The first Test ended in a draw yesterday afternoon amid scenes that would not have been out of place on the set of Dracula. It left the England batsmen perhaps wondering whether they might usefully employ garlic, crucifixes and wooden stakes to counter the menace posed by the Man of the Match Glenn McGrath when the second Test begins in Perth on Saturday.
England had been 26 without loss overnight, requiring a further 322 to complete what always seemed an unlikely win, but more realistically needing to bat a minimum of 92 overs to keep the series all square. They were on 179 for six, with no front-line batsmen left, when the umpires, Darrell Hair and K T Francis, brought the players off the field 20 minutes before the tea interval with the light closing in rapidly and despite Australia employing spin at both ends.
Away to the south of the ground the lightning already crackled ominously. Half an hour later it was dark enough to have had Dylan Thomas in Bible-black raptures, and by 10 past three the rain began, a drip at first but then in such torrents that in no time the entire playing surface was awash. The match was abandoned at 4.35.
The draw ended a sequence of five consecutive wins at the Gabba for Australia, as well as two in a row against England. But it will be Mark Taylor's team who take heart from this encounter, because on what was a tremendous cricket pitch - some pace and bounce, good for batting but wearing towards the end - England were found wanting against the spin of Stuart MacGill.
Yesterday, bowling from the Stanley Street end, he sent down 22 consecutive overs, taking the wickets of Mark Butcher, Hussain and Mark Ramprakash at a cost of 51. It will require more tutorials from the leg-spinning coach Peter Philpott if wrist spin is not to prove England's undoing again. The other wickets went to Mark Waugh, who propelled his occasional off-spin, initially to give McGrath a break, and then to keep the game on the park when England's tail was at the crease, the light was sepulchral and the fast bowler was foaming at the mouth at the shackles placed on him by the conditions.
McGrath got Mike Atherton out, of course, but that is not news. Yesterday, with the opening partnership worth 46, Atherton got under a hook shot and sent the ball straight to Michael Kasprowicz at long leg. The most positive England cricket yesterday came from Butcher and Hussain, who added 50 for the second wicket, the latter twice stepping from his crease to hit Waugh thrillingly straight for six. Then Butcher, on 40, offered no stroke to MacGill, the ball turning sharply from the rough and striking him on the inside of the back thigh and was given out by umpire Hair. Alec Stewart's woes continued and he did little to dispel the notion that he is a poor starter against spin when he prodded forward to Waugh and popped up a sharp chance to silly point via pad and bat.
When Hussain chopped on after failing to spot MacGill's wrong 'un and Ramprakash was stumped, England were 161 for six and in real danger. Taylor, though, could not employ McGrath against Dominic Cork and he, together with Robert Croft, survived the remaining eight overs until play was stopped.
