Butcher, Thorpe defy the Aussies

His example was followed by an equally confident Nasser Hussain who has made the No 3 position a stronghold for England.Alec Stewart on the other hand was uncertain, especially against the wayward leg-spin of Stuart MacGill. He missed one full toss that brought a loud lbw appeal, but then obligingly hit another straight down the throat of the only outfielder. It wouldn’t have surprised me if Stewart had headed off the ground and looked for a strong rope and a rafter from which to hang himself.Graham Thorpe could have found himself strung up from the same rafter if he’d been run out just before lunch. A push from Butcher just missed the outstretched hand of bowler Michael Kasprowicz and inexplicably Thorpe allowed the ball to his bat and almost deflected it onto the stumps; another England mental error. They have to eradicate most of them if they want to match it with the mentally strong Australian side.However, Thorpe recovered his composure and began to play in a manner thathas made him the most successful England batsman against Australia over the last three series. Thorpe plays Glenn McGrath better than most and he hooked the lanky quick beautifully on a number of occasions, which didn’t improve the cranky fast bowler’s outlook. McGrath bowls well when he’s fired up, but if he goes slightly over the top he stops thinking and then becomes a reduced force.

Australia can’t afford McGrath at anything less than his best because the attack looked thin at times at the Gabba.Michael Kasprowicz bowled one really good spell and he’s an improved bowler now that he’s found a way to achieve success when the ball is not swinging away from the right-hander.

The burly Queenslander learnt a lot about his trade at Edgbaston when an injury put Jason Gillespie out of the first Test in 1997 and he continued his progress by taking five wickets at Bangalore in a match winning effort. There are times when Mark Taylor doesn’t show much faith in Kasprowicz, but I think he moved ahead of DamienFleming in the pecking order in this match.The most encouraging aspect of leg-spinner MacGill’s bowling was the way the Englishmen failed to put away his bad balls. If they persist in mis-timing full tosses and pushing away long hops then he will be effective on some of the more helpful pitches in the series.

SCOREBOARD
Australia (1st innings): 485England (1st innings, 53 for one overnight) : MA Butcher c &b M. Waugh 116, MA Atherton c MWaugh b McGrath 0, N Hussain c Healy b Kasprowicz 59, AJ Stewart c Kasprowicz b MacGill 8, GP Thorpe batting 70, MR Ramprakash batting 29, Extras (b-1, lb-7, nb-9) 17. Total (4 wkts, 94.2 overs) 299Fall of wkts: 1-11, 2-145, 3-168, 4-240Bowling: McGrath 24-7-66-1, Fleming 22-5-62-0, Kasprowicz 18.2-2-61-1, MacGill 16-2-57-1, S. Waugh 3-0-17-0, Ponting 3-0-10-0, M. Waugh 8-1-18-1