Ponting watches on as England dominate Day 2

Ricky Ponting can find solace in the fact that his performance as captain was the second most ridiculous thing on Sky Sports 1 through the night, with the latest George Clooney nespresso advert more deserving of that honour. However the mind boggled as Ponting shuffled around the Australian field in a vain attempt to get wickets, and ended up spending far too much of the day staring at the ground. Unsurprisingly the ground gave him no answers.

Even with a heavy offside field, his bowlers strayed far too often onto the pads of Trott and Cook, who took such offerings to be the boundary more often than not. A short leg is a requisite for both batsmen, who love to score through the leg side, but even when Ponting ordered Siddle to bowl at Trott rather than his stumps, he implemented a leg gully, or a short leg at times, but never both at the same time. Bodyline, Ponting style. And when England scored 52 off the first nine overs after lunch, he told his bowlers to pitch everything a good yard outside of off-stump and starve the batsmen of runs. Neither of these tactics worked too well, although Trott edged a chance to

Alastair Cook meanwhile is almost half way to immortality (no, not literally), as he stares down Don Bradman's record of 974 runs in a single Ashes series. As imperious as the left handed opener has performed over his last two innings, that is the record of records, and even Hammond's record of 906 runs by an Englishman in Australia seems a long way away. Cook will resume on 438 runs overall, when he begins Day 3 of the second test in Adelaide, 72 ahead of Australia's first innings score, but with eight wickets in hand.

For Ponting, yesterday saw his teams' situation go from bad to worse. Ryan Harris looked nothing more than ordinary, Doug Bollinger got bounce but little else, and Siddle, the first test hero, had to resign to bowling at Trott's ribcage in an effort to get him out. Xavier Doherty had a nightmare, even against Kevin Pietersen, who we are all told, has a weakness against lefty spin bowlers. As the spinner, playing in just his second test, was swatted for three straight boundaries through extra cover by the defensive minded Cook, Ponting had little option but to shelve him. Injuries hampered using Shane Watson too much, while Simon Katich is also supposedly crocked, shelving him from bowling, should the skipper have been so inclined. Bizarrely, Katich has 15 test wickets at a decent average of 30. Any reprieve for the bowling attack would have been welcome on a searing hot day.

But fortunately for Trott, Pietersen and Cook, the Aussie bowling temperature never reached above tepid, allowing them to reach 317 by the close of play, with two blots on the copy book, an absolute clanger of a dismissal by Strauss and a mistimed lob through mid-wicket by Trott.

There was also great symmetry as Doherty had a chance to run out Trott in single figures, an incident eerily similar to that involving Katich and Trott a day earlier. Mr Cricket Michael Hussey dropped Trott on 10 in the gulley, a catch similar to the one Pietersen held, dismissing Watson for 51 straight after Lunch on Friday.

Even a repeat of the 2006 Adelaide Test could not dampen English spirits, while Australia laboured in the field, England's bowlers put their feet up, and possibly enjoyed the fact that, as Mark Selvey points out, the Aussies have taken as many wickets in their last 250 overs as England managed in 13 balls the day before.

There was also another record for Trott and Cook, the highest English second-wicket partnership at the Adelaide Oval, with their 173 eclipsing the 169 John Edrich and Keith Fletcher made in 1971.