Lee takes his leave

Australia had already lost Shane Watson to injury when Brett Lee pulled up after the second ball of his third over to grab and stretch his right calf. Seemingly unsure whether or not it was cramp, Lee tried to straighten out the kink before attempting to run in and bowl. He did not make it halfway through his run-up before pulling up again, and a concerned Michael Clarke then ran from slip to encourage Lee to take his leave. The Chester-le-Street crowd offered warm applause, and it is just possible that Lee was leaving an English cricket ground for the last time.

Sometimes a fuller ball can be used as a surprise tactic, even on a pitch that is crying out for them. Steven Finn succeeded in pushing David Warner back by bowling short of a length in the early overs, often with extravagant movement. There was the odd slightly fuller delivery that Warner played from the crease, before the first ball of Finn's third over arrived faster and further up than the batsman had computed for. Completely on his heels, Warner was plainly lbw, though it took a review of the umpire's original decision to confirm it.

Given the firepower at Alastair Cook's disposal, it was hardly expected that the day's most perfect ball was to be delivered by Ravi Bopara. Yet a tacky, seaming surface and slightly damp air afforded Bopara's mediums the ideal setting, and he would use them to confound George Bailey. Angling the ball in towards middle and off to have Bailey shaping to play to the leg side, Bopara zipped it away off the seam to clip the off bail. Bailey has now been bowled five times in as many innings on tour, though never was he as blameless as here.

James Pattinson had been straining all tour for a chance to charge in at England's batsmen, but his first delivery was not one to remember. Full at leg stump and neither swinging nor particularly fast, it was summarily dispatched to the backward square leg boundary by Ian Bell. What's more it was a no-ball, offering Bell a free-hit. Pattinson evaded punishment for his transgression with a slower ball that the batsman miscued, but the final ball of the over was not dissimilar to the first, and Bell flicked it wide of mid-on for another boundary.