Katich, Ponting hundreds put Australia on top
Posted on Jul 09, 2009 at 14:37 | Updated Jul 10, 2009 at 01:02
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Cardiff: Simon Katich scored his maiden Ashes hundred and Australia captain Ricky Ponting also reached three figures to keep England at bay on the second day of the first Ashes Test here on Thursday.
Australia, at stumps at Sophia Gardens, were 249 for one in reply to England's first innings 435, a deficit of 186. Left-handed opener Katich, dropped early in his innings, was 104 not out and Ponting 100 not out, with their unbroken stand worth 189.
Katich, who has been at the crease for nearly five hours, became the first cricketer to score a Test hundred in Wales when he pulled Andrew Flintoff to post his eighth century at this level off 214 balls with eight fours.
Ponting, who by contrast was compiling his 38th Test hundred, followed him to the landmark with a single off the penultimate ball of the day, also from Flintoff, to bring up a century in 155 balls with eight fours.
During the course of his innings Ponting joined Sachin Tendulkar, Brian Lara and former Australia captain Allan Border as the only batsmen to have made more than 11,000 Test runs.
"We couldn't capitalise on the runs we made and that was disappointing," said England off-spinner Graeme Swann, who made an unbeaten 47 in England's innings.
"It was good for me to go out there and bat. I like to smash it, that's the way I like to play. Jimmy (Anderson, who made 26) played like Brian Lara for an hour or so which was great to watch."
Swann admitted that England were disappointed by their day in the field. "The ball is doing absolutely nothing. It's not turning and it's exacerbated when there are two guys out there playing that well. But we haven't really bowled that well as a unit."
A still largely docile pitch was as much of a stumbling block to England's attack as it had been to their Australian counterparts and highlighted the lack of truly fearsome fast bowlers on either side.
The one exception was Flintoff, who produced a ferocious burst when introduced into the attack after lunch that saw him remove opener and Ashes debutant Phillip Hughes.
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