There is never an excuse for deploying a nightwatchman - never. On a slow wicket, England made decent progress on day one of the Ashes today in Cardiff. Everyone got a start and England rebuilt manfully after being reduced to 90 for 3 by lunch.
There was a wobble when first Collingwood and then Pietersen got out - a comical dismissal to a Nathan Hauritz delivery which, if left, would have been called wide - but Matt Prior and Andrew Flintoff put on a swashbuckling show to put on 86 for the fifth wicket. Momentum was with England heading into the final overs of the day, but then Flintoff played on to Peter Siddle and out walks Jimmy Anderson.
Now this isn't a critique of Anderson who has the most consecutive Test knocks without a duck, but attacking he is not. Suddenly the sting went out of England and, when Prior succumbed to a cracking Siddle in-cutter, the momentum swung back towards the visitors once again.
Ah, the nuances of Test cricket. After the smorgasbord of limited, and very limited, overs cricket, it's good to get back to the real deal. Day one was tremendously even and there are no markers laid down yet for how this pans out over the coming weeks.
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