CHOOSE any one of the eight series in which England have come a poor second to Australia since 1989 and memory, seasoned by a trace of paranoia, suggests that in matches such as this, the ones that really matter, England would have lost the toss, been condemned to a warm day in the field, dropped four catches, missed a run-out, seen a few inside edges scuttle for four past the leg stump and been obliged to applaud the opposing captain on reaching a commanding hundred. And, of course, someone would have been injured.
All these vicissitudes befell Australia instead yesterday, including a back injury to Michael Clarke, for whom Brad Hodge substituted from the second over, but if the luck has changed hands, it is because Michael Vaughan and his team deserve it. They have no one to match the incomparable Shane Warne, who duly took his 600th Test wicket and deserved more, but they finished the first day at Old Trafford with 341 for five on the board. Three of those wickets fell in the last and longest session but Vaughan played an innings of classical beauty and immense significance at a time when he was in complete control.
Coming in at 26 for one, after Andrew Strauss had been bamboozled by a clever slower ball from Brett Lee, the England captain dominated with a wonderful mixture of skill, grace and determination. He knew not only that he owed his side runs after a poor start to the series but also that, having won a precious toss on a hard, true pitch, the opportunity was too good to waste. Like all the truly outstanding Test batsman down the years he seized the moment.
Two of his three hundreds in the last series in Australia were higher than the 166 he made yesterday, however, and he was batting so well when he drove a full toss from Simon Katich straight to long-on that his chagrin was understandable. It opened the door for Australia to take a fourth wicket before the close when Kevin Pietersen hooked Lee to deep square leg in the first over of the second new ball and when Lee burst through the nightwatchman, Matthew Hoggard, with his last ball of the day, Australia, for all their mistakes, earned a chance to bowl themselves back into contention this morning.
Katich had turned a match in Australia’s favour against India at the end of 2003, the last series when their supremacy was seriously tested. India had gone one-up in the series at Adelaide and were dominating the first day at Melbourne when Virender Sehwag got out for 195 to a full toss from Katich. Sehwag was fourth out at 311, India failed to reach 400 and Australia won the game. Despite the survival of Ian Bell, after a technically sound and admirably composed three-hour innings, and the threat offered by Andrew Flintoff should he get through the new ball this morning, Australia will have convinced themselves last night that they can make history repeat itself.
To prevent it, whether or not Flintoff delivers on his home ground, England must make the total of 500 that they will have had in mind from the moment the coin came down tails yesterday morning but they would have settled for 341 for five knowing that Glenn McGrath had completed an apparently miraculous recovery from injury to lead the attack.
There were times in the field when he seemed to be feeling the soreness still lingering from the damaged ligaments in his strapped left ankle but the second ball he bowled, which flew over the head of the slips off Marcus Trescothick’s gloves, left no one in doubt that he was fit for the job.
That anxious moment behind him, Trescothick settled to a sober, patient and valuable innings, but in the tenth over he lost his opening partner and at 13 he was badly dropped by Adam Gilchrist, going for an outside edge with only his left hand when two would have done the job. McGrath might have had a second wicket in his second spell after lunch when Gilchrist missed another chance high to his right from a top-edged cut by Vaughan, then on 41. With his next ball he reverse swung a ball of full length and bowled Vaughan through the gate but it was a no-ball.
The worm had turned. Vaughan was well past his hundred and in full and glorious sail before he gave his opponents two more chances, a low one to slip off the tireless and inventive Warne and a running misjudgment that Katich would have punished with a more accurate throw. In between Vaughan had dealt stylishly with a ball that had begun to reverse swing very early, punished the luckless Jason Gillespie with a succession of bruising yet beautiful strokes past cover and over mid-wicket, and repelled the constant threat of Warne’s many variations on a leg-break theme. When Warne went round the wicket to him he padded him away or moved his feet to punish the rare errors of length.
Warne still became the first man in history to 600 Test wickets when Trescothick swept too early and caught the ball with the toe of his bat after completing the stroke. Gilchrist made a deft catch. It might have come from half a dozen balls that spun and bounced past the edge but the best spinner of them all has always taken the rough with the smooth.
FULL SCOREBOARD
England won toss
ENGLAND: First Innings
M E Trescothick c Gilchrist b Warne 63
(196min, 117 balls, 9 fours)
A J Strauss b Lee 6
(43min, 28 balls)
*M P Vaughan c McGrath b Katich 166
(281min, 215 balls, 1 six, 21 fours)
I R Bell not out 59
(193min, 146 balls, 8 fours)
K P Pietersen c sub (B J Hodge) b Lee 21
(50min, 28 balls, 1 four)
M J Hoggard b Lee 4
(13min, 10 balls, 1 four)
Extras (b 4, lb 3, w 2, nb 13) 22
Total (5 wkts, 89 overs, 390min) 41
A Flintoff, † G O Jones, A F Giles, S J Harmison and S P Jones to bat.
FALL OF WICKETS: 1-26 (9.2; Trescothick 18); 2-163 (41.5; Vaughan 76); 3-290 (74.3; Bell 33); 4-333 (86.2; Bell 55); 5-341 (89.0; Bell 59).
BOWLING: McGrath 19-3-76-0 (nb 4; 9 fours; 8-0-29-0, 5-1-32-0, 5-2-11-0, 1-0-4-0); Lee 19-6-58-3 (nb 3, w 1; 7 fours; 5-2-6-1, 5-1-19-0, 5-2-13-0, 2-0-14-0, 2-1-6-2); Gillespie 15-2-89-0 (nb 2, w 1; 1 six, 13 fours; 7-2-33-0/lunch/4-0-14-0, 4-0-42-0); Warne 27-5-75-1 (nb 2; 8 fours; 11-3-29-1/tea/16-2-46-0); Katich 9-1-36-1 (3 fours; 4-0-13-0, 3-0-16-1, 2-1-7-0).
SCORING NOTES (First day): Lunch: 93-1 (25 overs, 120min; Trescothick 35, Vaughan 41). Tea: 195-2 (54 overs, 241min; Vaughan 93, Bell 14). Second new ball taken at 5.45pm — 331-3 (86 overs). Stumps: 341-5 (89 overs, 390min; Bell 59).
AUSTRALIA: J L Langer, M L Hayden, R T Ponting, D R Martyn, M J Clarke, S M Katich, † A C Gilchrist, S K Warne, B Lee, J N Gillespie and G D McGrath.
Umpires: B F Bowden (New Zealand — 29th) and S A Bucknor (West Indies — 103rd). Replay umpire: N J Llong. Fourth umpire: J H Evans. Match referee: R S Madugalle.
SERIES DETAILS: First (Lord’s): Australia won by 239 runs. Second (Edgbaston): England won by two runs.
TESTS TO COME: Fourth (Trent Bridge): Aug 25-29. Fifth (the Oval): Sept 8-12.
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“The gods are smiling on Vaughan. He nicks the first one but Gilchrist drops it. McGrath steams in and removes his off stump but — guess what — it’s a no-ball! Amid all this, the England captain manages to add eight runs to his total. Lucky, lucky, lucky.”
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