There were not many surprises in the Australian team apart from the omission of Phil Hughes and Mitchell Johnson being retained. Shane Watson made a good come back to the test side by scoring an unbeaten 62 on a truncated day at Edgbaston.
Ricky Ponting won the toss for the first time in this series. Australian openers started off the day cautiously but once they got their eye on, the strokes flowed from their willows. Greame Swann came in to break the partnership trapping Simon Katich in front of wicket, but by that time Australia had laid a solid foundation. Ricky Ponting gave good support to Watson despite edging a few deliveries of Flintoff.
England went to the match with Ian Bell as the solitary change as Steve Harmison finds his place in the sidelines. Their bowling looked ordinary and lacked energy compared to the Lord’s Test and Australia dominated the useable 30 overs with a glorious run rate of above 4. As expected, Flintoff struggled against right-handers though few of his deliveries probed Ponting in the last over of the day.
The pitch is absolutely flat and will be a graveyard for the bowlers. If there are any major interventions of rain on day 2, then England will go into the penultimate test match with the 1-0 lead. If Australia want to seal a victory in this test match, then they have to score 450+ runs before tea on Day2.Given the nature of the pitch, it would be very easy. However, if England emulates Australia’s effort, then a draggy draw would be the apparent result.
Tags: Ashes 2009, Australia, England
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