From the moment England won the toss and decided to bat at Old
Trafford, Australia was on the back foot as skipper Michael Vaughan led
from the front to steer his team to an impressive first day total of
5-34. Despite being lucky to survive early, Vaughan went on to crack
166 – remarkably the first century of this see-sawing series.

But if there
was one bright note for Australia, aside from the
magnificent effort of the injured Glenn McGrath to get back in the fray, it was Shane Warne’s 600th Test dismissal – in his 126
match. It not only made him the only
man to achieve the feat, but also produced
a flurry of other personal records including (according to TV commentary) the
second fastest 200 wickets (400 to 600) in history. BBC Sport reports here.

But why did
Ricky Ponting keep Warne out of the attack for so long
when the game was screaming for him to be given a crack at the batsmen
before lunch? Sure enough when he was
belatedly brought on after lunch with England already well in command, he snared
his history making wicket in less than five overs.

It was
certainly England’s day, although Australia had its share of self inflicted ill-fortune
including the now regulation dropped catches – the first by Adam
Gilchrist off McGrath to Marcus Trescothick in just the fifth over of the day was a shocker. The veteran quick
also suffered further outrageous slings of poor fortune when he cleaned up
Vaughan’s stumps on a no ball when he was just 41.

This wicket
has plenty of runs in it and surely England can’t lose this
Test but Australia can; although a draw is now looking most likely, which would
do wonders for the series as the Fifth Test
at The Oval would remain “live” no matter what the result of the Fourth at Nottingham.

And speaking of things alive, poor “old” Jason Gillespie is looking a
shadow of his former self. Now at 30, his Test career is surely edging
towards the abyss unless he can turn it around in Manchester. But with
only 15 wickets left to take, his figures in this series make for very
sorry reading with only three wickets to his name, and 0-89 overnight.