Ashes: Flintoff guides England to 234-4

SYDNEY, Jan 2 (AP): Glenn McGrath took two wickets in five balls to give Australia's attack some impetus in his farewell Test before Andrew Flintoff revived the England innings with an unbeaten 42 on day one of the fifth Ashes match.

At stumps on Tuesday, England was 234 for four after Flintoff won the toss and elected to bat.

The England captain struck five boundaries and a big driven six over long-on off Stuart Clark after coming to the crease when England slipped from 166 for two to 167 for four.

At Tea: England 149/2 in 52 overs
At Lunch: England 58/1 in 17 overs

Paul Collingwood was unbeaten on 25 when bad light stopped play seven overs before the scheduled close on a rain-shortened first day.

With only the tailenders to come after the fifth-wicket pair, the pressure was on Flintoff to produce his biggest innings of the series if England had any hope of avoiding a 5-0 series whitewash by the Australians.

Flintoff was averaging only 22 as England slumped to four losses in the series and had only one 50, a meager return compared with his performances with bat and ball in England's 2-1 series upset in 2005.

He and Collingwood defied the Australian bowling for almost 1 1/2 hours, giving England slight honors on the first day of what will be the final Test match for two of cricket's greatest bowlers and 104-test veteran opener Justin Langer.

Shane Warne and McGrath, No. 1 and No. 3 on the list of all-time wicket takers in Test cricket, are quitting Test cricket after the Ashes.

McGrath had the only success of the departing Australian trio, who led the hosts onto the field in the morning after the start was delayed 70 minutes by rain.

Just when Ian Bell (71) and Kevin Pietersen (41) appeared to be getting on top of the Australian attack in a 108-run third-wicket stand, McGrath struck twice in consecutive overs to remove both batsmen.

The veteran paceman saw Pietersen stepping down the wicket at him, pitched one in short and the England No. 4 miscued to mid-wicket, where Mike Hussey took a diving catch.

Bell was out first ball of McGrath's next over, bowled between bat and pad, before Flintoff and Collingwood guided England to stumps with a 67-run partnership.

McGrath finished with 2-57 from 21 overs, while Brett Lee and Clark took one wicket apiece and Warne went for 59 runs from 19 overs on a pitch that offered little assistance to the spin bowlers.

The Australians took a wicket in each of the first two sessions, with Lee having Andrew Strauss (29) caught behind and Clark removing Alastair Cook (20) in the same mode from an inside edge without addition to the lunchtime total of 58 for one.

McGrath created chances in the morning session, having a loud shout for lbw against Strauss declined and a chance put down off the England opener at third slip, with Langer getting two hands onto a thick edge before putting it down.

But it took McGrath 20 overs for his breakthrough, and lifted his world record for a fast bowler to 559 wickets by stumps.

Australia is aiming to be only the second team to sweep a five-Test Ashes series, the first since Warwick Armstrong's side achieved it in 1920-21.

Scoreboard

England 1st innings
A. Strauss c Gilchrist b Lee 29
A. Cook c Gilchrist b Clark 20
I. Bell b McGrath 71
K. Pietersen c Hussey b McGrath 41
P. Collingwood not out 25
A. Flintoff not out 42
Extras (lb1 w3 nb2) 6
Total (4 wkts) 234
Fall of wickets: 1-45, 2-58, 3-166, 4-167
Bowling: McGrath 21-4-57-2 (2nb), Lee 15-3-50-1 (1w), Clark 19-3-54-1 (2w), Warne 19-1-59-0, Symonds 6-2-13-0
Still to bat: Chris Read, Sajid Mahmood, Steve Harmison, Monty Panesar, James Anderson.
Overs: 80
Toss: England
Bad light stopped play at 6:20pm (0720 GMT)
Umpires: Aleem Dar (PAK) Billy Bowden (NZL)
TV Umpire: Peter Parker, Australia
Match referee: Ranjan Madugalle (SRI)
Series: Australia leads 4-0.

Jaffer, Karthick put india in command - India 254/3 on Day 1 End

CAPE TOWN, Jan 2: Wasim Jaffer scored his third Test century on Tuesday to lead India to 254 for three wickets on day one of the third and final Test against South Africa.

Jaffer's 116 took him past 1,000 test runs, but was ended when he edged the second new ball delivery from Dale Steyn to Jacques Kallis at second slip. It was Kallis' 100th catch in Tests, going alongside his 8,072 runs and 202 wickets.

Scorecard

He reached his century off the 19 balls and his innings lasted through lunch and tea, totaling exactly six hours, and contained 15 fours in a chanceless innings.

Sachin Tendulkar was on 28 at the close, together with V.V.S. Laxman on 4.

Jaffer and Dinesh Karthik built an opening partnership of 153, but Karthik was dismissed with the first ball after tea, giving debut-making left-arm spinner Paul Harris his first Test wicket.

Karthik was adjudged to have got an inside edge onto his pad and looped up a simple catch to Hashim Amla at short leg.

He had been dropped on 32 by Graeme Smith at first slip off the bowling of Shaun Pollock. A surprise choice as opener, Karthik withstood a short-pitched barrage from Jacques Kallis just before tea.

India captain Rahul Dravid won the toss and was the only other batsman to fall on a tough day for the bowlers. He was on 29 when he edged a lifting delivery from Pollock for wicketkeeper Mark Boucher to take an easy catch.

The three-match series is tied at 1-1 after India won the first Test by 123 runs and South Africa the second by 174 runs.

Harris worked hard, bowling 24 overs on his first day in Test cricket, and finished with 1-74. Pollock had 1-32, and Steyn took 1-41 in 20 overs.

Mahindra Renault Ad coming soon

Mahindra Renault. The car soon to be seen on indian road. It was coincidentally happened that As it was 31st of December, 2006 so we plan to go for biking to lonavala and we found Shooting goin on for this car. So I thought to take a click of it.

Below are few of its more snaps.

News on January 2

PUBLIC OUTBURST: Police retaliate after natives of Nithari village in Noida attacked them over the serial killings.

New Year Wishes

A deaf boy has the national flag painted on his forehead during a New Year programme organised for orphans and disabled children in Hyderabad

Narmada Dam height increased

The raising of the height of the Sardar Sarovar Dam, that had earned the wrath of environmentalists, was completed on Sunday.

The resulting power produced will meet the demand of Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat.

The work for increasing the height to 121.92 metres was faciliated by the Supreme Court.

Chairman of Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam Limited hydroelectric power project Pravin K Laheri told PTI that raising the dam's height has made it possible to generate its full installed capacity of 1,450MW of power.

Up to 5,700 crore cubic feet of water will now be available for irrigation and power generation at the dam.

Out of the installed power-generation capacity of 1,450MW Madhya Pradesh has a 57 per cent share, Maharastra 27 per cent and Gujarat has 16 percent share.

The storage will enable assumed irrigation in four lakh hectares of land around Sardar Sarovar project.

It will enable total hydropower generation of 440 crore units of electricity annually, Laheri said.

Two LeT militants arrested in New Delhi

The police on Sunday arrested two suspected Lashker-e-Tayiba militants near New Delhi Railway Station.

Samiullah and Ali Mohammed were picked up from the Paharganj side of the railway station, Joint Commissioner of Police (Special Cell) Karnal Singh told PTI.

He said a bomb disposal squad inspected the luggage recovered from the duo.

The two were arrested barely a kilometer away from Connaught Circus, the central point of New Year celebrations.

Singh said some explosive devices have been seized from the baggage of the duo and the nature of the explosives was being examined.