England of course will be the more delighted of the two teams after managing to lose half of its wickets in less than 10 overs. The fact that they were able to even come close from this point is testament to their every increasing self-confidence.

Paul Collingwood, has been England's ODI man for a crisis and it perhaps not as suprising that he would play his part, however, the much-maligned Geraint Jones was able to prove to many that he had the mettle to survive at this level. It's been a testing summer for the England keeper, with constant scrutiny over his keeping abilities and questions being raised over his ability to score in a crisis, much of it not without merit. But, at least for the time being he has been able to silence those critics with a solid performance behind and in front of the stumps. His 71 would probably be his best innings to date in English colours, slightly bettering his test century against NZ last summer. It was filled with his usual attacking flair, but also a great common-sense and maturity that shows that his batting is beginning to develop.

The batting from the bottom-half of England's order did much to hide the problems they are faced with at the top. So far this series, England's current test top 6 have managed one solitary fifty (not including KP for the moment), and that a scratch 60 from Michael Vaughan. The Australians have already posed both England openers big questions, ones that so far they have not been able to counter. If England are to come close to winning this series they will need to work a bit harder in ensuring that the top order don't get blown away as they did in Durham or give them away as they did at Lords yesterday.

Fortunately for England, Australia's top-order have not fared much better. Again one fifty from Damien Martyn is the only success that their top-order can claim against England. This suggests that both sides still have plenty of improvement left in them before the tests begin, and that the bowling from both sides have been quite good. England and Australia can take plenty of positives from the bowling of Harmison, Flintoff, McGrath & Lee - they have not let their respective sides down. It is now for the other members to also pick up their game, because at the moment singular performances are what is separating the two sides. So far it has come from the bowlers and the ODI specialists, the time for the test batsmen will need to come soon for both sides.  

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