Australia’s lead over England continued during the third day of the first Ashes test. A 143 run partnership between Michael Clarke And Marcus North pushed Australia well ahead of England’s total, before Michael Clarke fell in a short spell before the close of play under floodlights.

Stuart Broad opened the bowling on day 3, the fourth ball in particular bursting through the surface, Katich may have left it well alone, but the signs were there that the pitch had some spice to offer. England turned to spin in the overs before the new ball, but with little success so England captain Andrew Strauss took the new ball with no hesitation.

England were hyped, James Anderson had Ricky Ponting edge one short, and another one wide, of Kevin Pietersen in the gully. But it was Katich who was first to fall, Anderson swinging a full ball that Katich simply missed, Billy Doctrove did the rest, and England had ended the 239 run partnership, Katich falling for 122.

Ponting kept the score crusing along, but it wasn’t long before Anderson had his second wicket, Michael Hussey flaying at a ball that didn’t swing – edging the Lancashire seamer through to wicket keeper Matt Prior. Strauss then turned to spin, in the form of Monty Panesar – with immediate reward. Ponting – who’d just reached the 150 mark in his previous over – went back to a ball that turned, and chopped onto his stumps.

The teams entered lunch 348/4, England much the happier side in the first session, still with 87 runs in hand, and more importantly, a ball that was doing things.

The lean spell stopped after lunch, Australia’s Michael Clarke and Marcus North settled in. For the second afternoon session in a row England’s spinners struggled with their length with Michael Clarke’s excellent footwork dominating proceedings.

Strauss’ options grew thin, turning to medium pacer Paul Collingwood as Clarke and North turned the screw on England. Australia reached the England 1st innings total with just 4 wickets down. Both players made half centuries as Australia made 458/4 at tea.

A short burst after tea, then the rain came. The players were off for two hours before returning at 6:15pm – under floodlights.

England finally got their much needed wicket as Michael Clarke could only flick a short ball from Stuart Broad to Matt Prior, falling for 83 – Clarke still doesn’t have a 100 in England. A much needed wicket for both England and Broad. Play stopped at 10 minutes to 7 – the umpires offer the batsman bad light – Australia ending the day 479/5, well ahead of England with two days to go.

With the prospect of rain on tomorrow, its seems that there are only two results possible, an Australia win and a draw. The forecasts suggest that the rain will come in early on in the afternoon, Australia will look too try and force home the advantage quickly in the morning session, before getting England in and taking what they can from the rest of day 4 and day 5.

A late Peter Siddle brace gave Australia the upper hand at the end of day one of the first Ashes Test at Cardiff. Andrew Flintoff and Matt Prior had put on 86 in just 15.5 overs before Siddle removed them both on the stroke of stumps – England ended the day on 336-7.

England captain Andrew Strauss won the toss, and chose to bat – hoping that the selection of two spinners would come into their favour come days 4 and 5. Australia took the shock selection to drop Stuart Clark and to play both Ben Hilfenhaus and off-spinner Nathan Hauritz.

Alastair Cook fell in a lapse in concentration – and to a great catch too. Pushing at a ball off Hilfenhaus around a foot wide of his off stump, Michael Hussey was the great full recipient of a superb catch diving to his right.

The bowling of Mitchell Johnson and Siddle imparticular was very encouraging for Australia. Both got some early life out of the pitch, Strauss’ dismissal a short ball that climbed on him from Johnson that he could only fend to Michael Clarke.

Ravi Bopara’s dismissal showed his inexperience. After struggling during the morning session – being hit in the throat of Siddle and suriving chipping a slower ball just over the in field. It was another Johnson slower ball that did for the Essex batsman. You would hope that his scores against the West Indies are a sign of his quality – rather than the lack there of, of the opposition. But Bopara looked uncomfortable throughout on one of the more passive pitches that we will play on this series.

At lunch England were 97/3 – The Australians the happier of the two sides going into lunch – England with work to do in their first innings.

In the afternoon session Australia turned to spin, in the form of Nathan Hauritz and Michael Clarke. Despite the odd miss-sweep from Pietersen England looked comfortable, with scoreboard ticking along – albeit slowly – England were just glad to gain regroup after losing wickets regularly in the first session.

Hauritz struggled – but first day is always going to be difficult – even on a pitch that will ultimately offer spin for the bowlers. Ricky Pontings inability to keep a hold on the game was apparent, boy how he misses Shane Warne right now.

Pietersen survived a huge LBW shout of Ben Hilfenhaus. But it was Collingwood who was first to fall, snicking Hilfenhaus to wicket keeper Brad Haddin, who took a confidence boosting catch diving away to his right after two similar drops in the warm up game at new road. The partnership worth 138.

Pietersen fell soon after, pre-meditating a sweep of Hauritz to a ball that was far too wide to sweep, the result edge clipped his helmet before balooning up to Simon Katich at short leg.

Andrew Flintoff and Matt Prior began the rebuilding work, playing agressively against the spin before the new ball, and the seamers after it. Matt Prior raced along to 50 from 54 balls as the pair kept the run-rate ticking over rather nicely.

But Siddle’s late spell just before the end of the game accounted for both of them – Flintoff dragging on and a lovely in swinger to remove Prior. Australia ended the day the happier side after being asked to field, needing only three more England wickets in the morning.

The Ashes has a great history of test cricket and is one of the most intense rivalries between England and Australia that has a glorious history attached to it. This cricket series dates back to 1882 and since then there has been a struggle to show supremacy by both Australian and English players. The Ashes test series is a biennially held event that is held in these two countries during the summer season. The term Ashes is used for the test series since 29 August 1882. This was the first time that the English cricket team had lost to Australia in its own backyard and the English media presented a mock obituary citing the death of English cricket. The media reported that English cricket has died and that the ashes will be taken to Australia for cremation.

This test series is usually comprised of five test matches that actually began when the English media started publishing reports of how the English players were geared up to regain the ashes in the next series played between these two countries in 1882-83. During this tour, the English captain was presented with a small terracotta urn by a group of women to symbolize the journey that the English men had made to regain the Ashes. Historians believe that this urn contains the ashes of a cricket item, which could possibly be the bail. However, there are chances of the ashes being that of a ball or stump as well.

This urn has been thought of being the trophy for the Ashes series, which is not true since the English captain always recognized the urn as his own personal gift. Though the urn was handed over to the MCC, the same was not recognized formally as the Ashes trophy. However, players are often seen holding the replicas of this urn to symbolize their victory over the opposition in the Ashes tournament. This Ashes urn remains in the MCC museum in Lord’s for visitors to have a look and learn about the glorious history of the Ashes. From 1998-99 onwards a crystal replica of the urn has been set as the Ashes trophy that has been recognized as the official symbol of the Ashes series.

During the late part of the 1990’s it was decided that the English and Australian cricket team would compete for an official trophy for this tournament. The ECB and CA, the governing body of cricket in both the countries came with the solution of creating the official Ashes trophy, which was the crystal-based replica of the Ashes urn. This trophy was first lifted by the Australian team in the 1998-99 series under the leadership of Mark Taylor. Since then it has been the tradition to present this trophy to the winning side after each series. The trophy remains in the country, which wins the test series.

In recent times, the trophy is with the Australian cricket team after they beat England 5-0 in the 2006-07 test series. The Ashes trophy is currently being held by the Australian captain Ricky Pointing who is looking forward to defend the trophy in England this summer as the two teams face off in another intense set of cricket matches. Whatever be the result the contribution made by this series to test cricket cannot be ignored. Many similar cricket series have been started like the one between India and Australia for the Border-Gavaskar trophy. However, the charm of the Ashes remains as the legend of this tournament keeps motivating players on both sides to perform to the best of their abilities and regain glory for their country.