England fightback curtailed as Hussey dominates

An intriguing second day's play at the Gabba has seen Australia reach 220-5 in their first innings reply. Mike Hussey's excellent unbeaten 81 proved the backbone to Australia's recovery after earlier England had battled to reduce their opponents to 143-5 in the afternoon session.

England began the day in search of early wickets with the new ball, but the home side's pair of Shane Watson and Simon Katich seemed relatively untroubled by a pace attack struggling to find the length that Peter Siddle had been able to exploit on day one.

The opener's batted serenely through the first session, with only a couple of troubling moments, until half an hour before lunch when James Anderson induced Watson into edging a good length delivery to Andrew Strauss at first slip, leaving the score 78-1.

Despite England being unable to unsettle Australia's captain Ricky Pointing before lunch, the wicket of Watson was a timely one and provided much needed impetus for the visitors who came out firing after the interval.

Within four overs of the afternoon session England had picked up a further two wickets, with Anderson snaffling an unlucky Pointing in his first over after lunch and Steven Finn managing to dislodge the seemingly immovable Katich, for an impressive 50, with an outstanding caught and bowled.

All of a sudden momemtum swung England's way and with Michael Clarke looking particularly scratchy, as well as unfit, Andrew Strauss's side sniffed an opportunity to rip out the Australian middle order.

Clarke was the first to go, caught behind off the bowling of Finn, for a laboured 9 off 50 deliveries and then Graeme Swann got in on the action, having an under-fire Marcus North caught at first slip by Paul Collingwood to leave the Australians teetering at 143-5.

But, any hopes that England might be able to run through the Australian line-up soon evaporated as Hussey and the wicket-keeper Brad Haddin got together and began to rebuild the home side's total.

Hussey, in particular, was fluent as he cut and pulled the ball very firmly against both Swann and the English trio of seamers. He passed 50 with ease and despite Haddin playing and missing on a number of occasions, the pair were able to push the Australian total along at a decent rate.

And, just as England looked to provide fresh impetus to their efforts by taking the new ball they were thwarted by bad light and then a tropical storm, leaving Australia just 40 in arrears of their first innings score.

Player of the Day: Mike Hussey

'Mr Cricket' was simply outstanding today. Aggressive against an out-of-sorts Swann and measured in his approach to the English pace attack, he paced his innings perfectly and has wrestled back control of the Test Match for his side.