England may have safely retained the Ashes at the first possible opportunity, but the first day of the fourth Test in Durham showed that Australia could still be capable of thwarting their hopes of another series victory.
Bird's the word
Even though their attack was extremely effective at the third Test in Manchester, Australia decided to make a change among their bowlers for the fourth Test as Jackson Bird was brought in to replace Mitchell Starc. Bird got through the most overs of any Aussie bowler on day one and was rewarded for his hard graft with the prize wicket of Cook, trapping the England captain lbw after he had shouldered arms to a delivery which nipped back in dramatically. Bird's performance certainly
caught the eye of Sky Sports expert Nasser Hussain, who said: "I felt he just put it there early on but as he got into his day he actually bowled the ball and the one for Cook was an absolute beauty. It came back a long, long way, almost like it must have hit a crack."
Pietersen masterclass
Ian Ward welcomed a very special guest to the Ashes Zone prior the start of the Durham Test as England star Kevin Pietersen
took the latest in our series of batting masterclasses. The Old Trafford centurion went through his full repertoire of shots with Wardy, including Pietersen trademarks like the 'Flamingo' and 'Switch Hit'. The session proved to be an intriguing insight into the mind of a top-level international batsman. "I go through everything on practice days," Pietersen said of his training habits. "So I'll drive, I'll pull, I'll play balls through midwicket, sweep, reverse sweep, I'll hit over the top - so that every single time that I go to bed I've ticked every single box."
As it happened
You can relive all the best action from day one by reading
our interactive commentary from Emirates Durham ICG. You can also view
a gallery of the day's best images here.
