England sit in shade on rain-affected day

Kevin Pietersen was 33 not out at the close, brought forward by bad light, with Andrew Flintoff on eight.

Only 60 increasingly damp overs were possible in all. The five-match series stands at 1-1.

The world champions began the day rueing their ill fortune — fast bowler Glenn McGrath failed a last-minute fitness test and England then won the toss — but were so ragged in the field that they perhaps did not deserve much luck.

Their bowlers failed to exploit the swing on offer, while they also dropped two catches and took a wicket off one of a string of no-balls. They bowled 22 in all.

McGrath, a bowling miser and Australia’s enforcer, had missed the second Test after stepping on a stray ball just before the toss. At Trent Bridge, a swollen right elbow sidelined him.

With Gillespie already axed after a wretched run of form, the attack looked suspect — Australia have only started three Tests in seven years without McGrath and Gillespie — but England, so dominant in the second and third Tests, failed to capitalise fully on a slowish, spongy pitch.

They reached lunch on 129-1, scoring at almost five runs an over, but perhaps failed to retain their concentration as the rain and dark clouds turned the rest of the day into a stop-start affair.

Strauss went first and in freakish circumstances after contributing 35. He bottom-edged an attempted sweep off Shane Warne on to his toe and the ball ballooned up to Matthew Hayden at first slip.

The rain then wiped out an hour and soon returned in two more salvoes.

Shaun Tait, making his Baggy Green debut and with a slingy action reminiscent of Jeff Thomson, took his chance with two wickets in 12 balls as the players got back on.

A fine inswinger worked its way through Trescothick’s forward prod — the left-hander hit one six, off Warne, and eight fours during his 111-ball stay — to make it 137-2.

Trescothick could have gone 10 runs earlier, inside-edging Lee into his stumps only for a no-ball to be called.

Nine runs later, Ian Bell had gone, shuffling half-forward and edging behind to give Adam Gilchrist his 300th Test victim.

Vaughan and Pietersen rebuilt with a patient 67-run stand but were given plenty of help. Vaughan produced some of his finest shots to reach his 50.

Brief scores

England: 229-4 (M.Trescothick 65, A.Strauss 35, M.Vaughan 58, K.Pietersen batting 33, Tait 2-62, Warne 1-23, Ponting 1-9) vs Australia

Glenn’s absence shows

• Pre-Tea play at Trent Bridge showed again how indispensable Glenn McGrath is.

• Shaun Tait lacked the control and the pace that could worry Englishmen, or that could substantiate any of the hype that surrounded his debut. Four no-balls in 6 overs, for 26 runs.

• Brett Lee reiterated he is not even half as effective without the strangling control of Glenn McGrath from the other end. Seven no-balls punctuated his 9 over effort that gave away 44 runs. One of them had cleaned Treskothick’s stumps up.

• Kasprowiscz would surely not know of his role. In the second Test, he was asked to play when he was expecting cool five days of rest. He would not have been sure if he was going to play today either. He bowled eight no-balls in his 10 overs that gave away 42 runs.