A dominant 189 run partnership between Ricky Ponting and Simon Katich swung the pendulum firmly in Australia’s favour in day 2 of the First npower Ashes Test, Cardiff.

England amassed an extra 99 runs in the morning session before finally being bowled out for 435. Australia’s start was electric, with Phil Hughes hitting a run a ball 30 before lunch. Andrew Flintoff eventually had him caught behind, but after that the play was all Australia as Simon Katich and Ricky Ponting hit centuries as Australia ended the day on 249-1, trailing England’s total by 186.

England’s start to the day was very positive. Beginning on 336/7 Stuart Broad struck two delightful fours off Peter Siddle, one a scorcher past mid off. The Nottinghamshire man met an unlucky end to his innings, a ball from Mitchell Johnson hit the underside of his thigh pad and dragged back onto his stumps.

Broad’s demise didn’t stem the scoring however, Graham Swann looked to be forceful, and keep the scoreboard ticking over, night-watchman James Anderson also got in on the act as the pair pushed three’s to the long square boundaries at the SWALEC Stadium. The positivity forced Ricky Ponting to spread sweepers on both the square boundary.

England’s aggression forced the Australian skipper to bring on Nathan Hauritz. And no doubt to the delight of batsman Graham Swann – an no doubt all of the England camp, Hauritz’s first ball spun sharply off the pitch, past the keeper for four byes.

Undeterred, Swann went after Hauritz – striking two consecutive boundaries down the ground followed by an audacious reverse sweep that went to the third man boundary. Swann and Anderson’s 50 run partnership coming up in just 38 balls as England were racing along at 7 an over in the morning session.

James Anderson fell trying to hit Hauritz over the top, and Monty Panesar after struggling for a short while, eventually edging the off-spinner to Ricky Ponting a gully.

Phil Hughes got off to a flyer at the beginning of the Australian innings, Stuart Broad imparticular on the receiving end of Hughes’ aggression as Australia made it to 39-0 in a short spell before the lunch break.

Immediately after lunch Andrew Flintoff was bought into the attack bowling around the wicket to Hughes. The over was lively, short pitched, but to Hughes’ credit – he evaded the short ball well.

A short while later Flintoff forced opener Simon Katich to punt one back at him, he stuck his giant claw in the direction of the ball, and agonisingly for him and for England, the ball popped out and down to the ground.

But the breakthrough finally came when Flintoff had Hughes get an inside edge through to ‘keeper Matt Prior who took a smart catch diving away to his right – Hughes departing for 36.

In the following over Stuart Broad had close LBW appeals against both Katich and Ricky Ponting. Katich got a feather of an inside edge on his, and Ponting had himself well outside the line of the off stump – but Broad, England and the fans, were defiantly fired up.

The pair settled in for the afternoon session, as England turned to both spinners Graham Swann and Monty Panesar without fortune. On the stroke of tea Ponting scored a 2 off Broad to take himself to 11,001 test runs – joining the select group of Brian Lara, Sachin Tendulkar and Allan Border.

Simon Katich went past 50 as Australia reached 143-1 at tea, the Flintoff/Hughes battle aside – Australia’s session.

It was much of the same after the break, the pair bought up their 100 partnership of 179 balls. Andrew Strauss tried every option available to him, but Ponting and Katich stood firm as Australia bought the 200 up. The run rate continued at 3.5 an over and England struggled to get any movement with the ball, or much life out of the pitch.

On the stroke of stumps Simon Katich bought up his hundred off 214 balls, and Ponting likewise off 155 balls. Australia ended the day in a dominant position – only 1 wicket down, and trailing by only 186 runs.

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 2009 Ashes series between England and Australia will start this morning as cricket looks to once again capture the imagination of the British public. Four years ago the two teams met to give us the greatest Ashes series of all time in a sporting contest that personified just why these two sides have such a long and respectable sporting history.

England come off the back of some impressive performances against a West Indies team and the Aussies start off in England having beaten South Africa in their own country. Despite the gap in quality between these two victories this could turn out to be a repeat of the 2005 series with every single match going right down to the wire.

The teams are very evenly matched and it appears that the side that bowls the better will win the series and the Ashes urn. Australia obviously do not have Glen McGrath and Shane Warne in their side any more, who between them bowled out in England five times by themselves in the last series to be held in England.

This is not easy to over come and is being put down as the main reason by many experts on the game as the factor that actually gives England a chance. England’s own bowling attack has the virtue of having now played together for a long period of time. There is no question that England have the better bowling options as they carry two world class spinners as well as players that can reverse swing the ball at great pace.

The batting line-ups of each side are very even and a lot will rest on the more experienced players in each side. Both England and Australia have four big names in their top six that can all go on and make big hundreds. If they do then every match should go down to the last day and will place all of the pressure on the bowlers to get everything right and earn their money.

A lot has been made of the fact that the first test match is being played in Cardiff and not at Lords as this is traditionally the case. There are two advantages already for England in this respect. Firstly, the Cardiff pitch should turn, this will allow England the freedom to name Monty Panesar and Graham Swann in their side whereas the Australians will probably only play Nathan Hauritz, a defensively minded off spinner.

Secondly, it has to be considered that whenever an Ashes series does start at Lords, England do tend to lose. It is important to get off to a good start in such a long series because it can give you vital momentum that you can carry forwards into the next match. Cardiff could work in England’s favour and it could give them a boost they need to believe that they can push on and win the series.

England should have thumped the West Indies when they played in the Caribbean but on too many occasions, seemingly certain wins were turned in to frustrating draws. If England can get their noses on front then it could be a long two months in this country for the Australians.

Team news is good for England who look set to name their strongest possible eleven. It has not been kept a secret that the pitch will turn and therefore Graham Onions could make way for Swann with Andrew Flintoff stepping back into the middle of the side. This will give England a nice balance and allow them to strengthen in more than one area. It also adds the important dimension of even more aggression that will be needed as there are no doubts over the fact that the Aussies are going to chirp away at all the English batsman that get to the crease.

For the Aussies they will be missing fast bowler Brett Lee. England will be more than happy about this. Lee has the ability to swing the ball at over 90mph and can cause all sorts of problems. Ask any Englishman in the side if they would rather he wasn’t playing and they’d all say yes.

Otherwise the Australian selection is hard to guess. Ricky Ponting has been keeping the cards close to his chest before the first game and it is expected that they will go in with three or four quicks and a spinner. However, you can never second guess the Aussies and it could well be the case that they have the next Shane Warne up their sleeve ready to bring out, a player who nobody would have heard of.

This would be a huge gamble though and it will probably be the case that the Aussies go in with only four bowlers and play an extra batsman. This would not be a stupid thing to do but it would automatically give a slight advantage to England who would fancy their chances of not being bowled out by a relatively one dimensional attack without Lee.

The toss is also crucial to England’s chances of winning the first game. As the pitch is expected to turn, it can also be expected that it will rapidly deteriorate, meaning that whoever wins the toss will bat first. You do not want to be batting on the last day in the last innings on a pitch that has unpredictable bounce and is turning square. From England’s point of view if they can get a good score on the board first up and then set the Aussies a massive target, it will allow Swann and Panesar to go mad and try to wreak some havoc in the later stages of the game.

It’s nice just to have the series back and it’s good that there is so much positive thinking surrounding the first test. A lot of people have already forgotten about the 5-0 thumping that was given to England in the last Ashes series and if the build up is any thing like the actual matches then we could all be on our way to buy box sets of the 2009 series as well.