Andrew Flintoff and James Anderson Make a Stand Against Batsmen's Tyranny

Andrew Flintoff's farewell tour earned its first bouquet when a fierce delivery smashed through Mike Hussey's off-stump. As the long goodbye picked up pace, England's bowlers said a short farewell to Australia's batsmen to spread real hope that they will win an Ashes Test here for the first time since 1934.

To see batsmen so imperilled was a thrilling improvement on much of what we had seen thus far. Hallelujah: 12 victims in a day and exultation for the forgotten men of the series. James Anderson took out Phillip Hughes, Ricky Ponting, Michael Clarke and Marcus North: a stellar haul. Graham Onions took a bow to remove Simon Katich, caught by Stuart Broad, who took the day's last two scalps. Flintoff stoked his furnace and powered in from the Pavilion End to torment Clarke and catch Hussey shouldering arms to a ball that sent him back to an Australian dressing room in deepening disarray.

One of Flintoff's bouncers to Clarke would have given him a perfect center parting had he not been wearing a helmet. His Fredness had raised an eyebrow or two with the news that he was to exploit the pedalo farrago in a deodorant ad. The consensus was that the announcement of his impending retirement from the five-day game would improve his prospects of leaving one last set of welts on opponents who have defined his career. But he needed to prove it would be so.

Clarke and Hussey were the fall guys. Ponting's deputy was removed by an Alastair Cook catch off Anderson but it was Flintoff's spiteful spell that set the tone for the Australian implosion. Duncan Fletcher had argued in these pages that England should use him as a "shock" tactic and here the ambush was beautifully conceived just as Hussey was rediscovering his old staying power at the crease.

Mr Cricket chose a good day to come alive, because something deeper did as well: the idea that Test matches should be an equal contest between bat and ball rather than a batsmen's benefit to keep chief executives happy and TV audiences hooked to the set for all five days.

The bowlers sprang their dungeon the moment Andrew Strauss fell second ball of the day to a swinging delivery from Ben Hilfenhaus. Free at last, Hilfenhaus and Peter Siddle scooped up three wickets in 19 balls before Mitchell Johnson dispensed with Anderson to close England's innings on 425. Now our revels are ended, the batsmen might have groaned, and there was the sense of a Test shifting on its axis in favour of the oppressed.

The first four innings of this Ashes series had finished 435, 674 for six declared, 252 for nine and 425. Innocuous pitches, unhelpful conditions and slow spin had encouraged a complacent mood among those with the cudgels. The fall of England's last four wickets and a blitzing start to Australia's arrival at the crease brought a whole new cast to the stage.

Without an edge of threat to batsmen, cricket becomes a game of elongation. Here and in Cardiff the traditional form of the game has eased closer to the Twenty20 age. Floodlit Tests will surely become routine once the authorities have worked out how to overcome the problem of the red ball. Imagine the stand between Monty Panesar and Anderson in Cardiff delaying the 10 o'clock news, like one of Andy Murray's indoor Wimbledon marathons.

For a while the assumption was that Test cricket would simply live or die in its present state. No one really thought of it adapting to meet the changed demand. This Ashes series has helped open up that possibility.

Few doubt the dramatic force of Test cricket per se, given the right presentation. But even as the sport has flirted with false lighting and encouraged a cult of personality, the pitches have appeared designed to satisfy television and turnstile needs rather than encourage parity between ball and bat.

Late afternoon brought a torrent of dismissals as Australia simply fell apart. Steve Harmison's latest haul for Durham lost its power to rebuke the England selectors as those picked ahead of him bundled over Australia's middle order. When North dragged a ball from Anderson on to his stumps and Johnson and Brad Haddin fell to leave them 156 for eight at stumps, a search began for MCC members who were here in 1934.

Lord's seemed to levitate. To see Australia in such discomfort induced real shock, despite 2005, which we really ought to stop mentioning soon. Ponting's new and humblingly modest target was to avoid the follow-on. More satisfyingly for England, their bowlers were working as a wolf pack, applying pace, swing, variety and above all venom.

It was a grand day for their trade and now they know what they are capable of, what Australia's vulnerabilities are and what the momentum built at Lord's might do for them in Birmingham, Leeds and south of the Thames. Anderson was meant to come of age in this series and he has turned up for his graduation. On this form a proper bang will be the sound of Flintoff's exit.