England's first-wicket partnership of 124, their first century opening stand not involving a man called Atherton since 1992, was a real chalk-and-cheese affair. Whereas Marcus Trescothick was fluent all the way to the nervous ninety-nines, Mark Butcher was not at his smooth best, and his 51 will win few prizes for artistic merit. Butcher's innings included 22% of uncontrolled shots - that's edges, or play-and-misses, or any shot that is in some way false – and these accounted for 37% of his runs; for Trescothick the figures are only 16% (shots) and 9% (runs). And whereas three in ten of Butcher's runs came off the edge of the bat, eight in every ten of Trescothick's came cleanly and crisply off the middle.

Rob Smyth is on the staff of Wisden.com

© Wisden CricInfo Ltd