Ashes 2009, England v Australia, 1st Test, Day 3 Report
A rain-hit Day 3 was pretty evenly matched with Australia scoring 230 runs and England picking up 4 wickets. Ricky Ponting reached 150 runs (off 224 balls) but Michael Clarke was the highlight of the day scoring 83 runs off 154 balls. Overall, I was very disappointed with the bowling of spin-twins – Monty Panesar and Graeme Swann. Monty Panesar just didn’t trouble the batsmen enough. Graeme Swann over-pitched the ball most of the times and to make up for that he would drop the ball short. James Anderson was the bowler of the day picking up two crucial wickets.
Day 2 Score: Australia – 249/1 in 71.0 overs (Simon Katich 104, Ricky Ponting 100)
Morning Session: England started off the day with Stuart Broad hoping to pick up some early wickets. Ponting and Katich continued to score at will, just like Day 2. Graeme Swann was getting some spin off the rough patches but he used it to no good and repeatedly over-pitched the ball. Poor bowling by spinners left Strauss with no choice but to take the new ball. James Anderson came on and Ponting hit a glorious cover drive to an out-swinging delivery by James Anderson. 
While Katich was being troubled by Andrew Flintoff, Ricky Ponting was cruising through his innings. And finally, England got a wicket – Katich LBW Anderson off a beautiful in-swinging yorker. Michael Hussey was welcomed by Flintoff with a bouncer on the head. And then Flintoff delivered another blow – hitting Ponting on the rib cage and we heard a loud grunt from Ponting. On the other end, Anderson picked Michael Hussey’s wicket caught by Matt Prior. Michael Clarke walked in and we see some drama – Clarke v Flintoff. Clarke hit a few balls back at Flintoff and Flintoff throws them right back at Clarke. Just after Ponting reached 150, he dragged one onto his stumps off Monty Panesar’s bowling. What a great knock by Ricky Ponting! First session was pretty evenly matched with Australia getting 99 runs at the run rate of 3.54 and England picking up 3 wickets.
After Lunch: Australian continued to score straight down the wicket. As Nasser Hussain mentioned, the mid-on had to be straighter than it was and this was one of the flaws in Andrew Strauss’s captaincy. Rest of the session belonged to Michael Clarke. He absolutely bamboozled both the spinners hitting them all over the park. English spinners had no answer to Clarke’s excellent foot work. Marcus North got his 50 from 107 balls. Both batsmen continued to score freely till late in the day, when Stuart Broad picked Clarke off a quick and sharp bouncer. And the rain started to pour down and the umpires offered Australians the light and they took it!
End Of Day: Australia – 479/5 in 139.0 overs (Marcus North 54, Brad Haddin 4)
