Pacemen prosper as Hauritz struggles

Australians 349 for 7 dec and 18 for 0 (Hughes 17*) lead Sussex 311 (Nash 45, Hodd 40) by 56 runs
Scorecard

The odds of Australia fielding an all-pace attack for the first Test shortened today after Nathan Hauritz, the sole spinner in the touring party, struggled for impact against a below-par Sussex batting line-up. On a day in which Stuart Clark (3 for 46), Peter Siddle (2 for 33) and Brett Lee (3 for 53) enhanced their selection chances for the Cardiff Test, Hauritz returned the unflattering figures of 0 for 98 from 18 largely ineffective overs.

Suggestions that the Sophia Gardens surface in Cardiff will prove a raging turner from July 8 have come under question of late, with only 14 of 69 wickets falling to spin in the three Championship matches played there this season. The decision of the ECB's pitch panel to penalise Glamorgan for producing a "poor" surface now appears a false alarm in terms of its potential impact on the Ashes, and despite England's move to name three specialist spinners in its squad, Australia will be sorely tempted to field four quicks on the evidence of Thursday's outing in Hove.

Save for a missed stumping opportunity to Andrew Hodd, Hauritz seldom troubled the Sussex batsmen. The nadir of his spell came in his third over, when Chris Nash and Rory Hamilton-Brown blasted him for 16 runs, and his impact was best summed up when a large section of the Hove crowd offered a rousing Bronx cheer when his figures were read over the PA-system at the conclusion of the Sussex innings.

"He won't be sitting back tonight thinking it's all roses, that's for certain," Australia's coach Tim Nielsen said. "But that's the nature of elite sport. If you're not quite on your game and the opposition are playing well you're certainly going to get hurt. Our challenge is to work out why it didn't go quite so well today, and for him to work it out. But most importantly he has to front up over the next two or three days and want to and be willing to try hard to get it right."

The only wicket to fall to spin on Thursday was that of Ollie Rayner to Simon Katich, an occasional wrist spinner who can expect more work in the months to come. Together with Marcus North and Michael Clarke, Katich forms a diverse and capable back-up slow bowling unit and, short of a major turn-around in Hauritz's fortunes over the next two days, will be relied upon heavily throughout the Ashes.

The Australians, out of necessity, are learning to live without a specialist spinner. Prior to the Perth Test two seasons ago, in which Shaun Tait was selected ahead of Brad Hogg for a match against the Indians, Australia had not entered a Test without a frontline spinner in 15 years. They have now fielded four-pronged pace attacks in three of their last nine Tests, two of which came during their triumphant tour of South Africa. A template for the Ashes? Time will tell.

"[Hauritz] was good in patches and probably didn't bowl as well as he would've liked in other patches, there's no doubt about that," Nielsen said. "That was probably the day [for] our bowlers. I thought they all had some really good spells ... [but] more than half the runs that Sussex scored were in boundaries, and that probably sums up the day for us. We probably bowled one loose ball an over."

Nielsen was more buoyant in assessing the performances of his pacemen on Thursday, particularly those of Clark and Siddle. Both bowled with pace, consistency and a hint of venom, while showing no obvious effects from their recent battles with injury. With only Mitchell Johnson assured a fast bowling berth in Cardiff, Clark and Siddle have made the early running for first Test places.

Prior to Thursday, Clark had only bowled in Sydney grade and one-day international matches since undergoing elbow surgery in November, but took little time to rediscover his metronomic line and length. He was rewarded with the wickets of Chris Nash, Andrew Hodd and Robin Martin-Jenkins, but perhaps his most notable delivery of the day was that which thundered into Hodd's throat, prompting a temporary halt to proceedings while the batsman recovered.

"He is feeling pretty good about the fact the ball seems to be bouncing for him again," Nielsen said. "Before, when he had his elbow done, he felt he had lost a bit of the zip out of his action. Today he [found] two or three good length balls that steepled through a little bit and being six foot five or six, that's his strength. As long as he is running in hard and the ball is bouncing nicely for him we know he is going to be dangerous and he's getting back closer to that every day."

Lee, too, bowled with intimidation in his final two spells, at one stage sending a bouncer crashing into James Kirtley's helmet. Having been restricted to only Twenty20 cricket since surgery to repair his ankle in December, Lee's successful completion of 13.3 overs across three spells pleased Nielsen, although his eight no-balls proved concerning.

In all, the Australians conceded 40 extras, including 22 no-balls, during their 80.2 overs in the field. "It's the only thing I'm a bit grumpy about tonight," Nielsen said. "I think the fact they were running up a hill or down a hill certainly put them out of kilter a bit today but to me that doesn't excuse 18 or 19 no-balls in 80 overs. We've got to be better than that because there will be grounds we play on that do have different slopes throughout this series, so it's certainly something we can do better at."