History suggested that the Australians have mostly triumphed at Lords' but the present English team showed their mettle in the first session of the opening test of the Ashes. By the time the players went back to their dressing rooms for lunch, the visitors had five of their batsmen looking forward to the second innings. To add insult to the injury, three of the five received blows with the captain having to endure a cut on the cheekbone. Hayden, Langer, Martyn and Ponting fell to very ungainly shots. Of course, Ponting seemed to be shaken by the blow. Clarke has not added anything to his initial success. Now it is upto Gilchrist to stem the rot. He has on most of the occasions scored a 100 in the first test match of a series and that has helped the Aussies to have control right from the start. Will it be the same again? Katich has a lot to prove the selectors wrong.
The blows and the ducking and weaving of the batsmen before the four English bowlers made me think of the great pace quartets from the West Indies. I never got to watch them in full flight. Will Harmison and company do the same or will the Aussies be able to recover from the bad start.
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