Given how perilous things looked for England at stumps on day one, they did a remarkable job on the second day to turn things around. They restricted Australia to 492 runs and had managed to reply with 158 runs of their own for the fall of just the one wicket.

Had they continued and posted a score in the vicinity of 400, the fortunes of the game would have swung remarkably their way. Australia would have needed more time to put the game out of England's reach and that would have meant less time with which to bowl England out.

Unfortunately for England, their batsmen let them down. Paradoxically, they failed because their batsmen didn't. That is, the starts they made were wasted.

The Australian scorecard looks a lop-sided one. Two massive scores at the top, a handy contribution by Warne at the bottom and bits and pieces in between.

This is opposed to England's top five all posting handy scores. Handy, as opposed to something big. Not one of the England players could build on their innings and allow themselves to capitalise on all the hard work which they had done.

Australia's two centuries to one fifty and England's four fifties to zero centuries looks like continuing a recent Ashes trend. What separates the Australian batsman from their English counterparts is that more often that not, at least one of the Australians is going to make a score of note.

From the 1986 series to the start of this one, the statistics crucify England. They have made 28 hundreds to 104 fifties. A ratio of about 27%. Australia have 57 centuries to their 101 fifties. A ratio of 56%

The series in 1993, in particular, was a disaster for England. They could only manage three figures on three occasions and posted 22 fifties. Michael Atherton being the main culprit making six half-centuries without a single ton.

Australia's dominance in the last three Ashes series, is evident in their high century to half century ratio; 24 hundreds to 28 fifties.

England's top-order will have their work cut out for them in the second innings on a breaking up wicket for which they can thank their captain, but they will have a chance to redeem themselves. However, the failure of at least one of them to score a century will see them 1-0 down as they head to Adelaide.

© 2002 David Wiseman

This report does not necessarily represent the views of the Australian Cricket Board.