England fans seize chance to mock Johnson

In the first match of a long summer for England and Australia, England fans couldn't resist having another dig at Mitchell Johnson, this time targeting his hairstyle as well. In the Guardian, Andy Wilson asks if there is a danger that for much of this summer there will be a real danger of feeling sorry for Australia.

At least there was a topical variation on the Johnson theme, as his new hairdo, an ill-advised wet-look comb-over, prompted the chant: "He combs to the left, he combs to the right." Perhaps Australia will have to dismiss this as a bad hair day.

In the same paper, Vic Marks writes that the few games so far has produced some fascinating contests and duels, and that it would be sad to see the tournament scrapped.

Gayle is box office, impossible to ignore. One minute the seven-footer Mohammad Irfan was troubling him: five uncomfortable dots, whereupon Gayle cracked the sixth ball over the bowler's head - some feat - for six. Then there were the subtler skills of Saeed Ajmal. With men around the bat he sent Gayle on his way and, with Gayle gone, anything was possible. Pakistan lost in the end as they defended an inadequate total but the phrase "cornered tigers" came to mind. This was a long way from the YB40. This was just about as good as it gets.

In the Telegraph, Nick Hoult lists some pointers ahead of the Ashes, based on his observations from the Champions Trophy game.

Reverse swing - Even with a fairly newish ball (there are different ones used at each end in one-day cricket) England managed to make the white ball reverse at the halfway point of the innings. James Anderson and Tim Bresnan were getting away reverse swing with the result of not just taking wickets but squeezing the Australian middle order and increasing the asking rate, which was soon spiralling northwards of eight an over.

In the same paper, Steve James comes to the rescue of England's top three and their much talked about strike rates in the match against Australia.

Before we embark upon deeper analysis, I will offer some further statistics for you. Since Bell returned to the England one-day team upon Kevin Pietersen's short-lived retirement, he has averaged 53.85 at a strike rate of 80.09 in 23 matches. At the same time, in 17 matches Trott averaged 64.08 at a strike rate of 72.54.

In other words Bell and Trott did exactly as they have been doing for the last year. They scored runs, and at a steady rather than spectacular rate. And, as has happened during most of that time, England won.