When looking back at today, the Australia captain Ricky Ponting can look at a job well done. Both he and opener Simon Katich enjoyed a second wicket partnership of 189 both scoring unbeaten centuries.

At the close, the Australia cricket team had had amassed a total of 249 for one in reply to England’s 435 all out, with Ponting on 100 and Katich on 104.

Ponting took a quick single to reach his 38th Test hundred whilst at the same time becoming the fourth cricketer to score 11,000 runs in test cricket.

Katich’s took nearly four and a half hours to score his eighth Test century and whilst it may have been quicker to watch paint dry it did the job.

Andrew Strauss the England captain, used every trick he knew to remove the two Aussies, rotating bowlers, adjusting the field placings but all was to no avail being denied by a slow pitch and doggedness of the two Australian batsmen.

Andrew Flintoff on his return to the England team after injury was the one bright spark of the England bowling attack, when in a superb six over spell he took the one wicket to fall after lunch.

Australia opening bat, Phillip Hughes gave a glimpse of the form that served his team well in South Africa earlier this year by smashing four boundaries through the off-side before lunch.

After the interval, Strauss unleashed Flintoff and he did not disappoint. The all rounder thundered in from the River end, bowling four bouncers in his opening over. He was regularly bowling in excess of 92 miles per hour, beating Hughes numerous times outside the off-stump and even dropping Katich on 10. It was to prove a costly error.

Flintoff eventually got his just rewarded when Hughes whose scoring rate after lunch had dried up to eight runs in 24 deliveries on reaching 36, edged a catch finely taken by wicketkeeper Matt Prior diving low to his right.

Graeme Swann provided the bite in the England tail when he made 47 not out from 40 deliveries at the beginning of the morning session. This pushed the England innings beyond the important 400 mark. He then went on to bowl five maiden overs in a row from the Cathedral Road end of the Cardiff ground.

However the Aussie batsmen steadfastly batted on, refusing to take any chances that might jeopardise their carefully constructed innings.

James Anderson was unable to get the ball to swing to any great extent and Monty Panesar’s left-arm spin proved ineffective. With fast bowler Stuart Broad leaving the field for treatment on a calf strain, England seemed to be running out of ideas.

At the start of the second day England added a further 99 runs after resuming on 336 for seven. Swann added 68 for the ninth wicket with James Anderson (26) looking set to reach a half-century. This was curtailed when Monty Panesar who never looked comfortable at the wicket, was caught at slip by Ponting off off-spinner Nathan Hauritz for four.