By Peter Deeley in Tamworth, NSW

OWAIS SHAH, a sixth- former studying for his A levels, provided England A's only glimmer of success on an otherwise gloomy start to their tour of Australia.

Shah scored 76, almost exactly half the total of 155 for nine on the opening day of the game against a New South Wales side. He batted for 3.75 hours and watched five wickets go down at the other end on a pitch and against bowling largely alien to him.

To emphasise this storybook opening, Shah returned to his motel room to swot up on exams for his mock A levels due early next year. He has brought his school text-books on economics and the theory of sports studies and admits to finding it difficult to settle down to revision after a day's cricket.

Born in Karachi and now living with his parents in Isleworth, west London, Shah is the surprise package on this tour, still only 17 when he was picked - by some way the youngest-ever England A player - and on the strength of five championship games for Middlesex.

The last international game played on this pitch was 33 years ago when Ted Dexter brought MCC and the side, including Ray Illingworth, won by 10 wickets. So nobody, not even the home team, quite knew what to expect from the pitch.

England chose to bat but it turned well before lunch to the satisfaction of the two wrist-spinners in a New South Wales side that even the local selector present admitted was ``close to a third XI.''

Even so some in this country rate Stuart MacGill as the best Australian leg-break bowler after Shane Warne and his flight caused trouble throughout, notably when England captain Adam Hollioake was drawn down the pitch at a moment when watchfulness should have been his keynote and was stumped by several yards.

Shah, like his colleagues, found the bounce for the spinners off the hard top disconcerting but he had the quickness of eye and swiftness of hands to compensate even if often caught off-balance.

Three times he might have been caught but was always ready to use his feet to hit the spinners back over the top or drive the quick bowlers through the covers for his 11 boundaries.

Four wickets went down by lunch before Craig White offered Shah his only real assistance in a stand of 60 to double the score. White flicked MacGill over square leg for six and was starting to dominate when he seemed unlucky to be adjudged leg before pushing forward to David Freedman.

Freedman, one of New South Wales's three Sheffield Shield players on view, bowls the rarely-seen chinaman and Shah acknowledged that he had never come up against that kind of left-hander before, except in a one-day game. ``It was certainly different and quite an experience for me,'' he said.

Jason Gallian was first to go as early as the seventh over when the tall and fast Phil Alley trapped him with a full-pitched slower delivery. Then Mark Butcher was deceived by MacGill's top-spinner and Anthony McGrath offered no shot to a ball from Alley which swung back into him.

Mike Gatting, the England A coach and Shah's county captain, came out during the afternoon drinks break to urge Shah to keep going when White went but soon after tea the youngster pushed forward to Freedman and was caught at slip via the wicketkeeper's arm.

Shah's innings apart, it was not a day for England's batsmen to remember and with the last pair together they were saved further embarrassment by a vicious hailstorm which quickly turned the ground into a white lake and ended play prematurely.

Day 2............

England 'A' Tour: Toiling England fail to exploit Giles successes By Peter Deeley in Tamworth, NSW

Scoreboard

ENGLAND A flattered to deceive yesterday as they first gained control, then lost the initiative to a New South Wales side who finished the second day in command.

As on the first day, when Owais Shah made his lone stand, one England player emerged head and shoulders above the rest in terms of results. Ashley Giles, the burly Warwickshire left-arm slow bowler, in his first spell of 16 overs, claimed three wickets and had the Australian batsmen in the palm of his hand, squirming to play his well-flighted spin.

But there was little support for Giles, who finished with four for 79. The slow pitch gave no help to the quick bowlers and Peter Such, though he had his moments, was mastered by the sixth-wicket pair of Craig Glassock and Scott Thompson.

These two added 113 by the close and New South Wales, on 215 for five, were 60 runs ahead. Their wrist-spinners turned the ball much more than England's finger-spinners and that may influence the outcome.

The tourists were unlucky to spend five hours in the field, with only a 20-minute break for tea, and some players were flagging by the end. Giles said: ``The heat was really exhausting in the final stages and, as this was really our first concentrated spell in the field since our season ended, it was very tough indeed.''

Yet by Australian standards it was certainly not roasting - only about 75F - and England can expect more gruelling days as this part of the world hots up.

Thompson, an all-rounder who has played for NSW's Shield side, made it extremely warm for Such. He reached 78 not out by the close, scored at well over a run-a-ball and hit the Essex off-spinner for three sixes, one which carried straight into the municipal swimming pool in the adjoining ground.

Fortunately by then the baths had closed or some innocent might have suffered a unique cricket-bathing accident.

England's overnight 155 for nine was snuffed out on the third ball of the day after the morning had been lost because of the effects of the overnight storm. Then a confident NSW start was halted in its tracks by Giles.

If he turned the ball only slowly, Giles's height and accuracy enabled him to flummox successive batsmen with his flight. All five wickets to fall came off his bowling, though the first, the run out of Anthony McQuire, was the result of a direct hit on the stumps by Such from 20 yards when the opener was trying a quick single.

Jason Arnberger hit Giles straight for six but in his next over the spinner had his revenge when the batsman again tried to put him over the top and Dean Headley took a high one-handed catch at deep mid-on.

It became two in two balls for Giles when Peter Mazariotis was completely beaten by the flight and, with the home captain Martin Haywood caught behind slashing at the spinner, New South Wales were 47 for four.

Graeme Rummans helped steady the boat in a 62-run partnership with Glassock, then became Giles's fourth victim when he pushed forward and was caught at silly mid-off by Mark Butcher, the ball lodging between his legs as he fell.

Day 3:

England fail to cope with predictable hot welcome

Peter Roebuck sees Australians' extra aggression and skill shove

Hollioake's side closer to defeat

BARBECUES can be counted among Australia's favourite pastimes. Steaks, chops, prawns, crocodiles, witchity grubs - and cricket teams - are slowly grilled, much to the delight of locals genially supping beer and occasionally bellowing unhelpful remarks. Now it is the turn of Adam Hollioake's team to suffer the turning of the spit and the poking of the knife.

On the first three playing days of their tour down under, England A have been outplayed at Tamworth by New South Wales hosts whose batting is inexperienced but whose bowlers are highly regarded. They have been given a taste of things to come: harsh light, wrist-spinners, hard pitches and aggressive opponents waiting around every corner.

It is up to the players to rise to the challenge. They might not care to recall that Tony Middleton and Mike Roseberry opened the batting in this match last time it was played.

Despite the scorecard, England's performance has not been entirely without merit. Dean Headley bowled some long, hostile and unlucky spells, and Glen Chapple was not far behind, though he was given little work. Ashley Giles showed his strengths and his weaknesses. At first he bowled superbly, another Hedley Verity we all thought; later, he was stiff and tired and plain. But he is tall and strong and will improve.

Among the batsmen, Mark Butcher cut and clipped gamely against the pacemen before betraying his bewilderment against unfamiliar wrist-spin. Otherwise, Owais Shah, the youngest player in the party, a mere schoolboy, appeared capable of building an innings.

Shah is an unusual batsman, whose idiosyncracies quite threw his opponents off their stride. One minute he seemed a bag of nerves, glancing around desperately, dashing down the pitch and generally appearing as if electricity flowed through his veins. And then, he would be serenity itself, hardly bothering to leave his stance as he allowed a distant ball to pass by.

Nevertheless, Shah batted with resolution, playing some conclusive forcing strokes and, in between, riding his luck as he moved decisively forward or back and gave every ball his full attention. By stumps, he had already begun his sixth hour at the crease, an education in two days. It is a pity more youngsters were not chosen for this tour. Some of the seniors must wonder what on earth they are doing here. Meanwhile Vikram Solanki, Danny Law and the rest twiddle their thumbs.

It is England's way, and it does not seem right. Not that the selectors are entirely to blame. English youngsters mature slowly, because so much fuss is made of them and because they play so little strong adult cricket.

Shah's success reminds everyone of youth capability and of the debt English cricket owes to the contributions made by the sons of mixed marriages and the sub-continent.

Too much ground had been conceded the previous evening, as Scott Thompson hit hard and low, and Craig Glassock defended diligently. A wily captain might have recalled his pacemen to test Thompson's mettle; as it was, the game slipped away. It took the second new ball, soon taken as play resumed, to remove Thompson as he edged a flier from Headley to Warren Hegg, standing too deep most of the time.

An hour later David Freedman drove uppishly to cover to give Craig White, also under-employed, a first wicket. By now, Glassock had been batting for five hours, playing back at every opportunity and working crisply off his pads in the Australian way.

At last, he fell, sweeping at a weary Giles with his head prematurely scanning the horizon. Phil Alley was promptly held at short leg, but a flamboyant last-wicket partnership took the hosts to a lead of 175.

England's second effort began well, with the openers forcing runs in their distinctive way. Anthony McGrath had been found wanting against pace in his first attempt, but here he hooked vigorously and it took a skidder to bring him down.

Jason Gallian's appearance at first wicket down came as a surprise, since his little finger is cracked; he could only defend the liberal supply of lifters provided by Alley, a towering left-arm seamer and a distant relation of Bill. Eventually, and negligently, he drove to slip.

Once the spinners were working in tandem, England's decline was swift. Mark Butcher fell as he cut to slip, and Hollioake could not save his side. Determined to prove his name was not Holligum, the captain seemed grim, but foolishly ran himself out.

Shortly before stumps White was bamboozled as he played back to a sharply turning ball, and English hopes rested on Shah.

Day 4

Shah's efforts not enough By Peter Deeley in Tamworth, NSW

Scoreboard

ENGLAND A's nine-wicket defeat here is not a happy augury for the harder times ahead on this tour. Their captain Adam Hollioake put up cogent reasons but the side must now brace themselves for the task of confronting the Sheffield Shield champions, South Australia, in Adelaide this week.

Once again Owais Shah, the 18-year-old schoolboy, was a revelation, almost solely responsible for preventing the greater ignominy of an innings defeat. He followed his first knock of 76 with an even more mature score of 79, displaying qualities of concentration far beyond his years.

The Middlesex teenager - known in the Lord's dressing room as ``son of Ramps'' because of his striking similarity in style to Mark Ramprakash - batted for almost four hours.

His ability to play the ball so late confounded the Australian wrist-spinners and frustrated the home side in the field to such a degree that he came in for a good deal of 'sledging'.

Yet Shah seemed totally unperturbed by that or the heat. If one other major England batsman had given him the necessary support there would have been a chance of snatching a draw from the game, which eventually finished in mid-afternoon when New South Wales knocked off the 43 runs needed for the loss of one wicket.

As it was, the lower order, notably Peter Such, who had come in on Saturday evening as nightwatchman and Ashley Giles, showed a resilience lacking in some of their betters with the bat.

Such stayed for almost an hour before he was bowled round his legs by Stuart MacGill, while Giles remained for 70 minutes until MacGill went round the wicket and got him last ball before lunch with a delivery that lifted out of the bowlers' footmarks.

All five England wickets yesterday went down to the spinners. Warren Hegg was leg before to left-armer David Freedman, rapped on the back pad as he pushed forward, but MacGill claimed the remainder to finish with nine in the game and enhance the impression that his leg-breaks are a coming force in cricket here.

Shah was eventually eighth out, trying to attack MacGill on the run and scooping up a catch high to mid-off. Mark Butcher hit a good half-century on Saturday but these two apart, it was the England batting which stands accountable for the size of the defeat.