Just sitting down to a huge bowl of humble pie - surely now England will help me to polish it off and ask for second helpings?

Fantastic response by England after Perth. Watson, Hussey & Haddin all out cheaply in the same innings, and the rest of their batting has failed yet again. Lowest ever Australia total in an Ashes Test at the MCG, and we've been playing them there since 1877!

Tremlett's figures of 11.5-5-26-4 are extraordinary when you consider he went for ten off his first over. I don't think I'll be seeing much of him for Surrey in the Championship next year.

Apart from the fact he removed Ponting straight away, I'm sure the economy of Bresnan's bowling must have helped the opening bowlers. There's less pressure on them and on the captain when you can be confident the first change bowler isn't going to give away cheap runs, and if the pitch is taking spin in the second innings there's going to be more pressure on the Aussies to force the pace against Swann and take risks when there are no cheap runs to be had elsewhere. And the lower order batting now has a nicely robust look to it should the need arise.

Another big opening partnership from Strauss & Cook, with Johnson going at six an over just like the old days. Surely only the weather can stop us now?

Brilliant - I am not sure how that could have gone any better other than seeing punter getting chased by a rogue crocodile, superb comeback from England

Yes. I went to bed during the extended lunch break thinking 58/4 would be as good as it got with Hussey at the crease and was amazed to wake up, switch the radio on, and hear someone telling me England now led by 40+. It was one of those "If Carlsberg did Test cricket . . ." kind of days.

I had a bit of a lie in

and have just seen the score.
I thought it silly to win the toss and not bat ... WRONG!!!!
Brilliant.
Now get a good score and blast the b'stards!
Come on!!

Have England ever had a better opening day against an established international side?

When the aussies scored 300+ for none in 1997(?) it was described as a perfect start but you wouldnt swap that for Englands day.

And Warne seems convinced that the pitch will spin after 3 days.

Yes, it might, but am I the only person who thinks Warne is a bellend?.....Along with Botham, he is a fine example that great player does not neccessarily equate to great commentator.

As for the match itself?.....Well, if we can manage a full day of steady batting we should be around 350 ahead by the end of day 2 - That should be our first objective. If we get to that stage the Aussies will be waving the white flag and you could probably declare from anytime then onwards.

Personally, I'd grind them into the dirt as much as possible if we can and look to bat until halfway through day 3, when we'd be about 500 ahead.....In this position, I don't just want to win, I want to make them pay for all those years of misery by humiliating them.

I am glad i was so wrong but that was never a 98 all out pitch as our openers have shown.

Terrible from the aussies

You weren't the only one, there was a lot of panic and knee jerking going around after Perth. But even after that it was clear that this is a mentally tougher outfit than any touring team of the previous 20 years. They dusted themselves down, admitted they were beaten by a better team on the day, made no excuses whatsoever, and just laughed off the Aussie goading. Especially Mitchell Johnson.

Not for one minute did I expect a day like we've had, but I was confident enough that we wouldn't crumble.

My thoughts exactly!

I'd say our only worry is Strauss negativity as a captain when it comes to declarations etc. I'd like to see us really go at them and put them back in on day 3. We need to make sure we win this test from here on out. Anything less will be a massive psychological boost for the Ozzies.

I know we have done incredibly on the 1st day, but to imagine we might still have the opportunity to still be batting our 1st innings by the 4th day is a little far fetched.

Ideally, we'd like to be able to set the pace with a declaration, but realistically this match should just run its natural course and we should still comfortably win with time to spare.

The match situation is one that we would have been happy with at the end of day 2, the fact we are 1 day ahead of ourselves already is a huge bonus....Our main aim should be to bat steadily on day 2 - If we do that then this match should be in the bag by the end of day 4.

Barring the last test match is there any reason to believe the Ozzies can remove us before the end of the 3rd day? IMO there isn't. Their heads will have dropped and I expect if we play sensible we could bat for as long as we like. I just hope we don't sit in there trying to make some ridiculous total when an aggressive declaration would keep the Ozzies running for their lives.

I know what you are saying, but I think the main difference this time is that we are at least a day ahead of ourselves with regard to the match situation.

Think of it as 12 sessions left, with each session worth approxinately 100 runs, then we probably need to bat 5 sessions max, giving us a lead of 550+ and so giving us 6 sessions to take the 10 Aussie second innings wickets.

I'll go along with all of that. The match seems to be taking a similar shape to Adelaide so far, except we've got them out more quickly and for less than half the runs. The time to worry about declarations is if we've still got wickets in hand at the end of day 2, although I'll be surprised if we haven't.

I think Warne is a lot more shrewd than Botham, although he seems to veer wildly between useful analysis and blindly talking up the Aussies regardless. I try not to take any notice of anything Botham says. He seems to have the most incredibly condescending tone of voice, yet most of the time he's talking complete like someone propping up the bar at closing time. I've had his autobiography on the bottom shelf of my bookcase for years (my mother picked it up for me in a charity shop) and have never even thought about reading it. I really ought to throw it out. A shame really as he was one of my greatest schoolboy heroes.

not an ideal start, but we are still 72 ahead for 2, which you'd take.

Before the game you would have, but I thought they were both pretty soft. Decent enough balls but they hadn't been under massive pressure from a string of brilliant deliveries.

The England batting lineup can look as vulnerable as the Aussies once a few go down. Pietersen is desperately trying to get himself out as I speak and bar Bell there is nothing much to come after him. Today they are 15 for 2 and unlucky not to have KP too. I wouldn't be surprised to see England leading by only 150. Talk of batting through day 3 to lead by 500 is ridiculous. England could well be all out for 250 the way they have started today.

Just good early bowling from the aussies and nothing to do with the way England started. I expect England to get around 350ish.

Bit of an overreaction. It's funny reading this thread, there's knee jerking at both extremes. On this very page there's people saying we should be declaring late on day 3, then you're claiming we could be out for 250. I think the excitement has gone to peoples heads.

Before the day started I'd have said we'll get 350ish.

Trott amd Pietersen are playing very sensibly, and long may it continue.

Ha ha!

Not out Ponting you prick. Get on with the game you whinging ocker!!

Sounds like Ponting totally lost the plot over an unsuccessful review for a catch behind the stumps with Pietersen on 49. Apparrently Haddin was the only one who appealled in the first place, but when the replay umpire upheld the original not out verdict Ponting was ranting at each umpire in turn, then having a go at Pietersen too. Then after all the commotion Pietersen was out shortly afterwards sparking a middle order collapse. Ian Chappell reckoned the level of dissent warrants an ICC suspension.

Even better though, Ponting then thought he'd run out Trott with a direct hit from long range but the replay reprieved the batsman by the narrowest possible margin; one frame showed the stumps intact with his bat on the line, the next showed the bat just over the line with the bails just dislodged. And now Trott is 141 n.o at close of play with Prior making his first decent score of the series on 75 n.o., the total 444/5, the lead now 346. Best case scenario: we can afford to bat at least half of day 3 as long as we don't get bowled out, which should give us a lead of 500+ and still leave ourselves half the match to bowl them out a second time and make any fourth innings runs that might be needed.

Yup, made up to get up this morning and see the talk of a possible 500 lead was accurate.

I think I got that pretty much right....



Seriously, apart from Colly & Bell's non-contribution, its been a superb day for England, they couldn't have wished for anything better....even the 'white flag' I expected to see was in evidence in the shape of Ponting's tantrum.

Just continue playing sensible cricket and we can sew this up by the end of day 4.

Sounds an awful lot like what I was saying that!

I'd like to see us put on maybe a hundred more in the morning then stick them back in during the afternoon session. Just hope we don't get ultra conservative. This is our big chance to retain the Ashes, we need to ram it home.