Hints and tips:
...This is the most Tests played by anyone, and over 30 more than the next two cricketers in line – former Australian skippers Ricky Ponting and Steve Waugh....
...Tendulkar has had the greatest of all careers: no one else has approached 200 Tests (his nearest rivals are the Australians Steve Waugh and Ricky Ponting on 168)....
...And there was a less than pretty 38 from the 21-year-old hopeful Steve Smith – who, if he ever will be a genuine Australian No. 6 is not there yet....
...He has long been the Australian version of England’s dear old Steve Harmison: either heroic or hopeless, devastating or disastrous....
...Flintoff was responsible for one of the day’s turning points, brilliantly running out Australian captain Ricky Ponting for 66. But Australia refused to lie down....
...Ricky Ponting, their captain, was incensed (wrongly, as it happens) when an appeal for a catch was rejected....
...Ponting 78)...
...There was no repeat of the awesome delivery from Graeme Swann that dismissed Ricky Ponting on Sunday, and the three wickets that did fall were palpable errors by the batsmen....
...The new skipper sought advice from team psychologist Steve Bull, who had done a lot of corporate work, including how to deal with conflict within organisations....
...Ponting, though, had other concerns....
...Steve Waugh, Mr Ponting’s predecessor as captain, has for years raised money for a leper children’s colony in Kolkata (Calcutta) while Dennis Lillee, an Australian fast-bowling hero, has run a bowling academy...
...Ricky Ponting bats first drop for Australia because he is the best in the business. Kevin Pietersen should do the same....
...Gerrard, J Cole, Heskey and Owen will now be familiar to once- disillusioned football supporters as the line-up that transformed England’s hopes of qualification for Euro 2008 – and that prevented manager Steve...
...Ponting’s distress was understandable....
...Ricky Ponting, the Australian captain, insisted yesterday: “Revenge has never come into it. It’s a word I’ve never mentioned once, even to myself.” But his intent has been obvious and unremitting....
...If England's stuttering start to their run-chase made Pietersen an obvious man of the match, Steve Harmison was another hero, taking four wickets for two runs in an extraordinary 15-ball spell....
...The first signs of wobble in the Australian team became evident 18 months ago, in Steve Waugh’s last series, when they were given a fright at home by India....
...straining every sinew to pay back Andrew Flintoff and Steve Harmison for those Ashes indignities....
...Allan Border and Steve Waugh spit....
...Steve Harmison's handshake, though, is deceptive. Gentle rather than weak, it symbolises a man keenly aware of his own power....
...Australia captain Ricky Ponting scored 115 and New Zealand all-rounder Chris Cairns smashed 69 off 47 balls as the World XI reached 344 for 8....
International Edition