England's tail wagged but Simon Katich & Ricky Ponting have the ascendancy heading into Day Three of the First Ashes Test of 2009 at Cardiff.
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Graeme Swann made a mockery of my pre-series prediction that the England tail was ordinary with a lusty 47 not out to help the Poms make 435 all out in their 1st Innings. Some insipid bowling from Mitchell Johnson and Peter Siddle didn't help but credit to the Englishmen for a positive attitude and some fine shots.
The Phil Hughes Show began in style with the young left hander measuring himself for a fruitful innings alongside the rock solid Simon Katich, but Andrew Flintoff unsettled Hughes in one over and dismissed the opener for 36.
That brought Ricky Ponting in to join Katich and the pair have put on a masterful 189 for the 2nd wicket with Ponting looking every bit the best batsman in world cricket and Katich showing us all that he's got more class to his game than he's ever been given credit for.
Flintoff toiled hard for the home team and still makes the ball lift off the deck unfairly at times but the rest of the England attack was below par.
Australia will resume at 1/249 on Day Three - 186 runs behind England.
DAY TWO HONOURS: AUSTRALIA
Here's The Ashes Video Blog from Day Two with Question #03:
Close of play Day Two:
ENGLAND 7/336 (K Pietersen 69, P Collingwood 64, M Prior 56, G Swann 47* A Flintoff 37, R Bopara 35, A Strauss 30; M Johnson 3/87, N Hauritz 3/95, B Hilfenhaus 2/77, P Siddle 2/121) v AUSTRALIA 1/249 (S Katich 104*, R Ponting 100*, P Hughes 36; A Flintoff 1/48).
@ Cardiff, Wales, July 8-12, 2009.
AUSTRALIA:
Simon KATICH, Phillip HUGHES, Ricky PONTING (c), Michael HUSSEY, Michael CLARKE, Marcus NORTH, Brad HADDIN, Mitchell JOHNSON, Nathan HAURITZ, Peter SIDDLE, Ben HILFENHAUS. 12th Man: Stuart CLARK.
V
ENGLAND:
Andrew STRAUSS (c), Alistair COOK, Ravi BOPARA, Kevin PIETERSEN, Paul COLLINGWOOD, Andrew FLINTOFF, Matt PRIOR, Stuart BROAD, Graeme SWANN, James ANDERSON, Monty PANESAR. 12th Men: Young Fit Fielders who will never play Test Cricket.
