CRICKET TEST MATCH:IT WAS a silent crowd that wended its way along the banks of the Taff, through Sophia Gardens, yesterday morning. Gone, from those not sporting the green and gold favours of Australia, was the chatter and the anticipation of a good day to come, and it had been replaced by a sullen gloom. They might have been going to a wake.

For a brief while in the morning, while the second ball was new and there was something in the air and off the pitch, the spirits were lifted. Simon Katich went for 122 to end a second-wicket partnership of 239 with Ricky Ponting, and so too did Mike Hussey for a bargain-basement price.

Both fell to James Anderson. And then Ponting went as well, for 150, chopping Monty Panesar on to his stumps with the only duff shot he played in five and a quarter hours.

Three wickets for 32 runs in the space of 10 overs represented a fair return for a more spirited England effort and with Australia’s first-innings deficit still 104, there was a glimmer of hope for Andrew Strauss.

There, though, the feelgood factor ended. Michael Clarke and Marcus North, run-scorers in the warm-up match at Worcester and nicely in tune as a result, landed another right-left combination punch during the afternoon. They batted their way through to tea and beyond, until rain showers interrupted proceedings with the fifth-wicket stand worth 132. After the rain-break Clarke was caught behind by Matt Prior off Stuart Broad for 83 but Australia, 44 runs ahead when the teams finally trudged off last night, still have this match by the scruff.

If England were to force their way back into the match, it had to be with the advent of the second new ball, available to them after nine overs of the morning. For all the dominance of Ponting and Katich on day two, Australia were still 186 runs adrift when play began. Games can turn on a single, inspirational spell of bowling.

If Anderson’s first efforts with the new ball were off beam as he strained too hard, perhaps, then just as suddenly he began to find his rhythm. With it came movement. Katich, who could have claimed squatter’s rights on his off stump, so immovable did he seem from the vicinity, suddenly found a fast yorker swerving into him to elude his bat and strike him full on the toe. Billy Doctrove thought about it, as if to give a hint that the spirit of Steve Bucknor is dead, but raised his finger nonetheless.

At the other end, Andrew Flintoff had begun his day with a wide every bit as preposterous as that propelled so infamously by his best mate, Steve Harmison, in Australia last time out, but now he began to rumble in, five and a half ounces of ball hitting the bat as if was five and a half pounds.

Yet it was Anderson who took a second wicket, this time of Hussey, who like North came into the match with a confidence-boosting hundred to offset memories of a career that has plummeted since a prolific start. But he had made just three runs when he nibbled outside off stump as Anderson slanted the ball across him and Prior took the low catch.

Four overs later, the prized wicket of Ponting went to Panesar. The bowler’s fifth delivery was short, if only fractionally, but this time Ponting’s forcing shot was mistimed, the inside edge deflecting on to his stumps.

If the Australian captain was furious with himself for an indiscretion, then he had produced a batting master class – scarcely a sweep, no extravagance and just one shot lifted from the turf. That one, a hook as Flintoff dropped a no-ball short, flew over the head of Panesar at fine leg for six.

For England that was as good as it got. The ball got softer, movement ceased, the pitch reverted to a nature as sluggish as the river beyond the boundary and batting became easier once more. Clarke and North, in reaching 74 and 51 respectively by the time the rain came, played with a freedom that Katich and Ponting had denied themselves.

Only one bowler, Paul Collingwood, threatened, his medium pace cutters gripping and ripping. Don Shepherd, the pride of Glamorgan, might have been unplayable.

There is some mystery surrounding the condition of Anderson, however. After lunch, he reappeared for five minutes and then left the field, not to return for a further half hour or more.

Officially, there was nothing wrong with him, which begs the question of why the umpires allowed him off in the first place. Then it was said that he had been taking on fluids, as if this was Colombo and he a camel.

You do not leave the field specifically to take on fluids and especially not after a 40-minute lunch break. If, as seems likely, he is carrying an injury, a bit more honesty would be helpful.

England: first innings: 435 (K Pietersen 69, P Collingwood 64, M Prior 56).

Australia: first innings continued (249-1 overnight)

P Hughes c Prior b Flintoff 36

S Katich lbw b Anderson 122

R Ponting b Panesar 150

M Hussey c Prior b Anderson 3

M Clarke c Prior b Broad 83

M North not out 54

B Haddin not out 4

Extras (b-8, lb-12, w-2, nb-5) 27

Total (five wickets; 139 overs) 479

Fall of wickets: 1-60, 2-299, 3-325, 4-331, 5-474.

To bat: M Johnson, N Hauritz, B Hilfenhaus, P Siddle.

Bowling: Anderson 24-5-80-2 (1w), Broad 26-4-101-1, Swann 28-8-86-0, Flintoff 29-3-104-1 (5nb, 1w), Panesar 27-4-78-1, Collingwood 5-0-10-0.