Tipping point

Cardiff. First Ashes Test. Day three

Preview
One day of the dreaded Aussie is as much as we need so I have sent him back to the terraces to sing with his pals. I will tell you whether England can follow the scenario sketched by Andrew Flintoff last night when he called for a re-enactment of the spirit of '05. He refuses to follow the lead of Graeme Swann who claimed "the wind had been knocked out of the England bowlers." Flintoff told the team: "It takes just one good spell to bring us right back into the game." We will see.

To lunch.

There seemed to be some purpose to the England bowling. Flintoff put the ball where his mouth was and although he did not take another wicket he showed Jimmy Anderson the way to the wickets of Simon Katich and Mike Hussey before, near lunch, Monty Panesar forced Ricky Ponting to chop the ball on to his stumps. It was too close to him; a strange misjudgement when he was 150, The Aussies will be pleased with their morning's 99 runs; near enough to the England total and still in with a chance of building a good-sized lead before the week-end rains.

To tea
Fifteen minutes before tea ten runs came off an over from Flintoff and Australia were in the lead. By the interval they were 23 in front and Michael Clark and Marcus North had batted the full two hours. Ominous. The Aussies were in a position to dominate the rest of the game and England were beginning to look as if they did not know which way to turn. Andrew Strauss crouched at slip, bewildered; and you will not be surprised to know I was looking round the field for Michael Vaughan. No sign of him nor of Steve Harmison and Marcus Trescothick while Simon Jones will, presumably, never play in another first class match. I know these men cannot be returned to the England side magically; but by the beard of W G Grace we miss them.

To close

Not surprisingly, on the wettest ground in British cricket, rain brought an early finish with Australia 44 in front. Stuart Broad, who had hardly put a foot right on the whole innings, produced a sharp bouncer to get rid of Clark who is still without a century in at Test in this country. When the heavy shower finished the game continued under lights, another first for a venue where England have little if any control and face an unexpected defeat.