Neither Do Two Swallows ... But ...

A mixed day for England at Trent Bridge, having surrendered their innings in just over an hour of the morning session as the deadly Pakistan turned up to play. Not to be recognised as the rabble who ended the first day's play, this was the on fire side which rattled the Australians at Headingley. Asif appeared to have tuned his instruments and his spell of 4-5 during the shortened session more than made up for his consistent under pitching the day before. England were not helped by the farcical run out of Matt Prior but along with his brilliance, Swann also has these remarkable brain fades and this time, he would be arrested for a Prior offence.

This Pakistan, the one of bowlers of good pace who keep the ball full and let it move about and fielders who expect their catches ... this is the deadly version. Mind you, Farhat's incompetent drop at first slip was a reminder that the other face of Pakistan is only a turn of the head away.

Still, with runs on the board, it was advantage England.

Pakistan's batsmen then threw a birthday party for Jimmy Anderson, my joe and didn't he enjoy being 28. Almost without fault, Anderson, Broad and Finn bowled immaculately and despite the speed with which wickets fell, they displayed great patience. It was more apparent than any other quality of their bowling. They swung the ball, like Aamer and Asif, but from a fractionally shorter length - the oft referred to corridor or uncertainty. Their line was almost completely perfect, but it was their patience that gave them dominance. The ninety minutes of play when Shoaib, Aamer, Gul and Apple Dannish combined to rescue Pakistan from 6-47 and add a hundred, the English pace trio just kept doing the right things, ball after ball until the chances came. It's this quality that should scare the Australians more than anything on show here so far because patience combined with skill will win Test matches, even in Australia. Skill is not enough. Patience is something which comes with self belief and professionalism.

The Poms fielded well. Seven catches held behind the wicket - three of them to Swann - and nothing wasted. Another sign of patience.

Don't be expecting 5-0 this summer folks. Australia might be lucky to win two. A warning ... Danger, Danger, Will Robinson ... Australia is facing the first home Ashes loss since Gatting's Tour in 85-86.

At the end of day two, it hardly matters if England are able to enforce the follow-on. They already have a large enough lead to win.

In Colombo, India eventually flew high over Sri Lanka with a 707, their first innings total. Oh how the Sri Lankans will miss Google Eyes. He might not have won them this Test but if you are going to bowl on a road, you want to have the bloke who knows his way around the median strips. India have revived their chances in this series but play at the same venue in the final Test of the series and with a 1-0 lead, it's hard to imagine a result wicket rising suddenly from this square.

One Swallow Doesn't Make A Summer ... True ... But ...

As much as there is truth in the saying which requires many more swallows to be present before summer is declared, the First Test between England and Pakistan already has ominous overtones for the Australian cricketers as they rest/prepare for a short trip to India. The form and fitness of one Sachin Tendulkar would be also be high on the "bugger" list this morning too.

Pakistan were much the same as they had been against Australia when the Trent Bridge Test began overnight. Aamer and Aisf had England under pressure. Cook looked uncertain during his half hour stay, whilst Strauss was composing a melody of fours, mostly off Asif. Cook was picked up at first slip by Farhat and Trott came in to applause that was as nervous as he was. Soon after, Kamran Akmal continued his channeling act, tuning in nicely to Rod Marsh's early days and sending an edge from Strauss to the turf in a dreadful miss, even in your local 3rd Grade competition. Trott became more confident and the pair would have taken England to lunch but Strauss was unlucky on two counts. Firstly, having waited for a bad ball to cut, he top edged the first that came along and secondly, Akmal caught it.

After lunch, Peitersen survived two referrals before playing across the line once two often and sending an inside edge from Asif onto his middle stump. Trott, having improved the longer he batted, did the terribly trendy thing and padded up to a ball which bent back at him from Aamer, only to be given out by both sets of umpires.

Morgan then played his best Test innings. For the rest of the day, with Collingwood in solid support, he systematically and carefully attacked Pakistan, raising his hundred with a six back over the bowlers head. He walked off Trent Bridge with a touring ticket to Australia in his back pocket.

Pakistan had their chances, despite the quality of the English middle order pair as the afternoon wore on. Collingwood was miles from home after charging down the pitch to the Apple Dannish but Akmal again failed to glove the ball. My blind grandmother could have lifted the bails on and she's been dead for twenty years!

Meanwhile in Sri Lanka, Tendulkar raised his 5th Test double century, batting on a road in Colombo where 1300 runs have cost only 13 wickets. The daunting thing about his innings isn't the runs but the fitness of the little champion. At the age of 37, after five hours of batting, he stilled sprinted three 2's of successive deliveries with all the speed and agility his 17 year old shadow did twenty years ago. There are now 1700+ career runs between he and Ponting but does anyone believe Ponting will outscore him when they go head to head in India in October? Call me silly but I don't think Ponting will last long enough to pass him. The way it stands today, Ponting needs to play three more five Tests series after Tendulkar retires and average 50 in each to get within a few hundred of him. The Ponting of 2010 can't do it and really, with no disrespect to the batsman Ponting has been, I don't want him to. Tendulkar should always be the number one ... yes, better than Bradman.

Apples v Apples - England v Pakistan

Thanks to a delightful perchance of political unrest and wistful programming, cricket fans have the chance to dip the litmus paper on both sides in the fast approaching Ashes series during the Australian summer.

Starting from this evening, England take on the ebullient Pakistan in a four Test series which will be the last workout for the Poms at Test level before the fun begins in Brisbane on 25th November. This would be a compelling series anyway, marking as it does the first return to England by Pakistan after their troubled previous tour during which a Test match was forfeited and an umpires career ended for simply standing up to bullying and threats and applying the laws. That series marked the first for Andrew Strauss as captain as he stood in for the injured Freddie Flintoff. Many thought it was a pity he didn't keep the job in the tour which followed to Australia.

For fans of the game Down Under this series of four matches gives us the rare opportunity to compare apples against apples. Both England and Australia will have played the same opponent in the same conditions and therefore a chance for real comparison as to how the teams are travelling. Australia could claim their matches were played "out of season" but in these days of professional cricketers, northern and southern seasons no longer exist.

England go into the first Test at near best strength, with only Ian Bell missing after breaking bones in his foot. His replacement Eoin Morgan will almost certainly tour to Oz but would like runs at any opportunity to make sure. Steven Finn is back after a rest from the silly slap and tickle stuff and a special conditioning program and will likely be selected in all four Tests in the hope of running him into form. The English are placing much hope in the young Middlesex lad and are banking on him being able to apply pressure on the Australian top order. The only England player under any sort of tour blow torch is Jonathan Trott, whose batting has been good yet horribly inconsistent and England would be concerned about exposing him at number three. However, in truth what other options do they have? He represents a significant long term investment for a specific task. Surely Bell can't go back to 3 and Peitersen has flat out refused to bat there. If common sense applied, wouldn't you be telling a South African bred batsmen to relax and enjoy the four Tests against Pakistan in order to get him onto Australian wickets in conditions that will suit him?

England should be too good for Pakistan and there won't be any all out for 88's in this England side - too much mental toughness. Each would have been reminded that a series of crushing performances against Pakistan will give them the psychological upper hand to achieve the tour result all Englishmen, their wives, girlfriends, nannies and publicans long for ... victory over Australia under the harsh sunlight and harsher attention of her baying spectators.

This immediate Test program should make for interesting competition for the English against a raw boned side which plays its cricket like a bunch of school boys having a cricket scrap at lunchtime. They bowl well these boys, but they bat like they are late for a job interview. History tells us that half the Tests between the two have been drawn but then a majority have been played in England, still, should Pakistan fail to win a Test in four, what does that mean for Australia when they took one from two against us in the same conditions?

The Australian side which played Pakistan can't improve personnel that much ... perhaps Hauritz and Siddle and the bolter from NSW, Josh Hazelwood but the batting will be much the same ... the same batting which lost a Test by collapsing for less than 100.

This is England's shakedown for Australia.

Australia goes to India for two Tests in October.

Is it just me or does that sound like daft programming?

The Ashes File

I've opened a new list of articles and information in the sidebar to whet your appetite for the coming Ashes series in Australia. The intention is to include articles and interviews with key people in the lead up to the series.

As always, I'd be keen to see contributions from other writers as well. So if you have some opinions on the coming series, please forward them to plangsto@bigpond.net.au and I'd be pleased to include them on the Cricket Tragics.

West Indies Best XI

Cricinfo have named their best West Indies XI following readers votes and a panel of "experts". Their side is (in batting order) : Gordon Greenidge, Conrad Hunte, George Headley, Vivian Richards, Brian Lara, Garry Sobers, Jackie Hendriks, Malcolm Marshall, Michael Holding, Curtly Ambrose, Lance Gibbs.

The readers XI omited Hunte and Hendricks and included Desmond Haynes and Jeff Dujon in their place.

I wouldn't have picked Hunte who was picked largely to captain the side one imagines and I wouldn't have replaced him with Haynes, because to my mind, there is one glaring omission. This side, dominated by five players from the all conquering eighties teams, needs the best captain and the best skipper the Windies ever fielded was Clive Lloyd. The bespectacled West Indies left hander - as some prefer to call him - was the reason the Calypso Kings got their crown.

So, out goes Hunte and Headley would open. Richards and Lara move up on spot but swap in the order and Lloyd comes in third wicket. Hendricks was a better keeper than Dujon and the latter's batting is unlikely to be needed very often behind that top six. I agree that Lance Gibbs must play (otherwise why pick Hendricks). Marshall and Ambrose stand out from the rest which include Holding, Roberts, Hall, Walsh and the Big Bird, Joel Garner ... again, most of them from the eighties group. I can't pick Holding over Roberts. Maybe I'm biased because I faced him in the nets but Roberts to me, like Marshall, was the complete fast bowler and also like Marshall, he could bowl and bowl and bowl. No emotion, no histrionics, just cold hard assassins.

Of course, then you have Sobers, the most versatile bowler in the history of the game. He slot in anywhere the skipper needed him. Not a bad attack!

Lango's team, therefore (in batting order): Gordon Greenidge, George Headley, Brian Lara, Viv Richards, Clive Lloyd (c), Gary Sobers, Jackie Hendricks, Malcolm Marshall, Curtly Ambrose, Andy Roberts, Lance Gibbs. My permanent 12th Man would be Roger Harper. He'd never play but what a sub fielder!

What are your thoughts? Send me an email or click on "Comments" below.

Smart Money With The Pakis

Pakistan will win the 2nd Test from Leeds tomorrow, proving yet again the importance of home ground advantage. They will loose wickets in the process because they are young and nervous at the prospect, but they will win. The weather will play its part on a day of sunny periods, rising temperatures and falling humidity. They will win because Ponting deserves to lose, despite his heroics on Day 2, as bad tactics based on a fear of losing are no way to play Test cricket.

The third day was one in which Michael Clarke again showed his class and a young tyro took his talent for walk in the early days of what will be a spectacular career. That expected fighting spirit which has more than any other quality made Australian cricket teams so unbeatable since the early 1970's, shone from Smith and Clarke, as it had from Ponting yesterday. Make no mistake, their was a fair bit emanating from Paine and Johnson too as they dug in - as diggers do - milking runs in partnership Smith to eek a lead at which to bowl and put their brittle opponents under pressure. Even Bollinger - who holds a bat in much the same way as Merv Hughes would hold a wisk - even Douggie stood up with a 9 ball blot not whilst Smith added 29 for the last wicket.

These are things to be proud of, even in the face of that first innings disgrace and the fact it won't be enough shouldn't disappoint the Aussie cricket fan as he munches his Wheetbix this morning, scratching his head in disbelief and his bum from habit. Take heart mate, as you ponder the purchase of those Ashes tickets and wonder how you'll break the cost to the missus. For a new genesis sparkled in Headingley today and all it will require is good management and proper placement.

North is done. According to former Australian spinner John Gleeson, he won't take another five wickets in Test cricket but wickets alone would be no reason to have him in the side. Smith must be moved to six ... Clarke must be moved to three ... Siddle, once fit, must play every game in this side. Johnson and Hilfenhaus should alternate according to conditions and dare I say it, we'll need Hauritz against the Poms.

The other problem is behind the wicket. Clearly, Haddin will return because he deserves to be the incumbent but we have some problems filling the slips with blokes that provide an air of assurance that they'll catch just about everything. With North the next be voted off Baggy Green Island, batting may be strengthened but the slips will be left without their only natural pair of soft hands which always find their way to the right position. Ponting and Clarke are manufactured slip fieldsmen ... guys who can field anywhere sure, but being a slipper is something different again. Think Simpson, Chappelli, Taylor, Mark Waugh, Hayden and you get the drift. Watson's straight forward spill yesterday underlines the problem. Champion teams take every slip chance offered. At a stage when our team is drifting into the kennel after so many years as the Big Dog, our lack of a slip cordon may have us heading to sleep much earlier than 7:30pm.

History says only four teams in the more than 1900 Test matches played since Charlie Bannerman cracked the first hundred have won a Test with a lower first innings score than Australia stumbled to here. One of those was Australia - in 1882 - and of those four, the most recent was England against South Africa in 1907... at Headingley. We're less than a sleep away from finding out if history can again be re-written but if faced with the Last Boy Scout Bruce Willis' choice of "head or gut" to decide this one I don't think it matters. Either comes up Pakistan.


Go to "Interviews" to the left for an interview with Steve Smith on ABC Cricket Interviews.

I Have a Bad Feeling About This ...

For Pakistan, rainy days and T days must always bring them down. It was a Tuesday in Sydney that bought them undone and it may have been a Thursday in Leeds which has done the same.

They squandered yet another golden opportunity batting against a bowling attack in which the only potency came from the gentle but full swinging medium pace of Shane Watson ... a man who previously has been more bits than pieces and most of those were hamstrings and various others body parts which seemed to disintegrate the closer he got to the bowling crease. Hilfenhaus started most of his inswingers on leg stump, Johnson sprayed his left armers mostly in the general direction of third slip and Bollinger continued to be unlucky.

Watson sixfa was admirable but it was the stuff of a part timers dream and the Lahore Lunatics marked his dance card, whether intentionally of not. Batting like millionaires at 4 runs an over, they scored their runs quickly but with a fools zeal. Umar Amin's was out in the fashion of Dougie Walters, bat left standing whilst he ducked an innocuous Hilfenhaus bouncer. Its a technique deficiency which both could be accused of but Hilfenhaus is no Snow. Aamer played his only delivery as though he was Ricky Ponting, shouldering arms to a Watson ball destined for off stump and learned a valuable lesson that what I say is more reliable than what I do. Kamran Akmal and Umar Gul played in real life as though they were the slow motion replay and Shoaib Malik, perhaps the most responsible of the batsmen, went for an enormous swipe at the death and sent the top edge skyward for a "mine" catch to Tim Paine. The run out of Apple Danish just added the necessary exclamation point to this Pakistan batting farce.

The first innings lead of 170 had only been reduced by 55 with Katich bowled round his legs and Watson bowled via his bat, when an out of form Clarke joined an out of form Ponting. Punter had already shouldered arms to his first ball and for some reason, perhaps disbelief or mirth or pity, the umpire said not out. I would have once bagged the Australian skipper for such blatant stupidity but I think these errors of judgment will continue as he continues down the slide to retirement. Having said that, let me add praise to a man who can pull from the depths of his experience, from somewhere deep in the well spring from which all champions sup, such a wonderful half century. He's not finished yet and whilst he will no longer shine as brightly as often, blokes who bat as well as Ponting as a career choice will always throw up reminders of why our awe of them was justified. Clarke looked good until the last ten minutes when the closing clouds had him swinging more than a salad bowl full of car keys.

Let me not accuse Salman Butt of anything here but inexperience but the very same tactics appeared as were question marked in Sydney against Yousef. The dismissal of Watson by the even more part time Amin, bought on in only the 13 over, could fall into the category of inspiration but why did he then continue with a shaky Clarke in? Why was the field setting so defensive, with men in the deep and a substantial lead with which to pressure the Australians in conditions custom made for your bowlers? Strange days indeed.

Only thirty six behind, the news is good for Australia with the Cvc (for those Kinder teachers reading, this is not consonant vowel consonant) at the crease. Its even better as BBC Weather forecasts the only sunny day of the Test for our blokes to bat through tomorrow. Salman Butt will earned his Captaincy stripes facing a smarter batting line up. Its a group that rarely succomb twice in five days and one that believes, after Sydney, anything is possible. Mind you, they may miss Peter Siddle's sting in the tail.

A wasted day for Pakistan.

Spears In His Side ... "Oops, I Did It Again!"

"Memo Mr Ponting
1. Overnight rain
2. Heavy cloud cover
3. Thick, moist air at 100% humidity
4. Verdant pitch
5. Strong opposition swing attack
6. Batting line up with proven frailty to swinging ball
7. Opposition flogged a week ago
8. New opposing Skipper
9. You win the toss
10. Your arse was saved last time you stuffed up this decision

In circumstances when the above apply please bowl."

What can I say that I didn't say in January after the then stupid and uncourageous decision to bat first in the Sydney Test when even ten year old school boy captains would have thrown the ball to the tall kid with the Hilfenhaus action at lunch time in anticipation of a bat before the bell?

Clearly, Ricky is channeling Britney "Oops I Did It Again" Spears and in much the same way has been caught with his pants off after an extraordinary first day at Headingley. If it is at all possible, this was an even worse decision and the Skipper, along with team management, need to have their bare backside spanked, in Roebuck fashion, for this appalling piece of cricket.

Leaving further castigation aside - believing the case against him self-evident - let me turn my attention to a batting display that was as inexcusable as it it was disgraceful, despite conditions being plainly against them. If Pakistan hadn't batted this was true but their cruise past the Australians, underlined our inept turn at the crease and in bold font and flashing italics. Led wonderfully well by a new Skipper who will undoubtedly have to contend with any number of sub-editors inane headlines, Pakistan have strolled to a handsome lead and were hardly troubled until just before the rain thankfully provided respite for an embarrassing Australian XI.

Twenty five years ago, our team of triers was being massacred on a Perth greentop by Holding and Co. That day, there wasn't even time for Courtney Walsh to bowl before the last Australian scuttled off to the sheds. As well as they sent them down at Headingley, Aamer, Asif and Gul are hardly in that graduating class and yet our current top six of Watson, Katich, Ponting, Clarke, Hussey & North would surely claim to be superior to the combination of Wessels, Dyson, Wood, Border, Hughes Yallop. Let's be imaginative and say Border/Ponting, Wessels/Katich and Dyson/Watson cancel each other out, you'd have to take Clarke and Hussey as superior batsmen, whilst Yallop is better than North. Even so, the West Indies attack is possibly the best in history on pace friendly pitches, so this capitulation in Leeds was as an extreme attack of weak knees as this correspondent has witnessed. Having played in side dismissed in eight overs for 11 where 4 byes made Xavier Tras the top scorer, this is some statement!

Bottom line ... this was a poor bating display. Watson fell to his 1 in 3 card trick as 35% of his Test dismissals are lbw. Ponting braced that front leg and played across the line - yes the old brace and play is back. It's often a sure sign that a batsmen's whistle has lost its steam when they start playing the undisciplined shots of their youth, desperate to retain form. Remember how the slog/sweep came out of the cupboard again in the twilight of Steve Waugh's career? Katich and Hussey also used pad as a second line of no defence in a pre-lunch session where the umpires were kept busy making decisions, all of them justified. 6-73 at lunch became 88 all out not long after with Aamer bowling at the wooden things and Smith and Johnson not good enough to stop him; Hilfenhaus being inexplicably run out from the deep; and Paine taking a ridiculous swipe outside off to Asif. He'll always pretend it was an attempted cut shot but it was a swish and a swipe and a very ordinary end to a very ordinary innings.

Butt and Farhat - have two openers ever had a more mirth inspiring pair of names? - safely steered Pakistan to within near reach of the lead thanks to some wayward bowling from Hilfenhaus who opened with Bollinger, conceding 27 runs in three overs and was little better later. Bollinger bowled a tight line in both his spells and was Australia's best. Watson, on to bowl the seventh over and preferred over Johnson when Hilfenhaus failed, bowled three good overs and was replaced by Johnson. Two wickets late in the day by Watson proved the folly of Ponting's hasty withdrawal of him from the attack. Hilfenhaus bowled a better second spell, with the wicket of Butt after the rain delay, after had dropped a return catch from the same batsman in a previous over. Johnson was again ineffective and seems to have little idea of what or how to bowl in seaming conditions. He likes the pitch hard and spicy so he can make the ball bounce at the batsmen. Smith had his second ball sent over long off (must have been painful). These aren't his conditions and North will bowl more than he will here, both because he should and because Ponting backs past results.

Pakistan have smashed the Australians on Day one and it would a brave man to predict "another Sydney". Not here. The Australians have handed this match to Pakistan. Never say never they say and perhaps that's good advice but the Australians are going to have to play like champions to even save this match and the champions we have left don't look in such great form. Apart from that, what's needed more than ever from Ponting is inspiration. Its one of the few qualities an accounting of the man would find in deficit and only shown in the past with bat in hand. Maybe he should take one on the field with him when Day 2 resumes!

Making Runs While The Sun Shines

Batsmen prefer runs to hay and as such, when the sun shines they make runs. So it proved at Lords but can we really imagine that conditions play such an important role?

Much is being made of the role of the heavy air and clouds at Lords in the first two days of this Test against Pakistan. More should be said of the effect a moving ball has against lesser batting because Simon Katich has twice proven what he has consistently shown in previous outings, that good batting survives all conditions.

Sunshine or not, the Australian tail has provided an insurance policy for Ponting against a Pakistan batting line up that can occupy the crease or score runs but rarely both at the same time. Salman Butt aside, this team is no South Africa and won't chase down winning runs here even if Ponting bowls himself. The Aussie skipper, still shy of setting targets after the shock of giving up a four hundred lead against the Boks at the WACA and in the end losing the first home series in the grog-stained memory of most journalists. All that just months before losing the Ashes for the second time. He should be safer here as his attack is better than that day in Perth and the opposition far more brittle.

Hilfenhaus is a cricketer who likes to surprise and nothing in his previous Test innings indicated he had a Test fifty in him and even less likely that he might strike fours to the boundary without using the edge of the bat. Audacity is a good thing. Tim, no stranger to Paine, was in the words of Wally Grout, "counting them not rubbing them" early in his innings but went on to hit the ball well in the fine tradition of keeper batsmen we seem to keep producing from the Rod Marsh kindergarten. Haddin will be back but his deputy will reign soon enough.

When we win - lunch or a tad latter is still not out of the question - remember Katich's twin eighties, made under the most bowler friendly conditions, when you cast your MOM vote. I still contend he should be giving the orders while Ponting scores hundreds in the twilight at number 4.

Oh for a selector's cap.

4th Day ... I Don't Think So

The current Lords Test, sponsored by Home and Away, is one of those Test matches when you curse yourself for buying fourth day tickets. After 24 wickets falling in two days, the chances of play beyond lunch on Day 4 seem remote.

So far, my cursory examination of the script indicates everything going to the pattern established early and confirmed this will be a low scoring event. Pakistan were dreadful on Day 2, with expansive shot making giving away the first day advantage of restricting Australia to a sub 300 first innings. Watson played his role nicely, keeping the ball full and moving it just enough so that the Pakis desire to smote him could be tempted. Butt and Afridi lost their wickets driving, whilst the Akmal boys played across the line to be rapped on pads. Meanwhile they took more than five an over from the fair-haired boy of Australian cricket. Some elementary stuff there as were the Hilfenhaus' first nine overs which found edges for the first two of Paine's debut four catch effort.

Pakistan were impetuous and should have finished the day with a first innings lead. The are maladministered and have made a foolish choice in appointing the all or nothing Afridi to the captaincy. Good sides will murder them whilst admiring their dashing stroke play.

Australia strode nicely to a comfortable close and a handsome lead with Simon Katich showing, yet again, why he is the most valuable player in this Australian side. The man is a more reliable builder than Theiss Bros. He and Watson got Australia off to a solid position with a half century opening stand before Watson threw away another start in an all too trademark fashion. What Mark Waugh was to 60's & 70's, Watson is to 20's & 30's. Ponting's Lords malaise probably placed a full stop on his time there with a six ball, shouldered arms duck which replays showed was unlucky but batsmen who pad away the swinging ball are inviting disaster. Clarke filled in half and hour before proving himself the perfect deputy, coping Ponting and refusing to play a ball that bowled him, this time from Gull. Given that Gull's rep was made in these conditions, it seemed a foolish choice. Hussey at least played at the next ball but only as far to first slip, where the preposterously name Farhat took a good catch.

Johnson did what all good night watchmen do - protect a batsmen on the verge of the abyss - and the day ended with Australia well in front but less happily so than a hour earlier and with one of the greatest run scorers in the history of the game averaging less than twenty at the birthplace of that same history he has otherwise written in his favour. This time I feel sorry for Ricky.

A suggestion for him, which his ego may find as a suitable comparison. Bradman's last tour of Blighty was written of favourable by a man who owed him no favours (Fingleton). Would he like something like "Brightly Fades The Rick"? or would "Losing On A Punt" be more appropriate?

Australia well in charge and heading for victory by lunch on the fourth day.

Toto, We Ain't in Karachi Anymore

Damp underfoot, damp air, rain delays, bad light ... we ain't in Karachi anymore.

In conditions very similar to the the start of the last Test between Pakistan and Australia in Sydney last January, Australia has made a strangely dejavu start to a Pakistan home Test at Lords. Played in England because poor conditions are better than bomb threats and crowd violence, this time Australia batted first because of a good decision. Afridi, new to this dodge of skippering the Test side, sent them in for a moving day's play ... moving ball, that is.

Watson was soon gone and Ponting lasted long enough to take Lara's second place on the run poll for best batsman in Test cricket. In the process, he failed to better a top score of 42 in four Tests at cricket's home and barely increased his average there to a tad better than 19. The second innings may well be his last chance to be etched on the honour board as his star is waning and 2013 is a long way off without a Tardis. At Lords, nobody hears you scream.

Katich was Katich. His stance and first movements look absurd but he finishes in all the right positions, built as they are around an obdurate defence. His work helps the strokemakers know their job and the best of them, Clarke, was wonderful. His move to four has been a year overdue, as has the move of Hussey back to five. For the non purist, this swap might seem insignificant but that would be an opinion festered by watching too many shortened forms of the game. By our summer, Clarke should be moved another rung up the ladder to the place where skipper's usually bat, three, and Ponting relaxed into four. It will enhance Clarke's career and prolong Ponting's.

There remains a question mark, a slight weakness in Clarke's game which we might call the Gower Effect: Clarke, as he did yesterday, often gets out when completely in charge of an attack and not infrequently in proximity to breaks in play. There is no doubting his mental toughness, as New Zealand most recently proved but here, his dismissal might prove a decisive moment which may have been avoided.

Of the others, there is little to say. I have supported North previously and Australia has had many mercurial batsmen occupy six: men whose dash and vigour and love of chance won and lost Test matches for Australia ... Doug Walters comes to mind ... but North's seeming feast or famine run scoring works well when the rest of the order is consistent. This is not the case currently. Paine and Smith both failed at their first attempt (Smith unluckily) but they will improve, Smith well enough to take North's spot. Johnson's batting form is always better when the track is true and the ball travels only in straight lines.

Dare I say that Hauritz will be missed with both bat and ball.

Pakistan bowled well and stuck at their task but then we saw that for most of the Sydney Test. At 2-171 at the end of a unsuccessful lunch to tea session in which plenty of runs had been scored and only Ponting's wicket gained (and that to a freakish catch by Umar Amin), bundle dropping would have been in fashion. Instead, they keep at good lines and length and picked up Clarke and after tea, rushed through the flood gates.

Australia has runs on the board - not many of them but at least some sort of a target which keeps them in the game. Given the conditions, this could well be a low scoring affair. Pakistan is a young side led by an audacious skipper. Australia has some newbies and many seasoned veterans. Winning in Sydney will justifiably make miracles part of the Australian game plan. This could be just as tight and exciting. Bollinger is our key bowler. Hillfenhaus will bowl well and as Johnson is only ever fifty/fifty, so it falls on Bollinger to produce the goods. Its hard to imagine Smith, a virtual nudie leg spinners worring batsmen bred on tracks that spit and bite like cobras being worried by him. Watson should be useful under these damp condition and the ground should provide him softer paths for his tempramental hamstring and thighs to travel on the way to the bowling crease.

Australia is well in this yet.

Murali the Best?

According to the man who turned his off break from the leg, Saqlain "The Doosra" Mushtaq, Murali is the best spinner of his generation. An interetsing opinion, especially in it's complete disregard for our chain-smoking, chain-texting, fat man SK Warne.

How does one compare the two? Wickets ... waste of time. Opposition ... again a waste of time, for those that complain Murali has spun himself to glory against weaker opposition overlook where he did it, on the subcontinent, a place where Warnie was as impotent as his baggy white undies would suggest. In return, Murali has always been a dud in Australia. Shallow thinking this.

Both have been splendid in England. Both were deadly against the tail. Both included deadly facial features in their armoury (Warnie's smile and Murali's eyes). Both possessed unnerving accuracy from the first ball bowled till the last wicket taken. Both showed greater control of the speed and angle of rotation of the cricket ball than ever before seen in world cricket.

Apart from their home ground advantages highlighted earlier the other difference worthy of note is the standard of the attacks they bowled with. Vaas was world class, as clearly McGrath was and it was these partnerships that greatly assisted their wicket taking but Murali generally bowled in a weaker team and with more responsibility for the team's success than Warne. Murali has bowled 55 overs per Test compared to Warne's 46, giving him more chances for wickets but a great deal more workload and that gets even heavier when you factor in ODI's.

In the end, they are both great bowlers of equal standing who just happened to play in the same era. We wouldn't seriously try to spilt Lindwall and Lillee in a comparison. Truth be known, if we picked the greatest World XI, wouldn't you want both?

As for those who still shout "no ball" when Murali runs in for his first delivery of a new spell need to grow up. His action, was more dreadful than doubtful in the early days when Darryl Hair called bravely and correctly but it progressed some time ago to something different, something consistent and something a damn sight more dangerous.

Better than Warne ... no ... but every bit as effective and every bit as good. Forget the wickets, Murali is in the first half dozen of the greatest bowlers cricket has seen. Like Lillee, he overcame a crippling setback to his career and became the greatest Test wicket taker of all time. It's time for us to excise the John Howard in all of us and embrace this terrific little bloke's achievements and durability.

How many champions do we need in a lifetime to recognise the true ones?