first test, day two

Harmison's woes continued on day two.

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0830: It's not looking good for England, but hey if Pietersen doesn't do anything stupid, and Ian Bell scores more runs in one innings than he did i nthe whole of the last Ashes series, England might just escape from this match with pride intact.

Because, barring miracles, that's England's realistic ambition now. They won't admit as much, but England would probably settle for making Australia bat again at the moment.

With the second Test starting so soon after this one finishes, England can't afford to travel to Adelaide on the back of a crushing innings defeat.

If they could, for instance, engineer a situation where Australia have to chase around 150 to win, and lose a few wickets doing so, then England would at least be able to take some momentum into the next game.

England did show last year that a crushing opening defeat needn't spell disaster, but there was a break after that first Test, and there were far more positives to take from that game than there are in Brisbane at the moment. DT

0710: Hmmm. Different game when we're batting isn't it? DT

0430: Harmy finally gets a wicket. In six weeks' time will we be looking back on that as a crucial turning point in the series, or is that wishful thinking of the highest order?

Probably the latter, I fear. DT

0340: Fair play to Matthew Hoggard. Even before the two wickets, that was a great spell in these conditions. After so long in the field, and with the batsmen looking to kick on, Hoggard did well to initially keep it tight, and then make the breakthrough.

Let's face it, it was about time one of the seamers backed up Freddie... DT

0205: Steve Harmison's got to look at the positives; at least his first-ball wide went to the keeper today.

Harmison's troubles look worryingly terminal as far as this tour is concerned, and if he can't recover his form England have no chance in this series.

Captain Andrew Flintoff was once again the only bowler to offer sustained threat, but why on earth wasn't he bowling sooner?

It was the second hour of play before he brought himself on.

You can be sure if anyone else in that team was captain Freddie would have been on first up.

It's at time like this when Andrew Strauss or one of the other senior players needs to be in Fred's ear saying 'skip, we need you bowling here'. Dave Tickner