The fifth day of the first Test dawned bright and sunny, with a gentle breeze playing invitingly across Edgbaston. It was the sort of morning on which Mark Waugh might at any time in the last half dozen years have fancied making a century against England or Shane Warne bowling England out. That was exactly what they did here in 1993.

But there was no England to humble now. They had gone on their way at breakfast, leaving Edgbaston empty except for beaming ground staff and a more sheepish gathering of Australians than in an outback shearing shed. Australian coach Geoff Marsh insisted that this was not a punishment session, and its tempo was hardly punitive. But if such a balmy Birmingham day can also be eerie, this was.

On one end of the square, Australia's pace bowlers were still trying to pitch on the sort of restrictive line and length that England bowlers had by instinct in the Test match, this time with yellow cones set up just outside off stump to assist their aim. It was mute testimony to the fact that Australia's frontline seam attack, for all their distinction, are only novices on England's peculiar pitches.

Australia had given England too much room, and the trouble with giving room to an adversary, especially one with a new sense of its own importance, is that it is hard to get it back. Captain Mark Taylor says he thinks of the rest of the series as a new challenge for Australia. After six successive series in which they have won the first Test and gone on to take all the spoils, they now had to win from behind.

Since he had in this match risen himself to the seemingly impossible challenge of resurrecting himself as a Test batsman, it is an attitude that must be respected. But turning around this series may prove to be a bigger mission than Taylor either appreciates or cares to admit. It is not merely to defy history, but, like King Canute, to turn back its tide. And he got a bath.

Australia has not won ANY series from behind for nearly 30 years. Moreover, none of the last six Ashes series have been won from behind, not since the fabled summer of 1981.

It should never be forgotten by those who see this first Test result as necessarily a freak that the last two times the Ashes changed hands, in 1985 and 1989, it was in series whose outcomes were both comprehensive and totally unexpected in their time.

As one of the legends of 1989, Marsh knows all too well what irresistible momentum can be gathered from a first-up win. Marsh says he has in the back of his mind that gloomiest of prospects. But for him, this was a day for concentrating on individual brush strokes rather than the big picture. He says he is certain Australia will play better. He says it is. unfair to blame the bowlers in isolation because the batsmen gave them only 118 to defend in each innings. He says the fast bowlers will with practice hit the spot.

As for Warne, he had been Australia's best bowler as recently as the series in South Africa and although his body language had been atypically resigned in the first Test, he was not in decline, said Marsh.

"England can write him off if they like," he said. At the same time, Marsh announced that Paul Reiffel, who arrives today, will play against Nottinghamshire tomorrow rather than being kept for Australia's next match against Leicestershire as originally planned.

Eventually the clouds rolled in over Birmingham and the horizon became indistinct. It has been like that often for Australia of late.