2nd Ashes test, day 2

England 317-2, lead Australia (245) by 72 runs.

What a day for Alastair Cook.

In batting throughout the day (once again) he became the new record holder for an English batsman in terms of minutes at the crease between dismissals.

Cook has now gone 1022 minutes without being dismissed, and there is nothing to suggest he won't extend the record significantly on day 3.

As dominant as England were with the ball on day 1, they were even more so on day 2 with the bat. Despite losing Andrew Strauss early to a misjudged leave off Doug Bollinger, England were untroubled for the rest of the day, building a nice lead with the prospect now of being able to leave Australia requiring almost 400 to make England bat again.

It was a ragged display from an Australia, who look very down. Once England became settled with Cook and Jonathan Trott at the crease, they took on the look of a desperate side, trying to make things happen rather than focusing on the fundamentals. Too often line and length was awry and the inconsistency from the bowlers clearly irked Ponting and allied with this was a poor display in the field; dropped catches and misfields throughout the day.

To compound Australian misery, Kevin Piersen (85*) also looked ominous at the crease, a fillip for England both in terms of this test and the series as a whole and with Collingwood, Bell and Prior still to come, it appears as though the Australians will be in for another tough day tomorrow.