Dermot Reeve made his reputation as an astute and imaginative cricket captain. But these days he is a TV commentator and as such no longer a citizen of the real world. "You must be thrilled and excited," he said to Nasser Hussain, when interviewing him immediately after Hussain lost the toss for the eighth Test in a row. "You must be out of your mind" would have been the only accurate response.

Viewed objectively, it did turn into quite an exciting day. Viewed from where the England captain sits, it turned into yet another nightmare, one of the worst even of this summer of screaming heebie-jeebies.

Though play did not start until 2.15pm due to a breakfast-time downpour, Australia found time to reach 288 for four, a score mitigated only by two late wickets, one off the last ball of the day.

Ricky Ponting recovered from a disastrous run that would long ago have got him dropped from an England team to score 144. And with Mark Waugh, he put on 221, the largest stand so far this series.

Not for the first time, England have come into a Headingley Test with an inadequate and one-dimensional attack, expecting the pitch to do the work for them. But the truth about the surface is probably the one that has held good these past dozen years: it's probably a damn sight better when Australia bat on it than when England do.

Darren Gough, England's number one bowler, performed so innocuously yesterday that you have to wonder whether he is fit enough to get through this nasty fortnight, never mind the winter ahead. Alex Tudor moved stiffly and bowled ditto.

Only Andrew Caddick, in a burst of activity at the end of his opening spell, seriously troubled the batsmen. It is getting harder and harder to see how England can avoid being whitewashed.

And once again England had a crucial piece of ill-luck. Ponting edged his third ball low to third slip, where Mark Ramprakash appeared to take a good catch. But poor old England: Ponting stood his ground, Srinivasaraghavan Venkataraghavan asked for the TV replay, throwing the onus on Neil Mallender, the rising young star of the English umpires' corps.

It was a re-run of the incident at Adelaide two years back when a clot called Paul Angley fired out Mike Atherton even though a hundred replays could not conclusively prove he had been caught fairly. Mallender watched from every angle and took the decision that is supposed still to hold in our system of justice beyond the cricket field: not sure equals not guilty. Ponting stayed, rightly.

And, having scored 77 in his previous 10 Test innings, went on to make an England win beyond improbable and heading towards impossible.