England thrash Australia, London matches to go on, bowlers kiss their bats goodbye and rewinding to 1981

Strauss and Trescothick continued from 85/0 and put on a century partnership as England thrashed Australia by nine wickets in the first game of the NatWest Challenge. Jonathan Agnew is rightly bemused at how the one-dayer played without the new rules, which are aimed at sprucing up the game, turned out to be far more interesting than the first one played under the new rules! England's seamers, Paul Collingwood being the surprise package, did the job and one of our favourites, Ashley Giles didnt even get to bowl. That also implies that Australia's batting was downright pathetic. Their bowling was no better either.

Following yesterday's bomb blasts in London, there was speculation about whether the one-day series would go on, given that the next two games were scheduled for Lord's and the Oval, both in London. There is now confirmation that the circus would go on.

Andrew Ramsey takes a whimsical look at how the bowlers fraternity reacted to the new rules which could possibly mean the likes of McGrath, Muralitharan, Harmison and Ashish Nehra have played their last ever one-day innings.

Harsha Bhogle comes up with his wishlist on what Greg Chappell must focus on. Chappell has, for the past couple of weeks, been overseeing the Indian team's training at Bangalore, his first cricketing act since taking over as India's coach.

We now rewind to 1981 as Ian Botham's performances with bat and ball end up creating the legend of "Botham's Ashes". Peter Willey played his part in that series and he talks about how it felt to win against Australia after being down in the dumps.

Andrew Miller picks his ten momentum seizing Ashes tests of all time.

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