Losing the plot

SECOND TEST

To lunch: In a blink of an eye Katich, Ponting and Clarke were all gone for two runs, and you do not fight back from those blows easily.

To tea: Inevitably an Australian improvement but with only Finn below par and the last three Australian batsmen indisputably tail-enders there was always going to be a small total.

To close: Ponting is always defeated when he loses his temper and tonight he left the field shouting at Strauss. Last time, remember, it was Duncan Fletcher who caught his wrath. That outburst as the two sides left the field may be the clearest sign that there are big problems in the Australian dressing room, in particular for Ponting. Besides it has come to my notice that Mitchell Johnson, out of form fast bowler, shouted at Greg Chappell, the new supremo among the Australia selectors, after being dropped. Doesn't Johnson realise that his Brisbane bowling was so below par that he had become an enbarrassment. He was simply not performing at first-class level; he had to go.

Jo King, Stats Queen, says: It is 13 years since a side was bowled out on the first day at Adelaide where we remember Mohammad Azhurrudin, Mark Waugh and Paul Collingwood filling the air with gorgeous strokes and filling their boots at the same time.In 1997 it was West Indies, another side on their way down, who made 130 in 47.5 overs.