Fifth Test - Day 2

Wiser heads have always known the truth in oft spoken adage. The truest, "be careful what you wish for, because it may come true" reverberates about the Oval tonight and seeks out Ricky Ponting. His bold assertion that this match would be his greatest, his defining moment, are only about a day away from realisation. He'll become only the second Australian captain to loose the Ashes twice.

England wasted only 25 minutes of the morning session before being out for 332. Broad, increasingly the strongest candidate for the position The King is abdicating at the conclusion of this Test, scored 37 with the tail. Anderson was the first out, lbw to a lefthander's inswinger from Hilfenhaus and bothering the scorers, for this was his first duck, 54 innings into his injury excited career. Joined by that doyen of strokemakers Steve Harmison, Broad threw back his head, swinging because there was no tomorrow. Hilfenhous via Ponting put an end to that rubbish.

Now, in the context of the dusty collection of dead grass and broken sods that represented the playing surface at this year's - this match's - Oval, 332 looked a good score. A score worthy of knots in green capped stomachs.

Watson took the first ball whilst Katich studied the field and exchanged pleasantries with Asad Rauf,: a man whose name has the phonic reminder of driving home the porcelain bus on a night one drink too long.

It took nine overs for first Watson and then Katich to play competent strokes to the boundary - Watson a trademark square drive from an over pitched Anderson outswinger and Katich a push through midwicket as sweet as a dream may order it.

In the process, Watson survived three shouts each with increasing reason for assurance. The first was close, the second clearly a waste of effort for even the crowd to consider but the third was out. Clearly out. It would have disturbed the stumps in the same place as Anderson's earlier dismissal.

Meanwhile, Katich had borrowed Fred Astaire's feet and his wander into a stance from outside the leg stump was so exaggerated that he seemed to begin his run to the wicket from the company of the square leg umpire. It looked ugly, it is ugly but it's effective. Whatever happened to the stillness and poise at the wicket epitomised by Greg Chappell? I'm getting old and it's just a pity for readers my memory isn't going too to prevent such odious comparisons.

Swann came on for the 13th over and one ball looked dangerous as it went through Watson and somehow forgot to take the top of off stump. There after, he bowled the wrong line - middle and leg - and was milked well by both batsmen. He seemed to have Greg Norman Disorder and just when he should perform, he looked to have that choking feeling.

Harmison bowled four overs before the first of the predicted showers arrived and sent grown men running for shelter lest they should rust. Australia were on top at 0-61.

After a businessman's lunch - an extra 50 minutes lost to the weather - Strauss sent Flintoff charging in with a clever field intended to make scoring difficult for Shane Watson. Good in theory until Watson drove the third ball off his pads to the boundary through the narrowest of gaps forward of midwicket. Flintoff couldn't quite grasp how it had been done.

The Leeds hero, Stuart Broad, was on at the other end for his first bowl of the innings. Katich welcomed him with a cover drive as near as you need to perfect and followed it with two controlled pushes on the leg side for a further three runs. The second of these, a single, bought Watson on strike for the last ball of Broad's first over. It dipped in, cut further and Watson's penchant for using his pads finally earned it's reward and the opening stand was ended at 73. The lesson for those who follow was that you can bat on this pitch but you may never feel you are in.

Ponting entered, to the officially unsanctioned and thankfully minimised hoots and boos and a majority of generous applause which he has earned. Another Katich single from Flintoff bought him on strike and he played the over out confidently with drives to mid off and mid on but no runs.

Broad's next over showed Katich in complete control and Ponting all at sea. He missed one down the legside, inside edged for four in the way of the French and then played and missed at a jaffer from Broad which cut from the leg.

Singles from Flintoff and then back to Broad, a young man whose baby face has added experience's wrinkles in a fetching way. The more said in heat to take him off track, the better he has run along the rails. Ponting was beaten by another delivery bending to slips and then exchanged singles with Katich. Last ball of the over, another angled bat at 45 degrees outside off stump and Ponting, cramped for room, played a shot he has successfully got himself out with before and the castle was down. For a moment, teetering on the edge of the importance of this moment, Ponting looked as though his bat would be an axe and smash those wooden stumps which betrayed him. He didn't and as well. He deserves to be better thought of than his conqueror's father. Australia 2-85.

Katich played another elegant drive from Flintoff while Hussey watched on, knowing his turn to stand up had arrived.

Three balls into the next over, Broad had sat him down again, that old black magic confusion about where his off stump lives was again evident. It's pretty simple. It's just a few inches from middle. Broad swung the ball into his pads and although benefit may have been given, Billy Bowden had none. Hussey a duck and Australia 3-89.

Anderson replaced Flintoff but it mattered very little for this was Broad's show and in his next over he had Clarke driving uppishly at ball that wasn't quite there and he gave it just enough elevation for new boy Trott to snaffle a low catch at short cover that many beginners might have dropped ... remember Pietersen? Australia 4-93 and Broad had four wickets in 21 deliveries.

North, with no Clarke to partner, put his head down anyway as he's a man with a passion for the fight and for a few overs that was enough but when Swann came back on and found his inside edge, he should have been breathing a sigh of relief at a close call. Instead, he was out lbw. Justice is largely about circumstance.

Katich had his fifty soon after, batting it would seem on a different pitch and against different bowlers, for his stay at the crease had been untroubled ... until Swann found his inside edge - a habit he is forming - and the ball ballooned from his pad and into the safe hands of Cook at short leg. Australia's innings had become such a procession, it was a surprise they didn't appear marching behind a banner in the next add break. Oh look ... they did.

Broad's fifth victim was Haddin, trying to dive the ball through mid wicket and getting himself into a squared position only to have the ball shape in the other direction and being bowled neck and crop. He looked like the school boy undone by the cagey veteran in his first game in the seniors, yet the bowler was the one with the look of an innocent. The Australian middle order scores looked like the number for Pizza Hut in Darwin.

Johnson smote a few blows, then with his hitting spots covered by England's best fieldsmen, he dabbled outside off stump and Prior held one of those very good keepers catches standing up.

At tea, Australia 8-133 (Katich 50, Watson 34. Broad 5-37, Swann 3-27) and the Ashes lay scattered on the pitch, the little urn's genie unplugged, it lay tipped and disregarded by the feet of Strauss at slip.

Australia stayed on a roll after the break, like a depressives paranoid descent into hell, when Stuart Clark was Cook's second catch of the innings at short leg, from Swann's bowling. Clark only gets an assist though, as Asad Rauf gave a decision which only a dog pound could match as a howler. The disgruntled batsman missed it by nearly a foot, in old money and was caught entirely off the knee roll of his pad. Frankly, it was such a bad decision, England should be ashamed of appealing but Clark's dissent will hurt his pocket. If the ICC are Gollum, umpires are their precious.

Speaking of shame, why is it memories of fusarium come flooding back as I watch the 2nd day's play on a five day old pitch? Before this game started, the spectre of match fixing raised its head again following an approach made to an unnamed Ashes tourist. How is what has happened to the twenty two yards of uncertainty at The Oval any different? Sure it's the same for both sides and a wrong call at a coin toss may be the crucial factor in this game rather than a brilliant innings or super spell of bowling. Further, England's dominance will the ball was not because the wicket was unplayable. If so, how did Katich and Watson prosper? England bowled and fielded like a side that wanted to win. Australia folded like an unneeded map, redundant in the face of a new GPS.

Even so, just like all of the sourest things I have experienced in my life, it leaves a nasty taste.

Following such weighty thoughts, Hilfenhaus could not keep it going and was bowled by Flintoff. Siddle scored handy runs in the tail and with 26, scoring more runs than Ponting, Hussey, Clarke and North combined ... and he didn't get out!

England's session and the doomsday clock chiming two minutes to midnight until it becomes England's match and series. The record 4th innings winning score at The Oval in 118 Tests is 263. England lead by 172 after the completion of the first innings. England only need 92 in their second dig to put Australia's quest outside the realms of history.

By stumps, England are almost safe but another 80 will confirm what our heads know but our hearts patriotically accept. Their second innings wickets are afterthoughts. Miracles can happen but the Australians will need their walking on water boots tomorrow if their are to prevail. Ponting can do it, he has in the past but the difference lies in the company he keeps. Is there a Langer or a Gilchrist or Jones or a Border lurking in these men. Do they have grit, true grit?

Other sports call it stats but we know it as history. New history waits to be written at The Oval and if it is, it will be cricket's greatest escape. Your grandchildren will need to be told about it.

Either way, if you watch closely enough, you'll realise why six point plans and new forms of the game are bunkum. Here at The Oval, the place where cricket history started, new heroes are being forged into legends. Watch and see the real deal.

Three final thoughts.

At a point when it mattered most, Andrew Strauss was mentally tough. He gambled with Broad on the basis of his growing desire to "be there" in the hard moments, at a time when many judges would have taken other options. He used Swann at just the right time. He set fields to get batsmen out, against the modern trend of saving runs. The short cover set to Clarke was just one good example.

Secondly, Ian Chappell has often said that sledging is over done and given the record in that area of the teams he captained, many snicker. The important message from Chappelli is that you should never attack a good player, as it only makes them play better. Think back to the the 3rd Test and the verballing levelled at Broad. The young man stood his ground but reacted gracefully under pressure. Now look what has happened.

Finally, I seem to remember saying if England batted first and were out for 300, they had more chance of winning than scoring a big total and two months before that, predicted a 2-1 series win for the hosts. I'm better than I was but some arrogance still remains.