Captain anchors England

Glenn McGrath took two wickets in five balls to give Australia’s attack some impetus in his farewell Test before Andrew Flintoff revived the England innings with an unbeaten 42 on Day One of the fifth Ashes match at the SCG.

Glenn McGrath took two wickets in five balls to give Australia’s attack some impetus in his farewell Test before Andrew Flintoff revived the England innings with an unbeaten 42 on Day One of the fifth Ashes match at the SCG.

At stumps on Tuesday, England was 234 for four after Flintoff won the toss and elected to bat. The England captain struck five boundaries and a big driven six over long-on off Stuart Clark after coming to the crease when England slipped from 166 for two to 167 for four.

He shared an unbroken 67-run fifth-wicket stand with Paul Collingwood, who was unbeaten on 25 when bad light stopped play seven overs before the scheduled close on a rain-shortened first day.

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With only the tailenders to come, the pressure was on Flintoff to produce his biggest innings of the series if England had any hope of avoiding a 5-0 series whitewash.

He and Collingwood defied the Australian bowling for almost one and a half hours, giving England slight honors on the first day of what will be the final Test match for two of cricket’s greatest bowlers and veteran opener Justin Langer.

Shane Warne and McGrath, No 1 and No 3 on the list of all-time wicket takers in tests, are quitting Test cricket after the Ashes. McGrath had the only success of the departing Australian trio, who led the hosts onto the field in the morning after the start was delayed 70 minutes by rain.

Australia coach John Buchanan said the match was evenly poised after 80 overs, but the new ball first thing on Wednesday could be a turning point. “We would love to have taken one or two more wickets and England would have possibly liked to have 20-30 more runs, but I thought we bowled pretty well — there were a number of play and misses, the odd edge here and there,” he said. “But at the same stage, England batted reasonably resolutely.

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“I thought Glenn bowled exceptionally well again.” Just when Ian Bell (71) and Kevin Pietersen (41) appeared to be getting on top of the Australian attack in a 108-run third-wicket stand, McGrath struck twice in consecutive overs to remove both batsmen. The veteran paceman saw Pietersen stepping down the wicket at him, pitched one in short and the England No 4 miscued to mid-wicket, where Mike Hussey took a diving catch. Bell was out first ball of McGrath’s next over, bowled between bat and pad.

McGrath finished with 2-57 from 21 overs, while Brett Lee and Clark took one wicket apiece and Warne went for 59 runs from 19 overs on a pitch that offered little assistance for spin.

The Australians took a wicket in each of the first two sessions, with Lee having Andrew Strauss (29) caught behind and Clark removing Alastair Cook (20) in the same mode from an inside edge without addition to the lunchtime total of 58 for one.

Brief scores: England 234/4 (Ian Bell 71, Kevin Pieterson 41, Flintoff 42 batting, McGrath 2/57) vs Australia.