Despite a Classy Century Strauss' Inefficiencies as Captain Remain

Jardine captained England in the infamous 'Bodyline' tour

Andrew Strauss and Alastair Cook may have put on the highest opening partnership by a pair of Englishmen at the Gabba, passing the previous best, held jointly by Douglas Jardine and Herbert Sutcliffe in 1933 and Geoff Pullar and David Shepherd in 1962, but it will not be that easy to forgot England's impotence the day before.

In the same innings, the two passed Sutcliffe and Jack Hobbs as the most prolific England opening partnership in terms of run scoring.

True, Cook and Strauss' stand showed that Hussey and Haddin's similar partnership was no fluke, but after an hour and a half of fine bowling to start off Friday, the captain lost control of his bowlers.

The most exciting part of the afternoon session yesterday was the giant Gatorade bottle that comes on for the drinks break, while at some point, a sizeable portion of the Gabba crowd had the temerity to chant 'boring, boring' as the English attack lacked any imagination. Despite six wickets, Steven Finn resorted to bowling as far outside Mike Hussey's off stump as he could get away with, hoping to frustrate the Australian into making a mistake.

And Strauss could have stepped in and mixed things up when Graeme Swann, ranked 2nd in the world by the ICC, was being carted around by Hussey and Haddin, implementing a change in tactics, field positioning, switching the spinner to a different end, or even giving him a few overs off and trying something different, like an over or two of Pietersen's off-spin, to see if he could catch the Australian's off guard. A very straight long off was especially needed and could have saved a lot of runs the day before yesterday.

It is fitting to mention Jardine, because he, like Strauss, was more of a general than a cricket captain, leading his team by the book rather than relying on his instincts. Unlike Michael Vaughan, Michael Atherton and Nasser Hussain, their last three long-term test captains, he does not display cricket nouse on enough occasions. His understanding of the deep undercurrents in the game of cricket just is not as deep as they need to be. These sorts of things just cannot be learned.

Also, Strauss needs to be more hard-nosed when it comes to his two reviews. With only two, you are going to waste them if you use them when you desperately want a wicket rather than, not because you think the umpire has made the wrong decision. Umpire Aleem Dar was right to give Hussey not out when rapped on the pads, having heard two noises. The two noises were created by the ball rapping the front, then the back pad, and not the pad, but had England not wasted their reviews earlier, Hussey would have been given his marching orders upon review.

Still, this team may pull off what only one other England team has done in the last twenty-four years, not lose to Australia in Brisbane (in 1998 the heavens opened with four England wickets left, and the match was drawn).

And despite criticism of Strauss, Ricky Ponting arguably committed more errors, as he aims to create history as the only Australian captain to lose three Ashes series. His lack of a leg slip for most of the English innings freed up the openers, while his fields created huge confusion, especially a 7-2 offside field, which made for one very bemused Ben Hilfenhaus.

Dropped catches by Siddle, Clarke and a clanger from Johnson contributed to make a pretty foul day for Ponting, and behind furrowed brows in the press box, some must be wondering if a bevy of stars over his tenure as captain were more responsible for Australian dominance than Ponting's leadership skills.