London, July 10: England shared chapter one with Wales. But day two of Cardiff’s maiden Test match belonged entirely to Australia by the end with centuries from opener Simon Katich and captain Ricky Ponting putting the Ashes holders into a position of real promise.
“We’ve had the wind knocked out of our sails,” was the honest assessment from spinner Graeme Swann after the Aussies had reached 249 for one in reply to 435 all out. “We are still nearly 200 runs ahead so it’s not all doom and gloom by any means but we couldn’t capitalise on our early momentum and that was disappointing.”
With Swann playing almost every shot in the book during the morning session to make an unbeaten 47 from 40 balls and Jimmy Anderson supplying a bonus contribution of 26, England thrashed 99 runs in 17 overs before lunch to reach a total taller than even the optimistic Kevin Pietersen had suggested on Wednesday evening.
–Agencies