At Perth, batsmen must play back. It's a mantra as ingrained in the Australian way of life as "don't touch a warm tinnie" and "blokes don't cry". Australia followed it on the second day at the WACA - but they scored at a much faster rate off the front foot. The Aussies played more than twice as many deliveries off back foot as front, and the respective run-rates were just as contrasting. When they played back they scored 216 runs off 328 balls (equivalent to 3.95 runs per over), and off the front they belted 157 off 162 (5.81 per over).

The chief front-foot enforcers were Adam Gilchrist (22 off 14 balls), who time after time scythed the England bowlers through the off side, and the more unlikely figure of Jason Gillespie (20 off 13). Gillespie doesn't usually offer too many strokes beyond the forward defensive; the fact that he smeared Craig White over extra-cover for six neatly summed up both sides' day.

Rob Smyth is assistant editor of Wisden.com.

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