England hang on for draw

Thoroughly outplayed and outclassed by Australia but still all level in the series is the situation England find themselves in after the first Test ended in Cardiff on Sunday.

They had taken just six wickets and conceded over 674 runs but such are the vagaries of cricket, the fact they only lost 19 wickets means they managed to come out on level terms. They will now go into the second Test at Lords this week with at least some hope of improving on what was a very disappointing display.

England started the first day off brightly and with no wickets lost in the first half hour on a flat track, it appeared winning the toss was going to prove vital in the opening match. However, this did not take into account the complete lack of application by the top order and in particular Kevin Pietersen and his indefensible sweep shot.

How he was able to justify this lack of judgement with a simple 'that's the way I play' was indicative of a man who appears to put himself first and the team second.

If he wants to be one of the greatest batsmen then he will need to apply himself to scoring big hundreds more often and not feel satisfied when he scores above his current average of 55. It is hard to imagine a Lara or a Tendulkar being quite so philosophical after missing out on such a chance, or for that matter Ricky Ponting who went on the next day to prove this decisively.

Interestingly, Ponting had similar problems at the beginning of his career and only averaged 35, well below Pietersen's, and had scored nowhere near as many hundreds as the Englishman.

Therefore, it really is down to Pietersen as to whether he can take that next step up and dominate the world's best and put his team in winning positions more often. He certainly has the talent for it but does he have the mentality?

This will be answered in the next few weeks as he is now under severe pressure to prove he is one of the best.

He was not on his own though as nearly every England batsman got themselves in and failed to go on to make a significant score compared to the Australians, who apart from Hughes and Hussey, all scored heavily.

This can only be put down to temperament as the Australian bowlers are not world beaters and, Matt Prior apart, they all contributed to their own downfall.

With the rain looming Ponting made a good decision early on Saturday and managed, in the seven overs available, to remove both Cook and Bopara, leaving England in dire straights for saving the game on the last day. This looked even more forlorn when Prior was caught before lunch leaving England on 70-5.

However, Collingwood and Flinthoff batted for the next hour or so and gave them at least some sort of platform if not respectability to the situation. Many an England side before them would have capitulated in such circumstances so credit to the middle order for applying themselves.

The last session was full of tension with Australia taking wickets at important moments and, with Collingwood going with still 11 overs to be bowled, the game looked up, but Panesar and Anderson bravely played out time.

The final 40 minutes were not without controversy though as twice the 12th man was sent on with replacement gloves and the physio came out for a phantom injury. Ponting was not impressed and said so afterwards but, in reality, it probably did not impact on the result.

However, by doing this the England management and captain managed to take some of the gloss off a fantastic fightback by the tailenders and also fire up the Australians for the Lords Test match at the same time.

Strauss has not looked like a natural leader all week and this may well prove to be another error of judgement.

However, there is hope for England in that they cannot play much worse than this - they were out batted and out bowled in every department.

The tourists, meanwhile, played to the level their talents allow and just came up short, so maybe some doubts have crept into their minds.

The gap between the two sides was huge in this Test match and unless England change their mindset then they will lose this series. On paper the two teams are evenly matched, and if they can regroup they are still well in the hunt to win back the Ashes.

This was another classic Test match and is a reminder to all that this form of the game can be just as thrilling as any 20 over thrash and should be protected on the international calendar accordingly. No-one ever imagined that this series could live up to the tension and excitement of 2005 but we may just have to revise that now.