Australia 1, England 0: Remember 2005

First Test, Lords 2005: Australia defeated England by 239 runs. England won series 2-1.

First Test, Brisbane 2006-07: Australia defeated England by 277 runs. Is history about to repeat itself?

I doubt it. The yawning experience gap makes the difference this time, added to the intense hunger that the Australian team feels to regain the Ashes.

England needs to get its eleven in order, which means boosting Pietersen up the order, making Panesar their number-one spinner, and getting Vaughan fit as soon as possible. Australia just needs to stay fit, and resist the temptation to play an all-rounder for the sake of it.

Just remember: Australia conceded 370 runs in the fourth innings.

Midwinter-Midwinter points for Day Five, a smaller set because the day finished early: Stuart Clark 2 pts; Shane Warne 1 pt.

Progress scores after the First Test: McGrath 6; Ponting 5; Clark, Collingwood 3; Bell, Hussey, Langer, Pietersen, Warne 2.

The podcast playlist for the Day Five post-mortems is attached. Almost eighty minutes of audio from the ABC, BBC, Guardian, Telegraph, CricInfo, and on behalf of the Daily Mail, Nasser Hussain.