The Ashes: Anchor Man Strauss Proves His Point

Andrew Strauss played the shot of the day just after tea yesterday, leaning back as he cracked a ball from Brett Lee to the point boundary.

He liked it so much that he did it again a few minutes later, celebrating the achievement of his century by rocking on to the back foot and dispatching Shane Warne to the same destination. And when Glenn McGrath returned to the attack, just as the shadows were starting to creep across the outfield, Strauss repeated the treatment.

It is a beautiful shot, executed with a left-hander's natural elegance and well worth a couple of encores. On the dry, close-cropped Oval outfield it sent the ball whistling to the rope with barely a hint of deceleration, evidence of the force imparted when Strauss puts every bit of his muscular physique into an attacking shot. And perhaps, by playing it against Australia's three most dangerous bowlers, he was making a point.

But aggression was not the primary feature of the innings with which he held England's ship steady. Strauss gave the team what they were most in need of yesterday: a sheet anchor to prevent the turbulence of McGrath and Warne from terminally disrupting their progress towards a prize by which, should they succeed in grasping it, he and his colleagues will be known for the rest of their lives.

To win the toss and give themselves the opportunity to bat on a day like this was the first of England's successes. Marcus Trescothick set the early pace but it was Strauss who gave a hint of McGrath's mortality when he stroked the great seam bowler to the extra cover and mid-on boundaries in his fifth over.

McGrath, who has not played in a losing side in this series, occasionally beat the outside edge of both openers, but it was the arrival of Warne, after an hour, that started the palpitations. Four times in eight innings during this series Strauss has fallen victim to Warne. The arm may be a little lower, the loop less pronounced and the variations not quite so exotic, but the great man's reputation alone is enough to unsettle those who grew up in awe of his legend.

Yesterday, however, Strauss was limpet-like in his adherence to the principles of correct defence.

At the other end, others were proving themselves far less resolute. Trescothick gave a low catch to Matthew Hayden at first slip, Michael Vaughan played a lackadaisical chip to Michael Clarke at midwicket and Ian Bell had barely given himself time to adjust to the light when he fell leg-before. At lunch, having been joined by Kevin Pietersen, Strauss had accumulated 42 out of a total of 115.

His fifty, off 79 balls, came in the 33rd over, and was followed a few balls later by Warne's fourth success of the day, when he bowled Pietersen between bat and pad.

At that stage, as Warne bowled with the kind of fiendish glee that possessed him on the final evening at Trent Bridge, when he almost stole a straightforward victory from the home side's grasp, even the ranks of England could scarce forbear to cheer.

It was with the arrival of Andrew Flintoff that Strauss was able to put the spine back into the innings, keeping the scoreboard ticking over while his new partner found his touch.

Flintoff may have struck the more flamboyant blows of the partnership, particular when, in the space of three deliveries, he swept Warne for four to reach 48, top-edged to the boundary to pass 50 and put up the 100 partnership, and leaned into a drive that sent the ball skimming straight past the bowler. But in his more discreet manner Strauss was virtually matching his partner run for run, bringing up his 100 off 150 balls.

This made him the first man to record two centuries in the series, which may be some slight compensation for his narrow failure last year to become the first Englishman to make a pair of centuries on his Test debut, against New Zealand at Lord's.

His first in the present series, an innings of 106 at Old Trafford, came in a match which also took Vaughan and Ricky Ponting to three figures. Flintoff joined them at Trent Bridge.

Who would have bet, a month and a half ago, that by this stage Matthew Hayden, Adam Gilchrist, Marcus Trescothick and Kevin Pietersen would not have managed a ton between them?

When Strauss was on 114, Lee appealed for a catch behind the wicket and put so much into his pantomime villain act that he was still in mid-shout when he arrived at the batsman's end. Rudi Koertzen, however, was unmoved. Soon the big screen was showing Channel 4's super slo-mo footage of a 93 mph delivery from Lee climbing to hit the handle of Strauss's bat, which could be seen twanging like bowstring under the impact.

As Flintoff edged McGrath to Warne at first slip and Shaun Tait trapped Paul Collingwood leg-before, Strauss could only stand and watch. And then, finally, it was his turn. Propping forward to Warne, he saw the ball pop up just enough to allow Simon Katich to pounce from forward short leg and cling on to an excellent catch. His resistance had lasted seven minutes short of six hours. He had faced 210 balls and hit 17 fours, and although he fell again to Warne he had thoroughly disproved the leg-spinner's contention, before the start of the series, that he could be dismissed with ease, particularly by the ball arrowing in to the left-hander.

It was not a particularly decorative knock, apart from those three swordsman's strokes to the point boundary, but it had a nuggety quality that would appeal to any real cricket lover, while providing further proof that England are now a side whose significant contribution can come from any individual.

If they emerge from this match with their hopes realised, they will know whom to thank.