Australia took control of the fourth Ashes test match at Headingley on the very first day by first getting rid of the hosts for 102 and then getting to 196/4 by the close. Peter Siddle was the star of the show with his menacing five-wicket haul that shook the foundations of the English innings, before Ricky Ponting took over with a brilliant 78.
England went in one forced change, brining in Steve Harmison in place of the injured Andrew Flintoff while the Aussies dropped Nathan Hauritz and had Stuart Clark finally coming in. Brad Haddin replaced Graham Mahou as the wicket-keeper.
The hosts won the toss and decided to bat first. However, the innings never got a move on and they lost regular wickets right from the time Andrew Strauss was brilliantly caught one-handed by Marcus North off a full-bloodied drive by the captain. Siddle was the wicket-taker. This was followed by a surprisingly lethargic shot by Ravi Bopara to Ben Hilfenhaus and a Mitchell Johnson bouncer getting rid of Ian Bell to reduce the Englishmen to 39/3.
At around the same time, Stuart Clark was introduced into the attack and his impeccable lines and lengths had the hosts groping, but they failed to score the runs. Paul Collingwood left soon after for a duck, and when Clark claimed both Alastair Cook and Stuart Broad, England was reduced to 72/6 at lunch.
If the hosts thought that they could recover from that position after lunch, they were sadly mistaken as Siddle ran through the lower order. The last four wickets fell for ten runs, and England collapsed to 102 all out; Matt Prior scoring the highest 37 not-out.
Australia’s reply wasn’t great as Simon Katich fell for a duck, gloving one to the leg-slip off Steve Harmsion. However, after that, it was all one-way traffic as Shane Watson and Ricky Ponting got together for a 119-run stand for the second wicket. In fact, it was the sheer ferocity of the pair’s batting that took the game away from the hosts. The fifty came off only 38 deliveries, and the visitors reached 100/1 in 22 overs.
The breakthroughs finally came in the form of Watson, Ponting and the luckless Michael Hussey falling within 18 runs of each other to reduce the Aussies to 151/4, but Michael Clarke and North saw the day off to remain unbeaten. Watson scored his third successive half-century of the series before getting out.
With the game being only one day old, weather permitting, a result looks almost a surety. Especially given that the pitch looks to have enough in it for the Aussies to get another set of ten wickets rather quickly. England, on the other hand, will hope to get rid of the remaining six Aussie wickets as quickly as they can and then hope to turn the corner with their batting.