England mount stunning comeback against Australia

England mount stunning comeback against Australia: "

• England openers both score centuries
• Australia trail England by 88 runs

Given the circumstances that confronted them overnight, this was one of England's finest days in Australia in many years, perhaps one of their best ever. If there was a time when England, at Fortress Gabba, faced with the level of adversity after one innings each of this match, would have rolled over, then those days are gone. Expectation in the Australian camp has surely been replaced now by the realisation that in Andrew Strauss's team, they have a competitor which will scrap to the brink of its existence. There is nothing to fear now: no Shane Warne to torment them on a wearing pitch, no Glenn McGrath to dissect them with surgical precision.

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By the time the first innings deficit of 221 runs had been erased, Strauss, leading magnificently from the front, had made his first Test century in 25 innings since his 161 propelled England to victory against these same opponents at Lord's last year, and Alastair Cook was well on the way to the 14th of his career. It is, history tells us, 72 years since Charlie Barnett and Len Hutton each made centuries at Trent Bridge, the last England openers to do so in the same innings against Australia before yesterday

When Australia, seeking inspiration in their desperation, took the second new ball shortly after tea, they had claimed only the wicket of Strauss, stumped for 110, off the part-time spin of Marcus North, but that only after the captain and Cook, as a pair more prolific now in terms of aggregate runs, than the legends that were Hobbs and Sutcliffe, had added 188 for the first wicket, the highest England partnership for any wicket at the Gabba. Twice now Strauss has resurrected from a first innings nought to make a century, the last time, in Napier nearly three years ago, saving his career.

There was no respite for Australia with the new ball. Cook, mindful of his Essex mentor Graham Gooch, simply remarked his guard and continued, so that by the time bad light ended play with seven overs remaining he had reached 132, adding 121 unbroken for the second wicket with Jonathan Trott who had made 54. Australia looked flat, bereft of ideas, and glum when they trailed gratefully from the field. England, on 309 for one, had a lead of 88, by no means out of the woods but with the trees thinning at least.

There is little pace in the pitch and scant variation in bounce. There is plenty of rough but they possess no spinner of real quality to exploit it. Chances created during the day that might have turned things around were spurned: Strauss, when on 69, miscued a lofted drive over mid-off where Mitchell Johnson made a mess of it; Cook, in the first over with the second new ball, hooked Ben Hilfenhaus just on the half volley to a diving Peter Siddle at fine leg; and Trott, then on 34, laced a short ball from Siddle to Michael Clarke at deepish point, who, diving to his left, clutched the ball in his fingertips, only for it to jar out as his arm hit the ground. These are the pivotal moments that tend to go the way of a team when they are rampant and against them when they are down, a sort of cause and effect. And if there was one thing flatter than the pitch as the day wore on, then it was Ricky Ponting's team.

Strauss was inspirational. Four years ago, having begun the tour in an uncharacteristic blaze of strokeplay, he found the Australians with a plan. So at The Gabba, he was fed the bouncer and twice succumbed to the hook shot. Most teams would have seen this as a sign of weakness and offered an increased diet throughout the series. Instead, they deprived him, kept him waiting and waiting for four Tests, with a single short ball, from Brett Lee hitting him on the helmet. That was it. Precision bowling tormented him with the length full and the line straight: Strauss then did not have the game to counter that. It is different now. He still pounces ravenously on the square cut, fed to him more than was appropriate by the bowling yesterday, but now he has the capacity to drive down the ground and through extra cover rather than sliding the ball off an open face. By the time he charged North and misread the length (did the bowler see him coming?), he had hit 15 fours, playing the offside, the legside, so often the bread and butter for left handers,as Australia tried to avoid straying onto his pads.

Cook provides the counterpoint, for while Strauss is no thunderbat, Cook by contrast, ploughs his own steady unperturbed furrow. He is by nature and essence a Test match cricketer who understands the virtue of crease occupation and thus far he had stood solidly for almost seven monumentally patient hours. Until a spurt took him on to his century, reached with a typical square cut boundary, overs had near enough kept pace with him. He will get called a plodder with a single tempo. But he has bags of character and is moving better, more fluidly, into the ball than he has done for some while.

It is said that Cook has abandoned some of the coaching ideas that made him seem so wooden, and has returned to the set-up that brought him his early success. In which case it is good to know that a young man can have the clarity of thought and the courage of his convictions, to go against the grain. There was criticism of his selection from some quarters, who feared for the top order, but Andy Flower, happily back at The Gabba today, has always seen a batsman who could flourish on Australian pitches. This surely will not be the pinnacle of Cook's tour. He is not 26 years old until Christmas Day, and only Sachin Tendulkar, with 19, and Bradman, with 15, have made more Test centuries before that milestone. He has four more innings before then."