Well, Ian Botham has been suggesting for weeks that England try their young guns. And today, more by luck than judgment, they did. The bowling attack would have stumped many a viewer of A Question of Sport: James Kirtley, James Anderson, Craig White, Ronnie Irani, Gareth Batty and Ian Blackwell, none of whom started the tour with the Test squad. The good news is that, apart from one batting partnership, the new boys acquitted themselves pretty well. They nabbed the early wicket they needed so badly, to get shot of Matthew Hayden. Batty and Blackwell evoked alliterative memories of Laker and Lock (well, faint memories, anyway), and applied a brake of sorts in mid-innings. Batty has a touch of defiance about him, and will benefit from this deep-end experience. Blackwell, too, looped down his left-armers on the line of the leg stump with rosy-cheeked resolve.

Kirtley and Anderson struggled with the new ball and the restricted field, and Irani ... well, he entertained the crowd in Bay 13. Shame he couldn't match his forward roll in front of the stand when he needed to make his ground later on to beat Shane Watson's throw. For all his Mervish moves, in two matches so far Irani has now contributed 0 and 0 with the bat, and 1 for 62 in ten overs with the ball.

And now the bad news. The one partnership that got away from England was a belter, the 225 of Adam Gilchrist and Ricky Ponting. Even the real Laker and Lock would have struggled to contain these two as they blazed away. Ponting scorched to a hundred in his 150th one-dayer, and actually scored quicker than Gilchrist for most of his innings. Affronted, Gilly caught his captain at 84 and then zoomed over the horizon.

One of these days Gilchrist is going to bat right through a one-day innings, and will have rewritten the record-book by the end. There were moments today when the bowlers wondered where to bowl to him, as he leant back to cut with wicked placement, or pulled through midwicket as if he was trying to fell a gum-tree.

Using the Richie Benaud copyright formula of doubling the 30-over score to predict the final 50-over total, we were looking at the little matter of 378. That the final reckoning was only 318 reflects well on the rookie England attack. Shame about the bit in the middle, though. And the England innings. Any more young guns out there who can bat, Beefy?

Steven Lynch is editor of Wisden.com.

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