enhanced the bowling resemblance. His arm still swings through like a roundhouse punch, leaving little margin for error with his release, and his general presence remains rather less than menacing: as he pauses at the end of his run, it still looks as though he's trying to remember the last five things Troy Cooley told him.
Bowling to Bell during the afternoon, Johnson was at one stage nudged to mid-on. When he proceeded to hare after the ball himself, it looked a little odd, like the act of an overactive boy in a backyard; it was not an action one could have expected of Glenn McGrath, who would have chuntered about bloody short leg or bloody mid-off bloody well doing what they were bloody well paid for.
Johnson was the only bowler to make a pre-match prediction, talking up the need to be aggressive, and his intent to bombard Andrew Strauss. How long ago these prophecies and prognostications already seem. As Siddle might have said: 'The only way to go is up.' The same sentiment now applies, in a somewhat different sense, to England.
26 NOVEMBER 2010
Day 2
Close of play: Australia 1st innings 220â5
(MEK Hussey 81*, BJ Haddin 22*, 80 overs)
In Australia's great period of ascendancy, Michael Hussey was a talisman â a symbol of Australian cricket's panache, vitality and fertility. The dwindling of his average from its zenith of 80 to a more mortal 50 has been a leading indicator of the country's cricket decline. Today he found a new role, shoring up the order of a rebuilding team with batting in some of his best vein, ending the day undefeated on 81.
Likewise unfinished, Hussey's partnership of 77 with Brad Haddin allowed Australia to feel ever so slightly ahead at the end of day two of this First Test at the Gabba. Still 40 in arrears of England, Australia will want a lead. Although Kevin Mitchell's surface will not deteriorate badly in the unseasonally mild weather, the hosts would not relish a substantial fourth-innings chase after three consecutive Test defeats.
England opened the day in search of early wickets, but with the sun out struggled even to generate appeals, let alone beat the bat. Stuart Broad's spell was like a pat-down airport search: invasive but not particularly effective and chiefly irritating. His best moment was a bouncer which Watson bore beneath the left arm, and at which the batsman, anxious to defend his stumps, issued a fresh-air kick as it fell. Otherwise there was too much to shoulder arms to and sway away from, which was nonetheless applauded monotonously in the slip cordon. A couple of clumping drives early on, including an on drive that Watson drilled down the ground from Finn's fifth ball, seemed to have the effect of discouraging the bowlers from pitching up, despite Siddle's first-day example. A run-out opportunity went begging; overthrows were conceded. This was not the New England so widely praised, but a hint of Ye Olde England during the long Australian ascendant.
Between times, nonetheless, Anderson picked up Watson with a good one, nicking to slip, and Ponting with a bad one, feathering down the leg side. Australia were glad of some stern resistance from Katich, a turtle of a batsman, who retracts his head at the first hint of danger and always has the long view in mind. His stabs, jabs and back-and-across step are not a method you'd recommend anyone emulate, but his head is still when he plays the ball and he defends right under his nose. The South Africans and Englishmen had some success bowling outside his eyeline last year â Flintoff picked him up in the gully at Lord's. For whatever reason, there seemed no such plan today. His eventual fall, bunting back a low caught-and-bowled, surprised the batsman almost as much as the bowler: it was his first such Test dismissal, as well as a useful first Ashes wicket for Finn, whose stoop to conquer involved almost all his 6ft-6 frame.
At 100 for three, there was abruptly the hint of danger. Hussey nicked his first ball just
Bowling to Bell during the afternoon, Johnson was at one stage nudged to mid-on. When he proceeded to hare after the ball himself, it looked a little odd, like the act of an overactive boy in a backyard; it was not an action one could have expected of Glenn McGrath, who would have chuntered about bloody short leg or bloody mid-off bloody well doing what they were bloody well paid for.
Johnson was the only bowler to make a pre-match prediction, talking up the need to be aggressive, and his intent to bombard Andrew Strauss. How long ago these prophecies and prognostications already seem. As Siddle might have said: 'The only way to go is up.' The same sentiment now applies, in a somewhat different sense, to England.
26 NOVEMBER 2010
Day 2
Close of play: Australia 1st innings 220â5
(MEK Hussey 81*, BJ Haddin 22*, 80 overs)
In Australia's great period of ascendancy, Michael Hussey was a talisman â a symbol of Australian cricket's panache, vitality and fertility. The dwindling of his average from its zenith of 80 to a more mortal 50 has been a leading indicator of the country's cricket decline. Today he found a new role, shoring up the order of a rebuilding team with batting in some of his best vein, ending the day undefeated on 81.
Likewise unfinished, Hussey's partnership of 77 with Brad Haddin allowed Australia to feel ever so slightly ahead at the end of day two of this First Test at the Gabba. Still 40 in arrears of England, Australia will want a lead. Although Kevin Mitchell's surface will not deteriorate badly in the unseasonally mild weather, the hosts would not relish a substantial fourth-innings chase after three consecutive Test defeats.
England opened the day in search of early wickets, but with the sun out struggled even to generate appeals, let alone beat the bat. Stuart Broad's spell was like a pat-down airport search: invasive but not particularly effective and chiefly irritating. His best moment was a bouncer which Watson bore beneath the left arm, and at which the batsman, anxious to defend his stumps, issued a fresh-air kick as it fell. Otherwise there was too much to shoulder arms to and sway away from, which was nonetheless applauded monotonously in the slip cordon. A couple of clumping drives early on, including an on drive that Watson drilled down the ground from Finn's fifth ball, seemed to have the effect of discouraging the bowlers from pitching up, despite Siddle's first-day example. A run-out opportunity went begging; overthrows were conceded. This was not the New England so widely praised, but a hint of Ye Olde England during the long Australian ascendant.
Between times, nonetheless, Anderson picked up Watson with a good one, nicking to slip, and Ponting with a bad one, feathering down the leg side. Australia were glad of some stern resistance from Katich, a turtle of a batsman, who retracts his head at the first hint of danger and always has the long view in mind. His stabs, jabs and back-and-across step are not a method you'd recommend anyone emulate, but his head is still when he plays the ball and he defends right under his nose. The South Africans and Englishmen had some success bowling outside his eyeline last year â Flintoff picked him up in the gully at Lord's. For whatever reason, there seemed no such plan today. His eventual fall, bunting back a low caught-and-bowled, surprised the batsman almost as much as the bowler: it was his first such Test dismissal, as well as a useful first Ashes wicket for Finn, whose stoop to conquer involved almost all his 6ft-6 frame.
At 100 for three, there was abruptly the hint of danger. Hussey nicked his first ball just
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