England fail to find their rhythm

Days like this are never satisfactory. Traffic indicator days: on, off, on, off. Batsmen cannot settle into a rhythm and bowlers are allowed time to put their feet up, recuperate, and, so it seems, bowl forever.

In all almost 50 of 90 overs were lost yesterday, initially to a wet outfield that delayed play until 12.30 p.m., and then periodic gloom and curtains of rain washing in over the Grandstand from the north. By the end, though, 10 minutes early, there was a familiarity to the position with England up against it.

The late wicket of Mark Ramprakash, five minutes before they trooped off for the final time, tipped the balance Australia's way. At 121 for four, Graham Thorpe (16 not out) and Alec Stewart (0 not out) will have a crucial job this morning if England are to reach a total from which they will be able to put Australia under some pressure.

For a fellow who has not picked up a bat in anger since June 4th, though, Thorpe, the premier batsman in the side and sorely missed since he strained a calf muscle before the one-day series, has played with assurance, off the mark first ball by tucking Glenn McGrath tidily away on the legside, and once fetching a bouncer from Brett Lee to the square-leg boundary.

McGrath, however, in a superb attritional second spell of 8.1 overs from the Pavilion End that brought him the wickets of Mike Atherton (naturally) and Mark Butcher at a cost of 10 runs, had tested Thorpe's resolve to the full.

If it was a gamble playing a batsman who has had no match practice then Thorpe, at 70 per cent, is of more value than lesser players at full stretch. So far, over an hour and a half, the risk has paid off.

Nothing changed yesterday, not even with a different captain, and there was a wry smile on Atherton's face, it seemed, even before the coin had finished its roll. Steve Waugh, who had said at Edgbaston that he puts sides in regardless of the conditions because he has the attack to seize the initiative, duly did so.

The delay of an hour and a half left Atherton and Marcus Trescothick with a tricky 30 minutes to negotiate before the first interval, which they managed by dint of the first break coming after 21 deliveries, Atherton having pulled the last ball of McGrath's first over to the square-leg boundary and his partner lashing Jason Gillespie through point.

It was almost two hours later that the resumption came, but in the hour that followed the pair took the score on to 33, Atherton twice driving McGrath sumptuously through the covers, before Trescothick aimed vigorously and without due care outside off stump at Gillespie and edged a simple catch to Adam Gilchrist.

Butcher and Atherton then played with considerable ease either side of another rain break, the captain bringing out the hook again and Butcher, who had played well in the first Test, pulling Shane Warne's first ball, a long hop, ferociously to square leg before cuffing Gillespie away through point.

Waugh immediately brought back McGrath and his third ball, slanted across Butcher, saw reward as the batsman, appearing to be in two minds as to whether he should leave it, succeeded only in edging it low to Mark Waugh at second slip. Waugh, one of the finest catchers of them all, has 157 catches now in Tests, which equals the world record of his former captain Mark Taylor. The pair had added 42.

Atherton responded by playing the day's best shot, an ondrive off Gillespie to the boundary. Shortly after yet another break, Atherton, having batted 137 minutes for 37, chose to leave a delivery from McGrath that cut back to strike him above the knee roll.

By now Thorpe had settled in and, with Ramprakash, set out to consolidate. For 37 minutes the former Middlesex batsman, playing on the ground that has blighted his Test career, had batted watchfully. Lee did for him, though, cutting a ball up the hill and through the gate to rattle the top of middle stump. Ramprakash had made 14, the fourth time in a row that he has succumbed to Australia on that score.