First Blood To England as Australia Are Left To Ponder

Well it might have taken 75 years but England have finally beaten Australia again in an Ashes test match at Lords, and after this particular 115 run victory the momentum is firmly with the hosts.

In terms of the margin of victory it doesn’t do justice to the performance of both sides.

England were dominant from start to finish, only allowing Australia to occasionally dictate proceedings.

In 2005 many people believed the series swung England's way with their aggressive nature in the second test match at Edgbaston, and the way Andrew Strauss and Alastair Cook started up on Thursday morning mirrored the effort of Strauss and Marcus Trescothick just four years ago.

Of course the endeavour of Andrew Flintoff will be the everlasting memory of this test match, but whether his 5 for 92 in the final innings warranted a man of the match award ahead of Strauss’ 161 is slightly debatable-but the effort of the Lancashire man certainly isn’t.

The contribution of James Anderson and Graeme Swann who took four wickets in the first and second innings respectably shouldn’t be forgotten, neither should the excellent knock of 61 by Matt Prior in the England second innings a score that helped push England beyond a lead of 500.

Australia have some serious re-building to do, with the biggest problem being the form of their seamers.

Mitchell Johnson, despite his score 63 on Monday will do well to keep his place in the side, with Brett Lee and Stuart Clark waiting in the wings for a call up.

The form of the batsman, apart from Phil Hughes-who has been well and truly found out, is pretty good but for me maybe an extra bowler in the side could help the team push closer to those elusive 20 wickets.

It’s the second time they’ve failed to reach that target, and with the inclusion of Lee or Clark instead of maybe Marcus North could give the team that added firepower.

With nine days before the next test there’s time for some rest and relaxation, particularly for Kevin Pietersen who will be a doubt for Edgbaston already, and for some time to think about possible changes to the Australian side that need to re-group ahead of the cauldron of Birmingham.