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Michael Clarke and Ashes debutant Marcus North posted crucial half centuries as Australia assumed control of the first Ashes Test in Cardiff.
They put on an unbeaten fifth-wicket stand of 127 to lift the tourists to 4-458 at tea on day three in reply to England’s 435 at Sophia Gardens, a lead of 23 runs.
Clarke (70no) barely played a false stroke while North (50no) made himself right at home in his first Ashes outing with the bat.
The vice-captain looked particularly comfortable against the spinners, dancing down the pitch to produce a classical cover drive for four off Graeme Swann to reach his fifty.
He then followed up next ball with a lofted off-drive to the boundary in a flurry of runs during Australia’s mainly measured approach to their first innings.
North top-edged a couple of sweep shots just out of reach of the fielders but for the main look assured at the crease, bringing up his half century by turning Andrew Flintoff round the corner just before tea.
Quicks James Anderson (2-80) and Flintoff (1-90) earlier led England’s fightback as Australia lost 3-32 following a calculated combination of swing and hostile fast bowling.
Anderson rebounded from a limp effort on the second day and questions about his big match temperament to remove Simon Katich (122) and Mike Hussey (3) with the second new ball.
While he had the ball hooping around, Flintoff was causing grief for batsmen up the other end in another way.
He thundered a ball into Katich’s back, bounced one off Hussey’s helmet and had another crash into Ponting’s side.
Then to top off the home side’s recovery, Monty Panesar ended Ponting’s (150) fine innings just before lunch with the skipper playing a loose shot and chopping the ball onto his stumps.
Ponting (11,110) is now just 64 runs short of Allan Border’s (11,174) national record for most Test runs.
But once the new ball started to soften, so did the threat from the English attack.
AAP tdw/djw By Tom Wald
CARDIFF, July 10 AAP – Michael Clarke and Ashes debutant Marcus North posted crucial half centuries as Australia assumed control of the first Ashes Test in Cardiff.
They put on an unbeaten fifth-wicket stand of 127 to lift the tourists to 4-458 at tea on day three in reply to England’s 435 at Sophia Gardens, a lead of 23 runs.
Clarke (70no) barely played a false stroke while North (50no) made himself right at home in his first Ashes outing with the bat.
The vice-captain looked particularly comfortable against the spinners, dancing down the pitch to produce a classical cover drive for four off Graeme Swann to reach his fifty.
He then followed up next ball with a lofted off-drive to the boundary in a flurry of runs during Australia’s mainly measured approach to their first innings.
North top-edged a couple of sweep shots just out of reach of the fielders but for the main look assured at the crease, bringing up his half century by turning Andrew Flintoff round the corner just before tea.
Quicks James Anderson (2-80) and Flintoff (1-90) earlier led England’s fightback as Australia lost 3-32 following a calculated combination of swing and hostile fast bowling.
Anderson rebounded from a limp effort on the second day and questions about his big match temperament to remove Simon Katich (122) and Mike Hussey (3) with the second new ball.
While he had the ball hooping around, Flintoff was causing grief for batsmen up the other end in another way.
He thundered a ball into Katich’s back, bounced one off Hussey’s helmet and had another crash into Ponting’s side.
Then to top off the home side’s recovery, Monty Panesar ended Ponting’s (150) fine innings just before lunch with the skipper playing a loose shot and chopping the ball onto his stumps.
Ponting (11,110) is now just 64 runs short of Allan Border’s (11,174) national record for most Test runs.
But once the new ball started to soften, so did the threat from the English attack.
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