Ashes 2009, England v Australia, 2nd Test, Day 1 Report
Day 1 pretty much belonged to England but Australia came back strongly in the third session. While we saw excellent batting from the openers, the middle order played irresponsibly yet again.
Australia started the day off with very poor bowling. Mitchell Johnson’s line was all over the place and he got hit in all directions of the ground. Ben Hilfenhaus bowled a decent spell but not good enough to pick a wicket. Alistair Cook and Andrew Strauss looked in great form and were playing their shots freely. Peter Siddle came on as the first change and he was the first bowler to looked to pick a wicket. Ricky Ponting insisted on continuing with Mitchell Johnson but Johnson was clearly struggling to bowl against the left-handers. I believe Johnson is a much better bowler against right-handed batsmen. England finished the first session at 126 runs for the loss of no wickets.
After a great batting display, Alistair Cook lost his wicket for 95 runs, unfortunately missing out on a hundred. Ravi Bopara walked in and he played aggressively before Hilfenhaus got him LBW off an in-swinging delivery. I felt Bopara batted in a very irresponsible way, given the best possible start by the openers. Rather than capitalizing on the great start, he gave his wicket cheaply. After this it was a middle order collapse – Pietersen, Collingwood, Prior and Flintoff all losing their wickets cheaply. All of them failed to build on the start and this could turn out as the turning point of the match. England could have posted a score of well over 550 runs but chances for that look very skim now.
End Of Day: England – 364/6 in 90.0 overs (Andrew Strauss 161, Stuart Broad 7)
