By Christopher Martin-Jenkins

MARK TAYLOR at the start of the day and Steve Waugh and Ian Healy in an extended final session stood between England and a good start to the 54th Ashes series. So, too, sad to relate, did the same old English tendency to miss important chances in the field.

Well as Waugh played, he should have been both run out and caught on the way to 69 not out, the top score of an intriguing first day. Healy, too, was missed off a luckless Darren Gough when he was 36. Like Waugh, however, he rose to the big occasion with customary relish and the 68 they added for the sixth wicket in the last 22 overs sliced the gilt from England's gingerbread.

Having lost the toss and been asked to field on a true and not yet particularly fast pitch, Alec Stewart could feel reasonably happy with a close-of-play score of 246 for five and a good performance all round by his bowlers. But halfway through the afternoon, Australia had been 106 for four and if the chances had all been taken England would have been in among a vulnerable looking tail with a hard new ball in their hands.

It was Australia's oldest hands and sagest heads who kept them in the game. Taylor's innings in his 100th Test was typically staunch and Waugh and Healy, with 212 Tests already behind them, demonstrated again what durable, cussed, talented cricketers they are. But England's effort was a vast improvement on the events of the corresponding day four years ago and further evidence, surely, that it is going to be a series to savour.

One or two close lbw decisions did not go England's way, although a marginal one against Justin Langer did, and there were expert catches by Stewart and Mark Butcher to weigh against the lapses which followed.

Stewart, watched by his parents, switched his bowling resources shrewdly and there was encouraging evidence of forward planning in the field placings. For a while there were two short midwickets to plug Taylor's tendency to clip in the air and the one-savers made sure they were close enough to prevent most of the stolen singles which all the Australians enjoy.

Taylor bore the brunt of some fierce opening overs from Darren Gough, leaving everything which did not have to be played. In his six-over spell, Gough was allowed only five balls at Michael Slater but the ball swung encouragingly in relatively cool weather by the standards of a Brisbane summer: the highest temperature was only 78 degrees.

Slater made 176 in this match four years ago. This time he managed only one back-foot four and another edged at catchable height just to the right of a diving Nasser Hussain at second slip, before, in the 17th over, he drove at the bounce of an off-side ball from Mullally and was deftly caught at head height by Butcher at third slip.

Langer and Mullally, who are both, like Cork and Stuart MacGill, playing their first Anglo/ Australian Test, had a close duel, Mullally twice getting past the outside edge, but Langer was still there at lunch and Taylor with him, impassable as a red traffic light.

Langer went two overs after, to a ball which might have missed the leg stump, recompense for Gough for a close call against Taylor in the first over. He soon troubled Mark Waugh, too, with bowling of pace and purpose. Playing too often with his bat divorced from his feet, Waugh still managed to hustle things along to the satisfaction of a crowd filling every available space in a Gabba which has been transformed from a rough-hewn, homespun cricket ground into just another concrete stadium.

By mid-afternoon, the Australian-made ball had softened and the occasional edges were starting to drop short but in the 44th and 45th overs England struck twice. Flailing at a ball outside his off stump, Mark Waugh was taken by Stewart, low but in both hands, off the inside edge. It needed a few replays to confirm as much.

Taylor had been batting for three hours and 10 minutes when, two balls later, he was surprised by a ball of extra pace and bounce from Cork. Hussain clutched the edge to his midriff at second slip. England now had Steve Waugh and Ricky Ponting together without a run to their names and only Healy separating them from the tail. But each unfurled a perfect off-drive for four, Waugh followed up with consecutive fours from Cork off balls too short and wide and Australia, typically, had counter-attacked with 29 runs in four overs.

Only eight balls were bowled after tea before the umpires quite unnecessarily offered Waugh and Ponting the chance to come off again for what was deemed to be bad light. There was a 35-minute delay but all but one of the lost overs were retrieved at the end of the day.

When the sun came out again Waugh would have been run out for 29 if Mullally's hand had not broken the bails before Stewart's quick and accurate throw to the bowler's end. It was the start of a battle between Waugh and Mullally which became heated when Mullally was twice denied lbws by thin edges on to the pads.

Waugh, his defence as usual completely watertight, loved every moment, of course. He lost Ponting at 178 when he drove on the up low to Butcher at close cover, a brilliant catch because Butcher was moving in quickly, but this was England's high point.

Healy almost immediately regained the initiative with unorthodox, shrewd batting of the kind with which Alan Knott used to irritate his opponents. He had cut and driven his way to 36 when he tried to pull Gough and could only scoop the new ball high towards Fraser at third man. He dropped it. Soon after, Waugh, now 68, edged Gough low to second slip: Hussain dived forward but could not cling on. Much more of this and England will lose the disciplined bowling and team cohesion which have to be sustained for seven weeks if they are to knock Australia from their perch.

Day 2: England fight their demons

By Scyld Berry

IN AUSTRALIA, it is not only cricketers who bristle with the belief that they are better than Englishmen at the noble game, and everything else, for that matter.

One example occurred last Wednesday when the Australian Cricket Board rammed not only dinner but this assumption of superiority down English throats. A second was to be seen shortly after Mike Atherton was dismissed by Glenn McGrath, as England began their reply to Australia's mountainous first innings.

As soon as Atherton had been caught at second slip, the television and the replay screen on the ground flashed up the number of runs England still needed to reach their follow-on target of 286. Atherton is widely recognised as the rock upon which an England innings is built, but to start the countdown to the follow-on as soon as his wicket has fallen is premature except for the purpose of wish-fulfilment.

This is the ninth Test match in which Atherton and McGrath have played together, and Atherton's dismissal - by a ball which turned him rather too chest-on before finding his outside edge was his 10th by McGrath in that time. The opening partnerships by Atherton and Mark Butcher were the main difference between England winning and losing against South Africa, and England need similar starts against an Australian attack of equally heavy calibre.

Atherton has regularly suffered at McGrath's hand and in these circumstances it would be reassuring if Atherton attributed his dismissal to his back trouble in some part, but the former captain would make no such excuse. ``I've had four cortisone injections in the last four weeks, and I struggled at Adelaide and Cairns, but it feels pretty good now. The key thing is mental: once you've declared yourself fit, you're 100 per cent, and no excuses.''

None the less, while Atherton was batting in his morning net and during the eight balls he faced from McGrath, he did not move his feet with balletic freedom. Between the lines of his concluding comment - ``I've felt normal in this game'' - can be read a hereditary, degenerative back condition which prevents him ever sleeping without anti-inflammatory tablets, and which threatens the career of a batsman who should be at his peak at 30.

For the remainder of the second day, for once, England made light of Atherton's dismissal. Mark Butcher for some reason was not given a bouncer until the 11th over of England's innings, and by the close, he had surpassed his combined total of previous first-class runs and stitches on the tour. His excellent fielding, notably the quick low catch to dismiss Ricky Ponting, had shown that Butcher was seeing the ball well: the only question was the short one.

Nasser Hussain's build-up on this tour was the opposite of Butcher's in that he had not suffered any outright failure at all, excluding the three hard chances which had eluded him here at second slip. But the result was the same as he and Butcher took England through to the close of the second day without further harm. Too many horses had bolted by then for England to have any vision left of victory, but a draw is theirs for the taking if they can maintain their tenacity of the opening day.

The horses bolted during the sixth-wicket partnership of 187 between Steve Waugh and Ian Healy, and disappeared over the horizon during a rollicking innings by Damien Fleming. The Romans kept their best and most gnarled veterans to hold their middle in emergencies, so the thrust by their two Australian counterparts was nothing new. Fleming's score, however, was his highest in first-class cricket, never mind Tests, and came close to bringing ridicule upon England's prime asset, the strength in depth of their pace attack.

``There was no definite policy to go after it,'' said Healy of the counter-attack which took 24 runs off the first four overs of the second day and the game away from England once and for all. There did not have to be: no pair in the history of Test cricket have made more runs together for the sixth wicket, though Clive Lloyd and Jeff Dujon averaged 91 in their associations, against 45 by the two Australian centurions.

The first hour of the second day was important as the second ball was still hard, England's spirit still high and the temperature no hotter than shirt-sleeve warm. But nothing could stem Waugh and Healy, neither the furious bursts of Darren Gough, nor a ball spinning back to hit Healy's stumps without removing a bail. ``I'm making a conscious effort not to become more tense,'' commented Healy on his ever more effective batting. ``It's a mental game physically they [England] are as skilful as our players.''

``If our top order is going to fail, it's great that it was here in Brisbane where the tail can play as naturally as they want,'' Healy added. Fleming did that all right, after Waugh had finally gone, his right hand jarred by short balls and by battering England into submission with his slashes, cuts and accumulation off his legs.

The Waugh-Healy stand was a classic example of how to turn the tide of a series by taking quick singles and the micky - always run on a misfield - and by rattling the opposition into errors, some of catching, as England took only five chances out of nine away from the wicket, and some of field-placing. England seldom had the third or fourth slip or gully demanded by the pitch and by bowlers busting themselves to bounce the Australians out.

``Opportunities were there and we didn't take them, simple as that,'' commented England's coach David Lloyd. ``We opted for two slips and it's no use crying over spilt milk.'' The question whether England's too few slips have stood too deep has also been widely debated: ``My view is we should be closer,'' said Lloyd.

Healy should send a letter to Australia's selectors thanking them for omitting him from their one-day side and thereby extending his Test career. His best shots were the pick-ups over midwicket. As he never failed to help himself to fours there, it was a bit silly of England to push the leg-side field back for Robert Croft (bowling too straight and defensively) and invite Healy to take all the singles he could want as well.

An ordinary batsman, and bowler, Fleming played an extraordinary innings of pulls, cuts and back-foot abandon. The faster Gough bowled, the harder he was hit, by Fleming if not by the realisation that he himself once hit like this, when he first toured Australia.

Even McGrath joined in for a last-wicket stand of 40 in 35 minutes, which capped the mountain that stood in front of England, all ready to slide down on top of them if their batsmen should falter. Mike Kasprowicz and Fleming, however, are not one jot better than England's seamers, while Stuart MacGill does not possess Shane Warne's bounce. England should have nothing to fear except McGrath - and their own recent past.

Day 3: Positive England get message over to sceptical hosts

By Christopher Martin-Jenkins

TEST cricket in Australia is always front page news when the home side are on top and England woke to a blaring headline in Brisbane's main Sunday paper yesterday: 'Poms Get The Shakes'. Quite soon, however, the local press will get the message which the Australian players have absorbed - that this is not going to be another easy series. Just to rub it in, Mark Butcher played a great innings.

Only the fifth Test hundred by an England batsman in a Brisbane Test and the fourth at the Gabba, it saw his side most of the way towards avoiding the follow-on and firmly reasserted his right to be Michael Atherton's opening partner.

Graham Thorpe, the other Surrey left-hander, was in no less authoritative form and England had duly sailed past the 285 needed to make Australia bat again by the time a thunderstorm of typical Brisbane intensity had burst around the Gabba from a granite-coloured sky. With two days left it seemed that the only thing which could prevent a draw was one of the 'sticky dogs' which preceded the days of efficient pitch covers.

The tarpaulins were safely in place, however, by the time that it really started raining and this will remain a beautiful pitch for batting. It was beginning to take just a little turn out of the rough by the time Butcher succumbed to a brilliant caught and bowled by Mark Waugh, the seventh bowler tried by Mark Taylor, but by then Butcher had played the leading part in a team performance of spirit and substance.

It exposed Australia, at least in conditions as comfortable for batting as these, as largely a one bowler team. In the absence of Shane Warne only Glenn McGrath was a consistent threat, although Michael Kasprowicz, in particular, gave him steady support. Jason Gillespie was conspicuous by his absence and Stuart MacGill, with no significant rough to exploit, was innocuous and inaccurate.

He offered a liberal supply of full tosses and although one of them accounted for a suitably appalled England captain, who helped it down the throat of deep backward square-leg with the accuracy of a tomahawk missile, Australia's selectors will be all the keener now to have Warne back in the side for the third Test in Adelaide. Already, next week's Perth Test is looming as a critical fixture.

With Gillespie back as his partner, McGrath will have more support there, so Butcher has done well to rebuild his confidence and self-esteem after his nine runs in five previous first-class innings on tour on a pitch he described as ``very pleasant indeed''.'' He added: ``The best policy seemed to be to play a few shots.'' He certainly did that, hitting 16 boundaries in his second Test hundred in three matches and one that he will treasure when he looks back on a career which is blossoming.

If Atherton can now lay his own bogey - the demon McGrath anything is still possible for England, whose batting atoned for the expensive fielding errors on Friday night which were ruthlessly exploited by Steve Waugh and Ian Healy in their sixth-wicket partnership of 187. Both of them batted outstandingly to reach their first home Test hundreds against England before Damien Fleming cashed in on a weary attack with a barnstorming highest first-class score of 71 not out.

McGrath accounted for Atherton once again on Saturday evening, for the 10th time in nine Tests when a good length ball left him enough to take a thickish outside edge and fly to second slip. Alec Stewart, too, was out in a manner which might have given him nightmares for the rest of his days had the other batsman not rallied round his brother-in-law so well. But Nasser Hussain confirmed his good form with a commanding innings; Thorpe was two thirds of the way towards a fourth hundred against Australia by the close yesterday; and Mark Ramprakash played in the same positive vein despite another painful blow to a bruised right elbow.

When Atherton fell in McGrath's third over, a substantial innings by Butcher became almost imperative to England's chances of leaving Brisbane with the series all-square. Helped by Hussain's equally confident and positive batting at the other end, he did himself and his country proud. Playing beautifully straight, moving his feet decisively, never taking his eyes off the short balls which inevitably came his way after his painful experience in Perth three weeks ago, he proved himself again to be not only a top-class opening batsman but also a man of exceptional character and the soundest temperament.

He could not have asked for a truer pitch or a better light in which to bat when the England reply to Australia's 485 began 19 overs from the close of the second day. The England team had had a long grilling in the sun and Butcher and Hussain did well to get to 53 by the close without further mishap.

From the outset yesterday runs came regularly. There were 18 fours in a morning session producing 126 runs and two wickets in 28 overs of scintillating cricket. Taylor, ever the attacking captain, helped by leaving the third-man boundary unprotected throughout Butcher's four hours and 40 minutes at the crease and by lunchtime 32 of his 93 runs, and six of his 10 fours, had been scored though or just wide of the slips.

This was either bold, or unwisely generous captaincy, according to taste. The fact is that Butcher never gave a chance and that even his edges went along the ground.

Waugh's catch and Stewart's aberration apart, Australia took only one legitimate wicket yesterday when Kasprowicz produced two fine balls in succession to end Hussain's fluent 98-ball innings. Surprised by one which cut back off the seam into his thigh pad, Hussain got a thin outside edge to the next, which held its line.

After three days only one wicket had fallen other than to catches: it is that good a pitch. Play was due to resume half an hour earlier today, with another half an hour extra at the end of the day and six minutes at the start of Tuesday's play to make up for the time lost to the storm.

Day 4: England slip back into decline

By Christopher Martin-Jenkins

THE Australian team got what one former Test player referred to as a ``spraying'' from their annoyed captain when they came off the field on Sunday evening, and the consequence was a first Test match which advanced in leaps and bounds.

Michael Slater celebrates his ninth Test century During a 7.5-hour fourth day the outcome of the game was amazingly transformed from a probable draw into an improbable victory for either side.

It was Glenn McGrath who made it possible, aided by some heedless English batting. If the Australians got a spraying, all but Mark Ramprakash deserved a positive hosing when England went into lunch yesterday after losing their last six wickets for 60. The old tendency not to sell their wickets dearly enough had got them into trouble quite unnecessarily, albeit against fast bowling of the highest quality.

McGrath was bowling again by the end of the day after a dazzling ninth Test hundred by Michael Slater had given Mark Taylor the chance to throw down the gauntlet with a flourish.

Dashing to 113 off 139 balls with 13 fours and a six, Slater knocked the stuffing out of England's fastest bowler, Darren Gough, whose match figures of one for 185 were a salutory warning to him with the fast pitch at Perth beckoning next week.

Height is a valuable asset for any bowler on Australian pitches, and on this slow surface, with no sideways movement off the seam, Gough's deliveries merely skidded invitingly on to Slater's punishing bat.

Declaring when Australia had extended their first innings lead of 110 at a rate of four an over, Taylor was able to set England 348 to win in a minimum of 99 overs in fast-scoring conditions.

England needed to score more than any side in the fourth innings to win a game in Australia, and Michael Atherton and Mark Butcher made an encouraging start in the final seven overs, reducing the target to 322.

The proper reaction to Taylor's declaration is to praise him for his adventurous approach to Test cricket. He hates draws, but he could easily have waited for his declaration until this morning, giving Australia perhaps 30 runs greater insurance.

He has been happy in the past to give his bowlers no more than a day to bowl England out, but having seen how feebly the tail succumbed yesterday to McGrath, his confidence was understandably high. He must, also, have weighed the huge advantage of getting either Atherton or Butcher out in the brief twilight session.

Instead the England openers took the scoring opportunities offered by attacking fields and the occasional short or overpitched ball, Atherton removing the spectre of a pair with a decisive cut for four against Michael Kasprowicz.

Atherton then answered McGrath's first bouncer with a hook, which ran quickly to the boundary at backward square-leg and brought the first wave of England's ever-optimistic winter supporters to their feet.

The more experienced of the travellers must have known that the odds were on Australia, especially if McGrath could repeat on the fifth morning his dominating performance on the fourth.

Running in with ramrod straight back, bowling flat out with his high action, yet with a plan behind the line and length of every ball, he began by giving Graham Thorpe every chance to hook. For a while he was resisted, but, having missed with his first attempt, Thorpe hit the second, played at head height from just outside the off-stump, straight to square-leg.

McGrath now dealt with Dominic Cork with summary efficiency. Cork has the ability to be a Test No 7, but whether he has the nous is questionable.

For an over Cork evaded the short stuff competently enough, but, needled by a few well chosen words from McGrath and unable to resist the temptation to turn this into a trial of strength when he would have been better defending until the bowler had shot his bolt, he tried to pull a short ball, only the 11th he had faced, and spliced it weakly to mid-on.

Robert Croft showed that he had learned to handle the short stuff better in a stout 51-minute innings, and Ramprakash continued to play everything on its merits, only once in trouble when Kasprowicz surprised him with a quicker bouncer.

He responded with two hooks for four, but Kasprowicz brought one back though Croft's gate before McGrath returned to finish the innings with clinical efficiency.

As at Trent Bridge against South Africa last season, Ramprakash was left unbeaten, but McGrath still took his last five wickets for nine runs off 35 balls. Darren Gough alone was unfortunate, given out by Darrell Hair, despite being at full forward stretch. There is no justice sometimes for tail-enders.

Much worse awaited Gough against the rapier blade of Slater's bat. The early start provided for in the regulations as a result of the previous evening's storm meant that 71 overs remained of a day of steamy heat, and in circumstances made for his buccaneering style Slater enjoyed himself memorably.

He started with a blazing array of cuts, drives and whips to leg, taking a total of 27 off Gough's second and third overs. So well did he play on a pitch still blameless that it made little difference when Taylor played an inswinger on to his stumps in Cork's second over.

Justin Langer settled neatly into the role of left-handed assistant while Slater, his footwork nimble as a dancer's, raced to 71 of the first 100 in 26 overs, constrained only by Alan Mullally's thoughtful and steady bowling and, for a time, by Angus Fraser's length.

Croft bowled steadily for 20 overs against a light breeze from the Stanley Street End. The Gabba is a big enough ground to give spinners a chance, but Slater hit Croft straight into the second tier of the Clem Jones Stand before reaching his hundred off 129 balls and celebrating with a kiss on his helmet and another blown to his wife on the terraces.

He hit three more fours before giving Fraser a knee-high return catch. Croft's only reward was a skier from Langer, caught on the run by Mullally at mid-on.

Day 5: England may turn to Tudor and Crawley for inspiration

By Christopher Martin Jenkins

ARMAGEDDON arrived 20 minutes before tea at Wooloongabba yesterday, not a moment too soon for an England side struggling for survival. The expected storm saved them at 179 for six, their barely credible pursuit of 348 long since forgotten. England thus take their unbeaten record with them to Perth today, according to Alec Stewart rescued by rain for the first time in his 82 Tests.

They were overdue some help from the weather, although they scarcely deserved it. Not since the Oval in 1989 have England enjoyed such assistance when in mortal danger, although at Lord's last year Australia would probably have won had there not been only an hour and a half's cricket on the first two days. By contrast, England would have had a great chance of beating the West Indies at Bridgetown and South Africa at Edgbaston had it not rained on the last day.

Yesterday, with a minimum of 30 overs remaining and the last two batsmen of any serious pretensions together, Australia would surely have won this first Test if the game had gone the distance. They gave their opponents a severe mauling in the later stages of an excellent game played on an ideal Test pitch, which began yesterday to take some sharp spin. Once Glenn McGrath had extended his domination of Mike Atherton, it was the combination of the inexperienced leg-spinner Stuart MacGill and the off-breaks of Mark Waugh which looked like putting the gloss on two days of irresistible Australian cricket.

As the light faded before the storm, obliging Mark Taylor to keep McGrath out of the attack for fear that the batsmen might appeal against bad light, MacGill emerged as the likely match-winner, spinning his leg-break sharply and defeating Nasser Hussain with a classical googly. Instead of playing in the second Test at Perth on Saturday, however, he will be bowling for New South Wales against Western Australia at Sydney. Because of Perth's uniquely fast pitch, Colin Miller of Tasmania, the utility bowler who switches from seam-up to briskish off-breaks, has been called into an otherwise unchanged Australian 12. Jason Gillespie is equally certain to play in place of either Michael Kasprowicz or Damien Fleming.

England set out yesterday merely to ``be positive'' and see what transpired. Fleming was given the first chance as McGrath's opening partner and he swung balls past the edge of both Atherton and Mark Butcher, but it was at the other end that the battle was really tense. Determined not to be bullied by his tormentor, Atherton took the short ball on three times in McGrath's first over, hooking him twice for four, but when the bouncer was offered again in the 10th over of the morning, he was unable to roll the wrists and lifted the ball high to Fleming, five yards in from the long-leg boundary.

Incredibly, McGrath has now dismissed Atherton 11 times in his last 15 innings against Australia. He got Brian Lara five times in nine innings here two years ago but it is doubtful if one bowler has exercised such control over another top-class batsman over so short time span. Alec Bedser famously got the wicket of Arthur Morris 18 times in his 21 Tests.

It was a different game now. From the moment MacGill took over, Hussain's command was less obvious and Butcher, having played beautifully straight against the quick bowling, was not so convincing with the spin biting. After 28 overs of sensible accumulation he was given out lbw when what to him was an off-break hit him on the back leg. Three overs later Stewart's bad run with the bat continued when he thrust forward at Waugh and was caught off pad and bat at silly point.

Graham Thorpe battled for 11 overs after lunch as Hussain's partner but in the 11 which followed both these two and Mark Ramprakash were defeated. Thorpe was caught off the face of the bat at short-leg, Hussain failed to spot the googly out of a now murky background and cut onto his stumps and Ramprakash tried to move his feet to the pitch of a leg break, only for sharp spin to pass him.

Had England agreed to use the floodlights - a development which both Taylor and Stewart supported in principle - Taylor could now have called back McGrath and 20 minutes would not have been lost to bad light before tea. Dominic Cork and Robert Croft did well in this uncertain twilight period, however, and not long after the umpires decided that it had become too dark, it was obvious that there could be no further play. Within minutes of the rain's arrival the Gabba was under water.

It was the luckiest of escapes for England, not just because of yesterday's events but because they fell into so many of the traps which have swallowed them up in the recent past. They dropped catches - by far the biggest reason for the plight they later found themselves in - batted on the fourth morning as though the game was safe when it was not and proved vulnerable once more to the two types of bowler they do not themselves possess: a leg-spinner and a match-winning fast bowler.

The selectors will surely now be right to take a chance with Alex Tudor. If so, they must decide whether to risk him in a fortified batting order. There are precious few laurels on which to rest and something has to be done to shake Australia from their familiar, confident stride. Tudor might prove a costly mistake but he bowled with encouraging control on the flat, slow pitch at Adelaide. His pace is unusually fast and both his bowling and his demeanour in practice have impressed everyone.

The bold 11 for Perth would include John Crawley instead of Croft at seven and, more debatable, Tudor in Angus Fraser's place, leaving Cork to bowl into the breeze. The WACA is a ground where, in the words of Justin Langer, bowlers either have to pitch the ball up or bounce it at head height. In his last Test there four years ago, Fraser's match figures were 53-14-158-3.

His reappearance against Western Australia three weeks ago was not a happy one - 0 for 128 - and although he is a far more consistent bowler than Cork, there is a case for leaving Fraser out for one game. Horses for courses, as the Australians say. Tudor and Crawley for Fraser and Croft would also sharpen the fielding.