Stewart hits well deserved century

After Saturday's wash-out had deprived almost 65,000 people of their traditional St Stephen's Day entertainment, England gave as good as they got here yesterday when the weather was straight from the Antarctic and Alec Stewart at last found the missing piece in the jigsaw of his career.

The England captain, restored to the opening position he craves, made his first Test century against Australia in his 45th and finest innings against them.

It was a display of jaunty strokeplay with a touch of arrogance and a share of the sort of good fortune that has scarcely come the way of Stewart and his side here. It rescued England from a disastrous start against the new ball and helped them to 270, having been put in to bat by Mark Taylor.

In barely 31/2 hours, Stewart made 107, hitting 16 boundaries. With the aid of Nasser Hussain, with whom he added 77 for the third wicket, and more especially Mark Ramprakash, whose 63 was his sixth Test half-century this winter, he pulled England round after Mike Atherton and Mark Butcher were out without scoring to Glenn McGrath.

In fading light - the day finished nine overs short of the full quota - Darren Gough produced some of the fastest bowling of the series, removing Michael Slater and Taylor before Justin Langer and Mark Waugh saw Australia through to 59 for two at the close.

For the two hours that Ramprakash was at the crease the batting was as good as any from either side in this series. Bowlers, worried by a blustery, capricious wind that swirled round the vast stadium, were treated disdainfully, with the runs in the 119 partnership coming at a rate, dizzy for Tests, of four an over.

Matthew Nicholson, fasttracked into the Australian side, took the wicket of Hussain but was generally treated scornfully. Stuart MacGill, who tricked and teased at Adelaide, was reduced for a while to the inaccurate legspinner of the first Test when England missed a chance to hammer him.

That MacGill subsequently played a major part in the day's proceedings tells the tale once more of England collapse. He ended Stewart's innings, bowling him round his legs when, perhaps still caught up in the excitement of reaching his century, the captain swept too vigorously without covering his stumps.

Ramprakash followed immediately, one of a brace of cheap wickets for Steve Waugh as he flicked loosely to the on-side and lobbed a gentle catch to mid-on. Now the slide was on.

By the time Alan Mullally was leg-before to MacGill for his fifth nought in six innings, England had subsided from 200 for three, with only modest resistance coming from Graeme Hick (whose 39 contained a huge midwicket six off MacGill), Dean Headley and Darren Gough. The leg-spinner finished with four for 61, his last three wickets coming in eight deliveries at no cost.

England's score was better than it might have been considering the first three overs, when Atherton was caught at the wicket and Butcher brilliantly claimed at short leg off bat and pad, but again not as good as it ought to have been.

Taylor, who rarely asks the opposition to bat first without good reason - of 25 tosses won out of 49, and incidentally 10 of the last 11 in Ashes matches, on only five occasions has he put the opposition in - might be satisfied with the outcome.

But equally he would have been surprised that, once the shine and hardness had gone from the new ball, strokeplay became relatively easy, attacking fields notwithstanding. There was less moisture than anticipated and pessimists, who could not see England reaching 150, were sorely disappointed.

Wonderfully as Stewart played, however, the question still needs to be addressed as to whether resuming his place at the top of the order, relinquishing the wicketkeeping duties to another debutant Warren Hegg in the process, was not a case of tinkering with things simply to accommodate the captain.

Specifically, the two successes of the England batting this series have been Hussain at three and Ramprakash, initially at six, then five and finally four. Butcher, meanwhile, for all his lack of success in other innings, had made a century in the first Test, his second in three matches: two hundreds in six Tests is not a bad ratio. Now, in order to sustain Stewart's move, Butcher was dropped to three which in turn moved Hussain and Ramprakash.

Gough's riposte in the evening was superb. For the first time, the Speedster - the measuring device that became such a revealing part of last summer's series - was being used in Australia but, when the home side began their innings, it was switched off.

A cynic might suggest it was because they did not want an Englishman to be seen bowling faster than an Australian. But it did not need a speed gun to show that Gough generated consider able pace, hitting Taylor and Langer body blows.

He deserved some luck and got it when Slater, attacking without discernible foot movement, was lbw and Taylor was smartly picked up by Hick at second slip, significantly, to his right; Hick seems to drop left-handers too frequently for comfort, perhaps because such chances generally come to his weaker left side.

A comparison with Alex Tudor would have been appropriate. But the young Surrey bowler was declared unfit on Saturday after an injury sustained during Christmas training. Reports that it came from playing football had, for the sake of all concerned, better be insubstantial. Tudor has already found enough ways of getting hurt in a brief career without help like that.