would continue to say '10-0'. By the time Graeme Swann had awkwardly fended a ball to point, England were the team worrying about what people would say about them.

"Aha, we also said England had a weakness for playing stupid shots and the Aussie pace attack was good, didn't we?"

	"After two days, we still have no idea how this mega Ashes will pan out. Perhaps Boof's boys will be too random and strange for the Flower androids"

That lasted until Ed Cowan played his golden duck drive. Cowan's innings was a brief break from his chronic vomiting, an illness so bad it landed his daughter in hospital. While the Cowans, and many Australian fans, vomited, Australia fell down from their very brief trip up on to the pedestal. Only Steve Smith hit the ball with any authority, and their very strong tail disappeared almost as quick as they could walk out there. It was every bit as ugly as an ass gouging and 25-hour-bus journey.

"Katich, Ponting and Voges are coughing out runs and we have this lot. Hell, we could even use Warner right now."

Then Ashton Agar met Phil Hughes. It was supposed to be a 30-run partnership followed by England cranking out a soul-destroying lead. Instead it was one of the greatest partnerships in cricket history. A 19-year-old No. 11 joined by a haunted former boy wonder sounds like the beginning of very depressing indie drama, but instead the game was lifted by the loose limbs of Agar and the technically fraught Hughes. They scored quickly and decisively. They played Anderson out. Bashed Finn when he allowed it. And Agar went after Swann like he hadn't seen the Brad Haddin dismissal. Instead of rolling over and dying they made history.

"The baggy green, and even the hard green helmet, has a mythical quality that you scientists will never understand."

England had clearly forgotten all their facile platitudes about how hard Australia would come, and how you can never write them off. Although, they had other things on their mind. They were clearly worried that they were being judged. Andy Flower was the only person who read 1984 and thought Winston Smith had it coming. English players are now judged on how they walk, talk, injure, breath and masticate. Their life is down to a series of boxes and scores. They analyse the best way to walk through the hotel lobby.

But how do you analyse Agar's batting? Ask Henley or Richmond CC to provide tapes? It's not the same, and once Agar got into his flow, the England players stood very still, and waited for it to end. They refused to try Stuart Broad, or get him off the field and get him treated. Finn decided to test every part of the pitch. Cook tried as little as possible. And they looked like men who'd lost the instructions and Allen keys for their flatpack furniture.

"These guys have an algorithm to tell them the correct way to suck from a straw, they're more computer than human."

It wasn't until England came out to bat that that both sides played well at the same time. Even if Australia got lucky with some Mitchell Starc rawness and Marais Erasmus randomness. It was the Australia bowlers bowling fast and accurate with Michael Clarke trying things, and Cook and Kevin Pietersen sitting on the bowling. After all the excitement, it was the first time there was quality to match it. It was tough, slow and tense, probably because it was the only thing this series had missed in the first two days.

After two days, we still have no idea how this mega Ashes will pan out. Perhaps Boof's boys will be too random and strange for the Flower androids.

Maybe that is just another wild nonsensical statement based on one passage of cricket. The mega Ashes is only two days old, but the cricket has already been more interesting and entertaining than anything David Warner does after midnight.

Only 48 days to go.