Melbourne Test, Day 1
Thursday, December 26, 2002

Well, that was another good day for the Australians. It's been the same old story in this series - Australia have held the tension, they have hung on at tense times. England haven’t been able to do that, not for long enough, anyway.

You saw it today after tea, when Damien Martyn was out and Steve Waugh came in. He was a bit sketchy at first, but he held on and broke the tension. It was a tremendous performance from a very tough man.

Actually I thought he'd be much more inhibited than he was. The selectors have made it crystal-clear - perform here or at Sydney and we might have another look at you. Steve had said beforehand that he would go out and enjoy it despite the pressure - well, it's one thing to say that and it's another thing to go out and do it. He went out and played his shots. Harmison bowled all right to him for a while, but he stuck in there.

The trouble for Harmison was that he didn't start the day well, missing that catch off Hayden in the first over. I don't know if it was his miscalculation or the captain's that he was in too far, but it was definitely a mistake. The Australians have been making a mockery of these long boundaries at the MCG, and he should have been back on the rope.

England bowled all right to Hayden to start with. He was a little wobbly at the start and they pushed him back. But they couldn't carry it through - that tension thing again - and he got away from them. He's just so aggressive, and so confident at the moment. Langer is a good foil for him - they're such different players, even though they're both lefties, and England really struggle to contain them.

I was surprised by the England selection - I believe it was more of a non-selection actually, I don't think Hussain has too much time for Alex Tudor. I heard that James Anderson might have had a run here if he hadn't returned home because of a family bereavement.

They were certainly light on bowling. Caddick seems to have overstayed his welcome on this tour and wasn't too threatening, which just left Harmison and White and an underdone offspinner.

There was some good news for England - I was impressed with James Foster today. I saw a little bit of him when he kept wicket in the series in India, and I liked what I saw then too. Today he looked very sharp despite having so little to do on this tour - his energy levels were good, he got up to the stumps well, and cleaned up the poor throws that bounced in front of him.

He was probably unlucky to be denied a catch down the leg side - the replays weren't conclusive but my gut feeling was that Langer probably got an inside edge to that one. Whatever, it went straight in to Foster's gloves, and he took it very well. He's one for the future.

Ian Healy, who kept wicket for Australia in six winning Ashes series, will be providing his Expert View at the end of each day's play in the Tests. He was talking to Steven Lynch.

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