EDGBASTON yesterday: it became a hellhole for Australia's ambitions. To put no finer point on it, they were humiliated on the opening day of an Ashes series that may have worldwide repercussions. All the form books say that Australia possesses the finest, most resilient Test side in the business, and that despite a strong end to the winter England languish among the also rans.
Form is fickle, however, and in front of a packed house Australia were all but swept aside in the morning by superb seam and swing bowling from Andy Caddick, Darren Gough and Devon Malcolm, to be dismissed 25 minutes after lunch for a paltry 118.
Caddick, moving the ball disconcertingly at times, took five for 50, with Gough's three for 43 doing the early damage. Malcolm, so often a spendthrift, instead became Scrooge and claimed two for 25 with scarcely a wayward ball.
The England reply had inauspicious beginnings with the loss of Mike Atherton, Mark Butcher and Alec Stewart inside 15 overs, and with help still there for the bowlers England might, on past evidence, have been expected to succumb to the pressure.
But this is a side with guts, allied to confidence, and the second half of the day was dominated by a wonderful, unbroken fourth wicket partnership of 150 between Nasser Hussain and Graham Thorpe, put together in little more than 2 1/2 hours at a heady pace of almost four runs per over.
Hussain, restored after missing the Texaco successes to bat as well as he has in his life, and Thorpe, a centurion against Australia on his debut four years ago, produced an uninhibited demonstration of strokeplay that belied the seriousness of the situation when they joined forces.
Shane Warne, the sorcerer, was treated with something close to contempt and did not look like taking a wicket, while Glenn McGrath, arguably the world's leading pace bowler but unable to strike the right length, was driven and hooked time and again. By the close Hussain had 80, 52 in boundaries, and Thorpe 11 fours in his 84; they had taken the score from 50 to 200 for three, an 82 run lead that may already be decisive.
It was Test batting of the highest class, and if England is delighted, then no one will be more. relieved than Steve Rouse, the Edgbaston grounds man. For the past two years he has produced uncertain strips that have seen matches finish inside four days - costing thousands in lost revenue - and was under pressure to provide something different.
Okay, he seemed to be saying early on, I'll give you one with a two day finish, before Hussain and Thorpe brought balance to the day, and the Samaritans will be receiving one less call.
Anyone phoning with an Australian accent, however, might be traced to Australia's captain Mark Taylor, a man close to the edge and who, on hardly his happiest day, may live to regret his decision to bat first.
But to all appearances the dry, cracked pitch offered every prospect of being uneven from the start but growing increasingly worse: Atherton, one suspects, although ambivalent on Wednesday, would have followed suit.
However, the ball had swung substantially enough in practice for England to jettison Adam Hollioake in favour of Mark Falham, who in the event will have to wait for the second innings before he gets the ball in his hand.
Only the inhabitants of Fantasy Island could have envisaged the morning dramas in which Australia came within a whisker of being the first side in Test history to be dismissed in the opening session of a series. Unusually jittery batting contributed, but put that down in no small measure to England's identification of potential weakness.
