Thursday, November 23, 2006

First day to Australia

3/346 (Ponting 137*, Hussey 63*) at stumps on day one clearly puts Australia on top. England will need to regroup considerably if they are to get back into the match. The bowling is the problem: only Andrew Flintoff, who led from the front, and Ashley Giles took wickets: the others were expensive or lacked penetration, or both. The fielding wasn't too bad with a few good moments eg Paul Collingwood's slip catch to dismiss Damien Martyn.


This said the highlight of the day was, as the scorecard suggests, Ricky Ponting's innings of 137 not out. He seemed to have all the time in the world to compose and execute his shots. His driving was crisp and elegant. When he reached his century his celebrations were so athletic that he looked as if he had a good many more runs in him (which he probably does).

BBC scorecard and links to comments

Cricinfo scorecard and links to reports.

Fox sports scorecard

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