Section:GDN PS PaGe:1 Edition Date:050912 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 11/9/2005 19:09 cYanmaGentaYellowblack Owen’s crash course Raikkonen rallies Chunder wonder Newcastle striker Spa success keeps Martin Kelner on a faces ugly truth McLaren man in hunt technicolour trend Kevin McCarra, page 10 ≥ Alan Henry, page 13 ≥ Screen Break, page 20 ≥ | 12.09.05 | guardian.co.uk Matthew Hoggard is mobbed after dismissing Adam Gilchrist to start a burst of four for four in 19 balls as England take control at The Oval Tom Shaw/Getty Images England’s day of destiny dawns tumultuous of all series began, was the open-top bus can be dusted down for its tion carved out for Australia by the cen- when the situation demanded and found 23,000 cheer as bad light unthinkable. Helped yesterday by a duvet ride through the city. Bad light prevented turies of Justin Langer and Matthew Hay- a strong man. Hoggard, meanwhile, restricts Australia of thick cloud that hovered over The Oval any play yesterday after around a quarter den, it gives England an overall lead of 40. offered a reprise of his compelling bowl- all day, reducing the light at times to to four, with 54 overs lost. The sight of Australia, circumstance forcing them to ing that helped to win Tests in Bridgetown sepulchral, they will resume this morn- 23,000 spectators, some of whom have bat in poor light, had been bowled out for and at The Wanderers, with a devastating First Ashes victory for ing, in what promises to be better condi- paid a small fortune for tickets, willing the 367 by Andrew Flintoff’s thunderbolts spell of four for four in 19 balls, in addition 18 years well within reach tions, knowing that a solid, dedicated bat- players from the field , then offering a roar and the yeoman Matthew Hoggard’s to catches dropped at slip, by Flintoff of ting performance, without frill or frippery, of approval and a standing ovation when timely charge as he shouldered the all people, and — oh, dear — by Geraint will be sufficient to see the fifth and final they did go is one of sports more bizarre responsibility of leading the attack. Jones. As the pair trudged happily from Mike Selvey The Oval Test to a draw and the Ashes secured. images. By then Marcus Trescothick and Flintoff was formidable, bowling the field, with an arm round the shoulder This series, though, has seen so many Vaughan had taken England’s second unchanged at great pace throughout the of the other, it offered a reflection on the twists and turns that the idea should be innings to 34 for one, Andrew Strauss hav- morning session and into the afternoon to bowling of Steve Harmison, who, with the Inch by inch, yard by nail-biting yard, sold to Alton Towers and called Flintoff’s ing been caught at short-leg from Shane add four more wickets to that of Ricky exception of one angry over to Langer on Michael Vaughan and his young team are Fury. It will not be over until it is and there Warne’s fourth ball, the 21st of the innings. Ponting on the third evening, his first five- Saturday, in which he harassed and then crawling towards what, when this most is much work for England to do before the Remarkably, given the powerful posi- wicket haul against Australia at a time dismissed the left-hander, has page 2 ≥ Help. Everything we see is just out of reach Our together mortgage can help get you the pad you want. ● together comes with an unsecured loan of up to £30,000. ● So you can buy your home and still have money to do the things you want. ● It’s not like a normal mortgage: it combines a secured mortgage with an unsecured loan. ● You could borrow up to 125% of your home’s value. ● Both loan and mortgage come at the same rate. Call 0845 600 60 50 visit one of our branches or northernrock.com Calls may be recorded and monitored. YOUR HOME MAY BE REPOSSESSED IF YOU DO NOT KEEP UP REPAYMENTS ON YOUR MORTGAGE. 17592_E Section:GDN PS PaGe:2 Edition Date:050912 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 11/9/2005 19:12 cYanmaGentaYellowblack 2 The Guardian | Monday September 12 2005 The Ashes Flintoff defies normal laws of probability to tear Australia apart job at different times, offering Michael ship of 177 with Geraint Jones, put Vaughan a range of options unavailable to England in position to take the lead in the any of his predecessors. Perhaps only series. Clive Lloyd and Viv Richards enjoyed a Here on Saturday, with the score on 264 similar capacity to maintain the pressure for one, he had checked Australia’s drive on their opponents through rotating the towards a massive total by forcing Ricky individual members of a pace quartet. But Ponting to prod the ball into the hands of in this match things have been different, Andrew Strauss. Yesterday he resumed Richard Williams and the unavoidable absence of Jones — with a no-ball, his 61st of the series so far besides preventing England from naming — not, in this instance, an indication of a The Oval the same XI for every match of the series technical problem, but simply of a bowler — upset the carefully nurtured balance of pushing his effort to the maximum and the quartet. overstretching as a result. In the days when he was the beleaguered Without Jones, England went into this He bowled unchanged throughout the and much-lampooned chairman of Eng- match without the bowler best equipped remainder of Australia’s innings, deliver- land’s selectors, Ted Dexter used to say to finish off an Australian innings. At Old ing 14.2 overs between 10.30am and that he wanted not just talented cricketers Trafford they had failed to break the final 1.45pm at a cost of 30 runs and taking four but players who took their game with partnership after the Welshman left the of the eight wickets. His figures of five for them on to the field. “Ian Botham cer- field with an injury, having taken six wick- 78 were his best of the series. But it was tainly did that,” he said. “One or two, ets in the first innings. His absence here, the timing of the three wickets he took in sadly, leave it in the dressing room.” If and the decision to replace him with Paul the morning session that set the Aus- another point of comparison between Collingwood, meant that somebody in the tralians on the road to collapse. Botham and Andrew Flintoff were pace attack was going to have to do the It began after 11 minutes of play with needed, there it is. work of two men. Damien Martyn trying to turn a Flintoff Hyped to the heavens as this summer’s To no one’s surprise, yesterday that delivery round the corner from just short Ashes series approached, Flintoff has turned out to be Flintoff. After an indif- of a length, finding the ball hurrying on to spent the last seven weeks responding to ferent start to the series in the defeat at him and watching it loop into the hands the build-up by justifying every last Lord’s, where he scored nought and three of Collingwood, running in from square sound-bite and column inch. And yester- and took two wickets in each innings, the leg. Already Australia had suffered a blow day, pushing every sinew to its limit, he Preston colossus has exerted an increas- to their hopes of building a total from delivered his finest performance just at ing influence. His seven wickets pinned which Shane Warne could launch an the moment when it was most urgently Australia back at Edgbaston and his mar- attack on England’s suspect self- required. vellous first-innings century at Trent confidence. Flintoff thundering in from the pavil- Bridge, including a sixth-wicket partner- Flintoff’s fortunes appeared to take a ion end yesterday was quite simply the dip when he failed to hold on at second sight of the summer. Or rather of the early slip to a catch from Michael Clarke’s out- autumn, since the sky was the sickly grey The sky had a sickly grey side edge off Hoggard’s bowling, an of a Trafalgar Square pigeon’s breast and light but the Australians uncharacteristic miss to go with his fail- the air still felt damp and chilly from the ure, in the same position, to hold on to a storms of the previous two nights. If Aus- only had themselves to much simpler chance offered by Glenn tralia felt like complaining about the need blame for having to bat McGrath during Australia’s second innings to bat in such conditions, they had only to at Lord’s. With the light the way it was in remember that they were responsible for mid-morning yesterday he might as well getting themselves into a position from have been trying to catch swallows. In the which they needed to save the series. quarter of an hour before noon, however, Who would have imagined, with the he made amends. men in green caps starting the day at 277 Matthew Hayden and Simon Katich for two, that their remaining eight wick- both got their pads in the way of straight ets would fall for a mere 90 runs in two balls of fullish length and saw Rudi and a half hours of play? Probably only Koertzen raise the decisive finger.