Great men fade away but the great mentality endures. When it comes to an Ashes series, Australians seem to grow to fit their national mythology. England always know that in such contests their most assuredly demanding confrontation will be with the opposition’s attitude. Already, with Australia so imperiously in command of the first Test in Cardiff that England’s hopes of avoiding defeat today may hinge on the Welsh climate’s willingness to co-operate, every portent suggests Andrew Strauss and his team will struggle throughout the series to match the tourists’ fiercely disciplined sense of purpose.

Ricky Ponting, predictably, was the competitive core of the patiently ruthless batting performance that massacred England’s gloomily toiling bowlers. But the Australian captain can scarcely have foreseen the sudden burst of penetration which (on a pitch he and three fellow century-makers had refused to treat as anything other than the cosiest of allies) enabled his own attack to dismiss two of their opponents for just 20 runs by the time rain curtailed the day’s play immediately after tea. Given that England’s bowlers had looked about as dangerous as men tossing shuttlecocks at a threshing machine, that breakthrough may have pleased him even more than his earlier supremely confident and adroit accumulation of the 150 that stands as the highest score of the first four days.

But nothing was likely to afford him greater satisfaction than the ominous damage done at the crease yesterday by Marcus North, not least because the 29-year-old had shown himself to be a prime example of the kind of contemporary Australian player capable of punishing English under-estimation of his abilities.

Suspicions in these parts that North was a minor threat had seemed justified. Though he had hinted he might be an unusual rookie in Test cricket by scoring 117 on his debut against South Africa in Johannesburg last February, form-readers in this country understandably preferred to emphasise the undazzling impression made over the six seasons in which he has played for no fewer than five counties.

However, the left-hander, in compiling an unbeaten 125 that combined unremitting calculation with style, underlined the contrast between Australia’s intensely professional determination to exact a steep price for their wickets and the tendency of England’s batsmen to sell theirs cheaply. When North’s partner, the wicketkeeper Brad Haddin, became the fourth member of his team to reach treble figures, solidifying the base for a challenging declaration, the moment prompted painful recollections of the folly that prevented Kevin Pietersen from exploiting an inviting opportunity to post the first hundred on the scoreboard on Wednesday.

As if stretching almost into the crowd in a ludicrously wrong-headed attempt at a sweep shot weren’t irresponsible enough, Pietersen compounded the provocation by insisting he had been right to play the ball as he did and telling his critics to “get over” what he obviously perceived as prissy objections to the manner of his dismissal on 69. It may be harsh to condemn such behaviour from a man whose swashbuckling approach to the game is intrinsic to his status as one of the world’s most thrilling scorers of runs and a past match-winner for England. But the suicidal self-indulgence was a perfect illustration of why it struck me there was a need for considerable qualification when Geoffrey Boycott told us categorically in his pre-Test assessment that Pietersen would be “the best batsman on the park”.

If virtuosity is the main criterion for defining best, Boycott’s assertion is instantly acceptable but if the term embraces productivity over the long haul Ponting — who, at age 34, has amassed well over 11,000 Test runs, occupies second place in the all-time league table of century-makers at that exalted level, and has a higher average score than anybody else who has hit more than 9,000 runs in Tests (56.68) — surely had claims to being acknowledged the leading man in Cardiff.

He may make it increasingly difficult to deny him such recognition as this series progresses. Severe judges question his acumen as a tactician but it’s hard to fault his overall handling of the process of reshaping and regrouping imposed on the Australia squad after one of the most debilitating mass departures of truly great players any nation has ever experienced.

Just mentioning Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath, Adam Gilchrist, Justin Langer and Matthew Hayden conveys the scale of problems faced. Without those men, Ponting probably feels he daren’t dream of repeating the 5-0 annihilation he orchestrated on home soil two-and-a-half years ago. But last night fevered English minds may have done the dreaming for him.

Contest for a dubious crown

As the cars roar off the grid at the Nurburgring today, a truth more obvious than welcome will loom through the fog of uncertainties enveloping Formula One racing. It is that belief in the drivers’ world championship as one of sport’s great identifiers of an individual competitor’s clear supremacy over his rivals has become hopelessly untenable.

To say so is not to belittle the achievement of the 29-year-old Englishman who will start the German Grand Prix with a formidable and stylishly earned 23-point lead in the drivers’ table. Jenson Button began his F1 career in 2000 as an acclaimed prodigy and, having watched a succession of grossly inadequate cars limit him to one victory in more than 150 races, there is no inclination to begrudge him the belated success that has come in an extraordinary surge this season from his alliance with the frequently irresistible machines provided by the Brawn team.