Day 1 at The Adelaide Oval : Order restored as England dominates stuttering Australia

THE EVENTS

After much hullabaloo , the second Ashes test got underway in Adelaide , Southern Australia. As predicted there were spells of rain in what was largely a beautiful day for cricket. The ‘drop in’ pitch looked like a road and perhaps the best batting wicket that we will see in this series. Alastair Cook called wrong again and Australia elected to bat first. Australia were unchanged while England surprisingly went for Ben Stokes and Monty Panesar (in the place of Johnathan Trott and Chris Tremlett) . Out came David Warner with all guns blazing. Only for rain to intervene . After two rain delays, Warner fell as he cut Broad straight to Carberry .  Then Shane Watson and Chris Rogers put up a show of defiance. Rogers’ grit was great while Watson showed remarkable restraint when the scoring oppurtunities were restricted. When both men brought up half centuries , it looked very ominous for England at 1-155. And then it happened again. Shane Watson finally got tempted into a drive straight back to Jimmy Anderson’s gleeful hands. Graeme Swann removed Rogers in the next over leaving Australia at 3-155 in a matter of minutes. Steve Smith lasted shortly before he fell as he tried to play Panesar across the line and saw the timber disturbed. George Bailey walked in at enormous pressure at 4-174 but the Tasmanian, along with Michael Clarke showed some maturity as they put on 83 runs for the fifth wicket. Panesar did drop Bailey once off his own bowling. But then Graeme Swann pulled off a blinder of a catch to dismiss Bailey off Broad’s bowling. And Brad Haddin had to survive a review, a dropped catch from Carberry and several other dodgy moments as Australia limped to stumps at 5-273. It was a drop in wicket alright..it looked like it had been dropped in straight from Trent Bridge as England feel right at home on this one.

THE SCORES

Australia - 5-273 (Rogers 72, Bailey 53, Broad 2-63) vs England

STAR OF THE DAY

Australia - Chris Rogers. He is not everyone’s cup of tea but his steady approach at the top ensured Australia atleast get near a par score

England - Stuart Broad. It was an all round team effort from England but Broad struck twice and both times it was absolutely crucial. Once to remove the dangerous looking Warner and then to remove the well set Bailey

FLOP OF THE DAY

Australia - Steve Smith. The likeable Smith showed a glaring lack of technique when he miscued Panesar’s standard ball

England - Ben Stokes. Really harsh on the debutant but he didn’t do anything of note. He failed to create much with his nipping seam bowling.

DAY’S VERDICT

The pitch is a road , I tell you . Barring something remarkable, the likes of Cook , KP and Bell will bat long and Australia need to somehow get to 400. With Haddin’s struggles at the day’s end , it looks like he’ll go early tomorrow. Advantage England.