Led by Darren Gough, England's bowling was first of all accurate enough, and the fielding dynamic enough, to restrict Australia to what was slightly below an average total on a dry and sunny, if cool-winded day. There was a hint of complacency in Australia's attitude, not only in giving themselves just four one-day matches as preparation for this Texaco Trophy series. It was apparent, too, when Mark Waugh and Ian Healy were run out when less than flat out in their running between wickets.
England, in turn, had their upper-order failures, which left Mike Atherton to do for his side what Michael Bevan had done for Australia. Atherton enjoyed the pace of this un-Northern pitch, and his contribution was only his third 50 in one-day internationals, since England's World Cup campaign of ignoble memory.
Whereas the ball at Head ingley came on to the bat as grudgingly as a local supporter digging into his pocket (well, research has shown that Yorkshiremen give less to charity than the inhabitants of any other of our regions), Mark Waugh demonstrated in the opening over that the bounce here was more like Perth. Perth as it used to be, not the WACA ground as it was for the Perth Test against West Indies, when the pitch cracked in 40ÁC heat - although it did not seem to be hot when Mark Waugh was batting against Carl Hooper, perhaps the two coolest customers in world cricket.
While Taylor struggled lamentably behind the pace, Mark Waugh smoothly drove DeFreitas through the covers and straight, and clipped through mid-wicket without any of the risks attendant at Headingley. The tradition of some Australian batsmen to be all at sea on damp English pitches is a long one, since it was started by Don Bradman.
Only when given extra time did Taylor get his front foot out of the starting block. Otherwise, everything was a fraction too slow, and too heavy, especially when compared with the left-handed opener who decorated this ground last August, Saeed Anwar of Pakistan. The cunning trick might therefore be for England to allow the captain a few runs, either at Bristol in the match starting on Tuesday or at Derby on Saturday. The blast of Derbyshire's seamers might well prove terminal and force the Australians to change their leader before the Tests, while a slow and lingering death or an abdication in mid-series might suit England more.
So it was an instance of cricket at its cruellest when Taylor moved his front foot across in time for once and square drove DeFreitas as if he had recovered the form of his last two England tours at a stroke. Cruel because in the same over, the memory still alive, Mark Waugh called Taylor for a run to point, then turned his back on his captain to save his own skin when he saw Hollioake swoop. If Taylor does not score runs in the third international today, this will surely be a foretaste of what happens in the Australian dressing-room sooner or later this summer.
The first case of complacency came in the following over, when Mark Waugh did not run flat out in response to his brother's call for a single behind square leg. Robert Croft hit the stumps directly to win a television replay verdict, as did DeFreitas and Graham Lloyd later, the last from 70 yards. England's fielders have often hit the stumps with direct hits before, but not so frequently.
As two new batsmen had to play themselves in by the end of the 11th over, it was time for Australia's tour to start in earnest, but England succeeded in postponing the moment a while longer. Michael Bevan played himself in, and stayed to make his second one-day hundred, but Steve Waugh played on to Croft. It was not just luck, or ill-luck, but the heavy over-spin on Croft's off-break that propelled the ball on from the bat's full face to the stumps.
Michael Slater also departed before the Australians began to show their true green colours. Dashing on his 1993 tour, Slater has become nearer to frenetic. The adrenalin rush at every ball seems to make his bottom hand take over more and more. He sliced a drive to slip which Knight should have held, but during the winter he was Croft's silly point and Nasser Hussain caught the edges. Knight immediately made the job over to Thorpe.
Slater underwent a rush of blood by pushing into the covers and making a rush of his own down the pitch. He was rightly sent back by his fellow New South Welshman, and beaten in his dive. The new form of the game in New Zealand, devised by Martin Crowe and called ``Cricket Max'', would suit Slater and his present horizons as it is possible to score 12 runs off one ball, 72 off an over.
It was the calmer head of Adam Gilchrist that, with Bevan, turned Australia round. Reserve wicketkeeper he may be, yet Gilchrist was chosen as a specialist left-handed batsman by the end of the one-day internationals in South Africa, such is the faith in his future - and Australia's lack of faith, it would appear, in Matthew Elliott, Justin Langer and Ricky Ponting.
Atherton brought Gough back in mid-innings in place of Giles, but could not halt the century stand. Giles would have preferred a right-hander's legs to bowl at, but there was no sign of a right-hander being needed while Bevan and Gilchrist at last made the most of the pitch.
If Atherton missed one trick, it may have been in not giving Hollioake a bowl slightly earlier, but keeping him back for ``the death'' as planned. Hollioake is extraordinary for not wanting a preparatory bowl at a less intense stage of a one-day innings. On he comes, the batsmen on top, his pace no more than medium. But he disguises what he does with his left hand.
But if Australia have a left-handed opener who is not at present adequate, so do England. Knight is all at sea, raising his hands far away from his body, planting his front foot on the line of off-stump, and unable to bring a straight back to bear upon the straight balls.
Once Knight had gone, Atherton and Stewart climbed into the Australian bowling, compelling Warne's advent for the eighth over. Stewart went down the pitch to attack the slower offerings until he was bowled off his pads; and Graham Thorpe followed soon afterwards, as the victim of Bevan, a potential match-winner, who has some of the mystique that Warne has lost. Here was an opportunity for Atherton to prove to doubters that he can be a one-day batsman too. He took it with both hands.