Free beer ends in two minutes for Hughes fans

Will Swanton writes in the Sydney Morning Herald about the repercussions of Phillip Hughes’ fourth-ball duck on debut.

The following people were disappointed: Hughes, his parents on their first overseas trip, the team-mates so desperate to see Hughes succeed and the beer drinkers at the pub in Macksville. The reason for the angst in Hughes' home town? Free beer at the local watering hole until his dismissal. The revelry lasted two minutes.

In the same paper Peter Roebuck says Ricky Ponting stood defiant as his new and somewhat conservative side suffered grievous blows on an eventful but thinly attended first day.

Undeterred by the wreckage around him, and assisted mostly by his deputy, the Australian captain produced a stream of fluent strokes as he held the innings together.

The Herald Sun’s Ron Reed is impressed by Michael Clarke, who continues to thumb his nose at the critics.