Australia
Started 196 runs behind. But then had a good day. Imagine if they started working the English batsmen at the start of the day instead of half way through.
England
Take Cook and Strauss out and they had a shit day. 360 on the first day is nice though, I’d take it.
Who is in front
You’d rather be England, but the wicket looks like a 550 type deck. If England squeeze out a hundred more, and take some early wickets they will be well in front.
Play of the day
It should be Brad Haddin’s wicket keeping. He saw it might be a bad day for the team, and decided to lift their spirits with comical keeping. Even dropping a catch off a no ball. But it has to go to Shane Warne’s appearance. An orange glow on his skin to go with his glowing white teeth. He looked like a character from a 70s sci fi film.
Testicular moment of the day
It doesn’t take a special effort to make runs on this pitch, but Strauss did more than make runs. He made a statement to his team, “Pretty starts aren’t worth shit”. This is a good wicket, and the Wing Commander wasn’t giving his start away.
Working class moment
Marcus North probably wouldn’t have expected to bowl much in the first innings, if at all. He bowled 16 overs on the first day. 16.3 to be exact. And while he didn’t take any wickets, he was very clever with his bowling. He made Strauss change his game more than once, and looked pretty handy.
