Four outcomes still possible after Vaughan leads way for England

Out of the Ashes from the Brisbane Test, emerged one bright spark by the name of Vaughan. He ignited the England side as the three Lions found something to roar about.

Michael Vaughan was rewarded because he challenged the Australians. He took them on and with a bit of luck batted with great aplomb. Not since Mike Denness scored 188 in the sixth Test at the MCG in 1975, has an Englishman recorded a higher score in Australia.

Steve Waugh and his Australian side put the ball in the opposition batsman's court. With four slips, two gullys and a bat-pad, there are plenty of runs available if you are willing to swing the bat as opposed to most batsman who seem to bring it out as a prop to lean on.

Vaughan punished the bad ball which forced Waugh to remove some of his aggressive field placings.

This was in contrast to Robert Key who seemed hell-bent on not actually scoring any runs. He laboured very hard for his solitary run and he must learn that as a batsman, the dual purposes of run scoring and survival are not mutually exclusive.

On a day where Australia were challenged such as they were on this first day, Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath showed again how incredibly lucky the Australian side is to have two stalwarts such as them. Together, they have carried the Australian attack for nearly a decade.

Coming into this Test, the Australian side had 1140 wickets between them, of which Warne and McGrath had a share of 892.

For England, the hard work has only just begun. Mark Butcher, Alec Stewart and Craig White have to build and consolidate on Vaughan's great work and one of those needs to go on and score a century.

The minimum score they should be aiming for is 400 which would mark the first time since 1991, they have managed such a score in Australia. In that Test at the SCG, centuries by Michael Atherton and David Gower took England to 8/469.

That Test is also of interest because it is the last time, England bowled out Australia twice in a live Test match played on Australian soil. Australia had won the first two Tests of the series as England were striving to win back the Ashes 3-2 from 0-2 down. Their attempts to win the game were thwarted by Carl Rackemann who took 72 minutes to get off the mark and scored a defiant nine from 109 balls. England ran out of time in chasing a winning total.

England need to bowl as well and field as well as Vaughan batted if they are to have any chance of taking 20 Australian wickets in this Test. It seems out of their reach given the inexperience of their attack. They have 353 Test wickets between them. Stephen Harmison and Richard Dawson share just 11.

The Adelaide pitch is looking like it will be batsman-friendly for a couple more days yet so the English bowlers will have to outwit the Australians to claim their scalps. They will have learnt from their numerous mistakes in Brisbane and Andy Caddick and Matthew Hoggard should be better bowlers than they were there.

For Australia, their assignment is quite simple. Dismiss England as expeditiously as possible on Day 2. Rack up a quick score and follow that up by bowling England out cheaply.

After one day, this Test match still has four possible outcomes. You couldn't say that after the first day at the Gabba.