AUSTRALIA demonstrated their ruthless intent to learn from the mistakes of 2005 with two of the survivors of that Ashes defeat leading an impressive fightback to establish a strong position in the opening npower Test.
Having surrendered the initiative to England on the second morning in Cardiff, allowing their tail-enders to add a crucial 99 runs, the momentum shift in the match appeared to have turned away from Australia.
But captain Ricky Ponting and opener S
imon Katich, who both featured in the shock Ashes defeat four years ago, delivered defiant centuries to guide Australia into a strong position with outstanding displays of resilience and composure.
Their unbroken 189-run stand guided Australia to an imposing 249 for one by the close, trailing England by just 186 runs, and signalled their great desire to secure a firm grip on the series at an early stage.
While three of England's batsmen – Paul Collingwood, Kevin Pietersen and Matt Prior – passed 50 but were unable to translate that into a major innings, neither Ponting or Katich looked likely to be distracted from their objective.
It was a stunning turnaround in fortunes from the start of the second day when England resumed on 336 for seven with low expectations of withstanding Australia's attack for long with a new ball only ten overs old.
After losing Stuart Broad for 19 England demonstrated their resilience with Graeme Swann leading a defiant counter-attack, hitting an unbeaten 47 off 40 balls and dominating a 68-run stand off only 53 balls with nightwatchman James Anderson.
Swann said: "We talked about getting momentum, how that would help us during the day. We got that momentum but it just didn't help us much. It was a great first session but we couldn't capitalise, that was disappointing.
"We had the wind knocked out of our sails a little bit."
Facing a potentially testing seven overs before lunch, aggressive opener Phillip Hughes set the tone by racing to an unbeaten 28 off 30 balls. England slowed up his progress after the interval by introducing all-rounder Andrew Flintoff, who delivered a hostile six-over spell which could have dismissed both openers and perhaps deserved more than just the scalp of Hughes, who bottom-edged behind to Prior for 30.
The arrival of Ponting gave England the chance to ruffle his composure by combining Flintoff and Broad, but neither appeared to unsettle his determination to make his mark in the first Test of the series.
Ponting also looked comfortable throughout his trial by spin and reached 40 by pulling Swann for two to become only the fourth batsman in history – behind Sachin Tendulkar, Brian Lara and Allan Border – to reach 11,000 Test runs.
Katich continued his remarkable success in his new role that has earned him an average of 53.42 from the last 15 Tests. His only reprieve was on 56 when he survived a strong lbw appeal from Swann. It was the luck he needed to go on and claim his eighth Test century and first Ashes hundred.
Ponting followed him to the milestone off the penultimate delivery of the day, pushing Flintoff to cover to leave him only 115 short of eclipsing Border's tally of 11,174 to become Australia's leading Test run-scorer.
On Ponting's unbeaten 100, Katich said: "It was a fantastic knock, you can see the hunger in his eyes. This is a huge series for him."
