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

Australia lose edge as England regroup with help from weather & umpire pedantry: T3 D4

Australia 7/527dec & 7/172 (36ov, Warner 41/57b/5x4) lead England 368 (139.3ov, Pietersen 113, Cook 62, Bell 60, Siddle 4/63, Starc 3/79) by 331runs with 3 2nd inns wickets in hand: T3/5 D4/5 at Manchester.

England avoided the follow on more comfortably than the Australians would have wished (why did Ryan Harris bowl for so long?). They then batted on in the knowledge that time and the weather would minimise Australia's chances of winning. Australia batted in a kind of limited overs mode until the umpires decided in the final session that, floodlights notwithstanding, in their opinion it was unsafe for play to continue everyone trooped off the ground half an hour before the rain came down.

On paper England clawed back a bit but their cockiness, exemplified by Stuart Broad & Graeme Swann walking before the umpire gave them out, was underpinned by their meteorological foreknowledge.

Of the Australian batters David Warner, promoted to open, looked more at home than in the first innings until one of his biffs (this time willow on leather) was intercepted by Joe Root. Despite the celebrations this prompted among England supporters, it didn't IMO remove Broad  and Swann's walking from joint winners of the play of the day award. 

If this doesn't sound like Test cricket, you're probably right.  But as the day progressed and the weather moved in England became more secure from defeat. The umpires' decision to stop play in the floodlit gloom (oxymoron anyone?) was the last act of a ragged day's play and probably, if the forecast of 60% chance of "precipitation" is anywhere near the mark, the prelude to a dull and interrupted day, a face saving draw for England and disappointment for Australia.

So the Ashes will remain in England, but the series is still open. And if Australia is savvy enough to play the long game, in the remaining two Tests it will have chances to remind England that the gap between the teams may not be as great as many believed until very recently.

<ahref="http://www.espncricinfo.com/the-ashes-2013/engine/match/566934.html">Scorecard </a>

England complete crushing of Australia to take 2-0 series lead: T2 D4

England 361 & 7/349 dec (114.1ov, Root 180/338b/2x6, 18x4, Bell 74, Siddle 3/65, Harris 2/31) def Australia 128 & 235 (90.3ov, Khawaja 54, Clarke 51, Swann 4/78, Root 2/9, Bresnan 2/30, Anderson 2/55) by 347 runs; T2/5 D4(/5) at Lord's, London. England lead series 2-0 with three Tests to play.

Player of the match: Joe Root.

What more is there to be said? England completed wiping the floor with Australia. It's hard to see them relinquishing the Ashes in this series, and perhaps in the return bout later this year.

Once again some toothless and some inept batting saw Australia crumble against some good though by no means as unplayable bowling as some made it appear. Only Usman Khawaja and Michael Clarke made 50s - just - with the only other small crumb of comfort coming from yet another substantial 10th wicket partnership: 43. 

How can Australia win without the top order contributing many more runs? As things stand now it can't. How can this situation be remedied? At the moment I don't know but will ponder the question over the coming days.

<a href="http://www.espncricinfo.com/the-ashes-2013/engine/match/566933.html">Scorecard</a>

Australia's situation hopeless, so what are its next steps? T2 D3

England 361 & 5/333 (110ov, Root 178*/334 b/ 2x6, 18x4, Bell 74/103b/11x4, Trott 74, Bresnan 38, Siddle 3/65) lead Australia 128 by 566 runs with 5 2nd inns wickets in hand; T2/5 D3/5 at Lord's, London.

England did to Australia what India did in the series earlier this year : batted watchfully for two sessions then cut loose in the last, adding 162 in 32overs out of  2 /303 from the 90 bowled in the day. They are in an impregnable position.

It was Joe Root 's day : his innings has set the foundation of a huge England win. Does .Australia  have anyone with a portion of his gritty perseverancel? Short answer - no.

So what can we do? First, the bowlers must regroup as best as they are able: not all of them have bowled poorly and in the first two sessions many of them restrained Root, albeit without troubling him too much .

Of course a declaration may - should -  be imminent, perhaps after Root has had an opportunity to reach 200, in which case it won't matter too much.

The batting? Follow Root's example: be positively defensive, and look to build innings and partnerships. How many of the top seven are capable of doing this? I won't make my private opinions public, but I'd
be pleased if four or more made at least 70, with two of them making big tons.

These won't win the Test, but they could be the next steps which Australia must take on the path back to competitiveness.