Nottingham: Rivalry in Ashes has always given great heroes to the game and on Thursday it was no different. A brilliant performance from debutant Ashton Agar setup the tone of the first test of the Ashes series quite beautifully. He played an outstanding knock of 98 runs which was very well supported by Philip Hughes who remained unbeaten on hard-fought 81. The left-handed duo did a record breaking partnership of 163 runs for the tenth wicket which gave Aussies a lead of 65 runs after their first innings came to an end at 280.
Later, Kevin Pietersen and Alastair Cook did well to bring back England into the match as they added 69 runs for the third wicket after England lost two quucik wickets in their second innings. With this steady partnership, hosts had taken a marginal lead of 15 runs and were looking good at 2/80 as the match entered into the third day of the first Test on Thursday.
In the final session of the play, it was some brilliant batting from Cook and Pietersen which made sure that England won’t lose any more wickets in the final session of the play. Cook scored back-to-back boundaries to release some pressure which was created by Mitchell Starc when he got Joe Root and Jonathan Trott out just before tea.
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Brief Scores-
Australia 1st innings- 10/280 (Ashton Agar 98, Philip Hughes 81, Steve Smith 53, James Anderson 5/85, Graeme Swann 2/60)
England 2nd innings- 2/80 (Alastair Cook 37, Kevin Pietersen 35, Mitchell Starc 2/15)
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Waiting game is something that Cook is a master off and he executed that perfectly as they were 2/50 after the 26 overs. Hero of the first day Peter Siddle did try to tighten the screw along with Starc but KP didn’t allow him to do any further damage. Cook tried to get odd boundaries off Agar whereas Pattinson was hit for boundaries by Pietersen which did accelerate the scoring rate. Interestingly, in the last five overs of the day, they scored just one run. Pietersen remained unbeaten at 35 off 95 balls, including six boundaries whereas Cook scored 37 off 130 balls.
Earlier in the day, Steve Smith smacked some crisp boundaries to reach his second fifty of the year. Though his stay didn’t last too long and he was stunned by James Anderson, who bowled a beautiful out-swinger to get rid of him.
In next five overs game took a surprising turn, as Aussies lost their four wickets in quick succession and credit for that go to some very fine bowling from Graeme Swann and James Anderson. An appeal of stumping was turned down by third umpire in the 38th over which turned out to be the turning point of the Kangaroo’s innings.
Agar made the most of the life-line he got and started dealing in boundaries. His brilliant 
counter attack against the likes of Finn and Swann worked out brilliantly which also allowed Hughes to score some quick runs. Hughes was looking much more comfortable with the short pitch balls which were offered by Finn and Broad. Agar reached his maiden fifty in the 49th over and was followed by Hughes who reached the same mark in 52nd over of the innings.
They managed to survive the first session and were looking strong at 9/229 with their 112 runs stand. Post-lunch session saw much more aggressive strokes from this southpaw pair as they added 51 runs in the nine overs that they stayed at the crease. Agar was undone by Broad with his back off a length delivery as he missed his maiden century by just two runs.
England came out to bat after the break but it was a forgettable start for them as they lost the wickets of Root and Trott on back-to-back balls.