England surge to comprehensive win over Australia with day to spare : T1D4

England 430 & 289 beat Australia 308 & 242 (70.3ov, Johnson 77/94b/2x6 9x4, Warner 52/86b/1x6 6x4, Smith 33, Broad 14-3-39-3, Moeen Ali 16.3-4-59-3, Root2/28, Wood 2/53) by 169 runs T1/5 D4/5 at Cardiff> England lead series 1-0. Player of match: J Root

Australia made a pretty good fist of chasing the improbable until on the cusp of lunch David Warner, who had looked to have negotiated the best Stuart Broad could deliver to him - and there were some beauties in his opening spell - was lbw to Moeen Ali, who Alistair Cook had restored to the attack after his first two overs had gone for 22. 2/97 became 3/101, then in short order 4/106, 5/106 and 6/122. Shane Watson and Mitchell Johnson kept a candle of hope flickering before Watson, as many  expected, was lbw (to Mark Wood for 19): 7/151. With all due respect to Johnson, who reminded us that he possesses considerable batting talent, it was all over bar some slogging. England cruised to a comfortable victory, and thus a 1-0 series lead, with a day to spare. Broad bowled magnificently.

England showed many of the qualities that are often associated with Australia (and which the latter's supporters would have hoped to see demonstrated more often in this match). The scorecard reveals a lot about the weakness of Australia's middle order batting, the pitch maps about the prodigality of the quick bowling, and TV replays the susceptibility of Watson to lbws (and his propensity to review such decisions) not to mention Brad Haddin's major blunder behind the stumps (and some other less costly fumbles).

It looks as if Mitchell Starc, Australia's best bowler (of a moderate lot) in this match, will miss the Lord's Test starting in 4 days because of injury. It is widely assumed that Peter Siddle will replace him. In my opinion Siddle is Hobson's choice, as Pat Cummins hasn't had much red ball bowling for some time. I also fear that Siddle has passed his peak: he last appeared in a Test here v India and only took two tailender wickets. Isn't there another young Australian quick bowler without a history of injury and with experience of English conditions  who can be drafted into the squad? If not, why not?

As for the batting and wicketkeeping, I need to think about them for a day or so. Watch this space....

Well done, England!


Scorecard

Ashes 2015 begin with Root, Ballance and Stokes leading England fightback

England 7/343 (88ov, Root 134/166b/17x4, Ballance 61/149b/8x4, Stokes 52/78b/2x6 6x4, Starc 3/84, Hazlewood 3/70) v Australia T1/5 D1/5 at Cardiff. Toss: England.

Once play got under way, after a brief drizzle and a lengthy opening ceremony strongly padded with Welsh windbaggery, England initially faltered to 3/46, then Joe Root, dropped before he'd scored, led a counterattack which, despite Australia's bowling regrouping later in the day, left his team with the better of the day's play.

Not much better perhaps, but enough to keep the spotlight on the successes of Root, Gary Ballance and Ben Stokes as well as on Brad Haddin's failure to catch Root - a little more than a regulation catch yet considerably less than a difficult one. This allowed Alistair Cook's modest and Ian Bell's poor efforts with the bat to avoid much scrutiny.

Root deserves abundant praise for his innings, not just its total but also its quality. His driving along the ground was as crisp and well timed as I've seen for a long time: worth stating awake to watch (pity Channel 9 aren't showing Foxtel - or any- type highlights at a more congenial hour).

Australia's attack was a mixed bag. Mitchell Starc was at times brilliant, at other times all over the place; Mitchell Johnson was out of sorts; Josh Hazlewood was steady with occasional nip (as when he had Adam Lyth sharply caught in the gully); while Nathan Lyon, after being brought on early and dismissing Cook ( a good catch by Haddin) didn't do much thereafter.

From my armchair the two Mitchells looked inaccurate, too often bowling wide of the off stump mark. Glenn McGrath on the radio cut Johnson some slack, on the grounds that the Cardiff pitch didn't suit him. I'll defer to the great man's opinion though would be less confident about the accuracy of his prediction that (unspecified) pitches later in the series will be more to MJ's liking. If they haven't already done so after hearing this England officials will be issuing instructions to the pitch preparation people at each of the other four Test venues.

 The pitch looks OK by UK Test standards for the moment, but could be trickier later in the Test. Australia will, unless they collapse abysmally in their first innings, have last use of it,which should motivate everyone in the eleven to think about how they can improve on their D1 performance and at least keep in touch with England (read as first innings lead) when they bat.

Scorecard

Collingwood and lower order save smidgin of respect for England: Ashes 09 T1 D5

England 435 and 9/252 (P Collingwood 74) drew with Australia 6/674 dec: Ashes T#1 D5 at Cardiff

Well it didn't turn out as I and most other commentators expected. England, more precisely numbers 5 to 11 inclusive, batted as if the series depended on their finding sufficient guts and determination to keep a good, though not world beating, Australian attack at bay.

Paul Collingwood's 74 (334 min/245b/13x4) was of course the platform around which the resistance rallied after Andrew Strauss, Kevin Pietersen and Matt Prior didn't trouble the scorers, or the Australian bowlers, very much.

At 5/70 England looked finished but somehow the remaining batters found some g & d: not in lavish quantities but collectively sufficient to - just - hold out. When Collingwood was ninth out out at 233 again it seemed all over but Jimmy Anderson (not surprisingly) and Monty Panesar (very surprisingly) stayed together for the remaining 11.3 overs. The Australians generally bowled well, if occasionally erratically, though one or two of them showed signs of tiredness in the final session: has Nathan Hauritz ever bowled 37 overs in an innings before, I wonder?

Enough for now. I stayed up until after 3am local time to watch the finish. England were outplayed for much of the match but, Test cricket being Test cricket, a draw is a legitimate result. In the post match euphoria England and their supporters will feel enervated and Australia dispirited, but as the Lords Test (which starts on Thursday) draws closer the realisation that this was a moral victory to Australia will surely grow.

Scorecard

Aust biff 1/195 , England scratch 2/20 in short day's play: Ashes 09 T1 D4

England 435 and 2/20 trail Australia 6/674 dec (R Ponting 150, M North 125*, S Katich 122, B Haddin 121) by 219 runs with 8 second inns wickets in hand: Ashes T#1, D4 at Cardiff.

The forecast rain did not eventuate until tea, when it terminated play for the day. Marcus North's 125* and Brad Haddin's 121, were the high points of the two sessions but, without taking anything away from them, England's tactics, general lassitude (as if they were waiting for the rain to come) and blatant attempts to slow the game down backfired. This was particularly evident in the pre-lunch session where only 27 wicketless overs, 10 - the best 10 - by spinners were bowled for 98 runs.

Why Stuart Broad, the weakest of the frontline bowlers, opened the bowling instead of Andrew Flintoff (weary?) or a spinner, was beyond me. I couldn't see why a new ball was taken when Graeme Swann and Monty Panesar in tandem were getting some sharp spin. A few overs' delay would probably have made North work harder for his century and Haddin for his 50. Given the acceleration which accompanied, as it often does, the taking of the new ball, the achievement of those milestones would almost certainly have been deferred until after lunch.

As it was the lunch score of 5/557, the late arrival of the rain and England's dropping its collective bundle provided a perfect launching pad for Haddin to gallop to a hundred in the afternoon. He was out, caught by Ravi Bopara in the outfield off Paul Collingwood's medium pace (which looked worth more than 9 of the 181 overs bowled) for a devastating 121 (151b/11x4, 3x6). Marcus North remained not out 125 (232b/13x4) as Australia posted its highest total against England for a long, long time.

Mentally shattered (check the TV footage and pictures if you require corroboration) and with only a draw to play for, England faltered against the rested Australian attack. On the radio Geoffrey Boycott wrote off Mitchell Johnson's first over as "tripe", though he did have a good word for Ben Hilfenhaus, before each of them struck: Alastair Cook lbw Johnson 6 and Ravi Bopara (unluckily) judged lbw Hilfenhaus 1.

Assuming there are no further weather interruptions, England need to bat for 98 overs to save the match. Not bloomin' likely.

Scorecard

Good Australian batting+ foul Cardiff weather= draw? Ashes 09 T1 D3

Australia 5/479 (139 ov, R Ponting 150, S Katich 122, M Clarke 83, M North 54*) lead England 435 by 44 runs with 5 1st inns wickets in hand: Ashes Test #1 Day 3 at Cardiff.

England's 15 minutes or thereabouts of sunshine came before lunch as Australia slipped from 1/299 to 4/331. Simon Katich was lbw to Jimmy Anderson for a worthy if tad fortunate 122/261b/12x4, Ricky Ponting played on to Monty Panesar for a topnotch 150/224b/14x4, 1x6, and Michael Hussey was caught behind off Anderson for a scrappy 3.

Thereafter it was all Australia. Michael Clarke and Marcus North took the total past England's before rain intervened. When play resumed with the ground floodlights on (a first for England the UK) they extended their partnership to 143 before the vice-captain succumbed to Stuart Broad for a classy 83/145b/9x4, 1x6.

TV pictures show that the pitch appears to have deteriorated since the match began yet you wouldn't know that from the way England bowled.

With Cardiff now comfortably supplanting Manchester as the wettest Test venue in the UK (1,061 v 810 mm ave annual rainfall) and an unpromising forecast it looks as if a draw is now even more the likeliest result. If that happens and given the dominance of bat over ball in this match we may be condemned to several highscoring draws in the rest of this series.

I hope not, despite the quality batting from Ponting and others which, if you haven't already seen, look out for on TV or online eg here.

Scorecard

England have better of day's play... just: Ashes09 T1 D1

England 7/336 (90ov, K Pietersen 69, P Collingwood 64, M Prior 56) v Australia:
Ashes Test #1 Day 1 at Cardiff

7/336 looks a reasonable score on a pitch with a bit of turn and uneven bounce, though Kevin Pietersen was out to a stupid shot when he looked well on the way to a century (having been treated leniently by the umpires earlier).

Questions

1. Why did Australia omit Stuart Clark?

He's the most experienced bowler in the squad and the pitch looked well suited to his bowling style.

2. Why did Australia include Nathan Hauritz?

Sure, he got Pietersen out (from his widest delivery) and extracted some slow turn but as the TV pitch map showed he generally bowled too short. I agree with the caustic piece, written before play began, by Patrick Smith in today's Australian .

3. Why did England include Monty Panesar instead of Graeme Onions?

Apart from England's warm up match last week how long is it since Panesar has shown any form? I thought Onions bowled soundly ( without Harmison's sharp edge) for the Lions, and well, albeit in favourable early season conditions, in the West Indies Tests.

4. Why did Pietersen play that shot?

Plenty of others, including the man himself, will have their five cents or pence worth about this.

5. Why didn't Marcus North bowl?

A few days ago he was Australia's no1 spinner. He didn't bowl particularly well in the Lions match but then neither did Hauritz or any of the acknowledged part-timers. Is he now no 4 in the spin bowling order?

6. Will the pitch improve or slowly deteriorate?

I can't say. The general opinion among experts seems to be that it'll turn more as the match proceeds.

Electronic media coverage

Both SBS and Fox Sports relayed the UK Sky TV coverage, supplemented by expert comments from the studio (SBS) and the ground (Fox). I jumped between the two and listened for a while to ABC radio's coverage. The SBS picture is a little better than the Fox one (at least on my set), yet I think it was SBS who cut to an ad during a replay at the end of one over.

Why isn't, as happens with other teams touring England, eg New Zealand, at least one of the Aussie commentators integrated into the Sky commentary team? During the tea interval Fox's Messrs Border, Julian and Blewett struggled to compete with Tom Jones belting it out over the ground PA system.