McGrath produces masterful display

CRICKET Ashes Series: Ruthlessly, clinically, Glenn McGrath took away what Steve Harmison had so brutally claimed for England as the Ashes series got off to the most tumultuous of starts.

Wickets cascaded, batsmen put to the sword first by Harmison's velocity and then McGrath's surgical skill, but by the end of a first day that left the capacity crowd dizzy with the pace of it all, the Australians had resumed their familiar position with the upper hand.

Seventeen wickets fell on a frenetic day, which had this been a county match would have had the pitch inspectors scurrying over. Put this down to brilliant bowling, suspect batting on both sides and a pitch that though never capricious proved less trustworthy than it had promised. England will resume today on 92 for seven in reply to Australia's 190 all out.

Until McGrath intervened with one of the most compelling bowling spells in Ashes history, it had been England who had stirred the patriotic fervour. No England side, not even Douglas Jardine's, can have subjected Australia to such a comprehensive barrage of hostility as that inflicted by Michael Vaughan's pace attack yesterday.

Australia were dismissed inside 41 overs, barely an over more than Bangladesh lasted on this ground a couple of months ago. If England would like to claim this was a genuine team bowling effort it was Harmison, surging in from the Pavilion end, who unsettled the Australian batsmen with his pace, rhythm and bounce.

Inside the first hour each of the opposition top three - Justin Langer, Matthew Hayden and Ricky Ponting - had all received treatment on the field as a result of blows dealt by Harmison. Ponting's helmet grille sliced into his right cheekbone so that he needed butterfly stitches to staunch the blood. Immediately on resumption the Australian captain, clearly rattled, succumbed to the slip cordon.

Later Harmison was summoned to reduce the lower order to rubble, a singular failing by England in past Ashes encounters, and he responded with a burst of four wickets for seven runs in 14 balls, giving him five for 43 in all, his best figures in a Lord's Test.

This ground has seen some famous deeds over the years, but there can have been no finer demonstration of the glories of new-ball bowling than McGrath produced yesterday evening.

Early on, while the radar was still being fine-tuned, Marcus Trescothick found the boundary with an angled bat. Thereafter McGrath gave virtually nothing away until Geraint Jones hammered him square to the point boundary.

By that time McGrath had laid waste the cream of English batting, taking five wickets for two runs in 31 deliveries, the first of them, Trescothick, caught by Langer at third slip as he tried to work the on side, giving him his 500th wicket. Only Shane Warne, Muttiah Muralitharan and Courtney Walsh can match that. As with Walsh, the great West Indian, for a pace bowler to achieve such a target is a monumental achievement.

McGrath's performance was further placed in context by the bowling of his colleagues for there were, it seemed, two games, a pair of pitches, a brace of balls, while he was in tandem first with Brett Lee and then the hapless Jason Gillespie, who remains a shadow of the zappy performer of previous encounters.

McGrath found climbing bounce and a modicum of movement down the slope to dismiss Andrew Strauss and, from much the same length, two scuttling nip-backers to dispose of Vaughan and Andrew Flintoff. In between times, Ian Bell, who had shaped nicely enough, dragged a length ball from outside off stump on to his wicket.

It was to England's credit that they recovered by carrying the attack to the Australians. It began with Jones recognising the fraction of width finally allowed by McGrath, with the encouragement of Kevin Pietersen, on his debut, at the other end.

It appeared as if the pair might see out the day. But Lee replaced McGrath, hurtled himself into the fray once more, and Jones, having made 30, duly spliced a simple catch to Adam Gilchrist. The sixth-wicket partnership was worth 58, though, hauling England from the depths of 21 for five and potential humiliation.

Lee struck again with the last ball of the day, Ashley Giles treading on his stumps, to leave England in a precarious position. Much now rests on Pietersen, who has played confidently and well for his 28. Anything approaching parity - an unlikely proposition at this stage, but with him there one never knows - and the game is still there to be won.

Do not put the pension on it.

AUSTRALIA: First Innings

J L Langer c Harmison b Flintoff 40

M L Hayden b Hoggard 12

R T Ponting c Strauss b Harmison 9

D R Martyn c G O Jones b S P Jones 2

M J Clarke lbw b S P Jones 11

S M Katich c G O Jones b Harmison 27

A C Gilchrist c G O Jones b Flintoff 26

S K Warne b Harmison 28

B Lee c G O Jones b Harmison 3

J N Gillespie lbw b Harmison 1

G D McGrath not out 10

Extras b5 lb4 w1 nb11 21

Total (40.2 overs) 190

Fall: 1-35, 2-55, 3-66, 4-66, 5-87, 6-126, 7-175, 8-178, 9-178.

Bowling: Harmison 11.2-0-43-5; Hoggard 8-0-40-1; Flintoff 11-2-50-2; S P Jones 10-0-48-2.

ENGLAND: First Innings

M E Trescothick c Langer b McGrath 4

A J Strauss c Warne b McGrath 2

M P Vaughan b McGrath 3

I R Bell b McGrath 6

K P Pietersen not out 28

A Flintoff b McGrath 0

G O Jones c Gilchrist b Lee 30

A F Giles hit wicket b Lee 11

Extras lb5 nb3 8

Total 7 wkts (37 overs) 92

Fall: 1-10, 2-11, 3-18, 4-19, 5-21, 6-79, 7-92.

To Bat: M J Hoggard, S J Harmison, S P Jones.

Bowling: McGrath 13-5-21-5; Lee 14-5-34-2; Gillespie 8-1-30-0; Warne 2-1-2-0.

Wkts Mat Ave

S.K.Warne 583 124 25.51

M.Muralitharan 539 92 22.74

C.A.Walsh 519 132 24.44

G.D.McGrath 504 110 21.22

A.Kumble 461 95 28.23

Kapil Dev 434 131 29.64

R.J.Hadlee 431 86 22.29

Wasim Akram 414 104 23.62

C.E.L.Ambrose 405 98 20.99

I.T.Botham 383 102 28.40