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Strauss leads by example

Author: Craig Williams
Date: 18/07/2009

Captain Andrew Strauss scored a superb 161 not out to help England reach 364-6 at close of play of day one of the second Ashes Test against Australia.

Strauss led by example at Lord's but the tourists will have taken heart from an impressive fightback late in the day, as they took four wickets after tea to get back into the game.

Alastair Cook looked in top form but fell agonisingly short of a century when he was trapped leg before wicket by Mitchell Johnson for 95, with the opening stand have put on 196.

Ravi Bopara's poor series continued as he was adjudged lbw to a Ben Hilfenhaus delivery which nipped back off the seam on just 18.

Kevin Pietersen made 32 before edging an excellent Peter Siddle delivery to wicketkeeper Brad Haddin.

Paul Collingwood (16) holed out to Siddle off the occasional left-arm spin of Michael Clarke as the Baggy Greens continued their fightback, before Johnson swung one back to clean bowl Matt Prior for eight.

Andrew Flintoff arrived to a hero's reception, but he made just four before edging Hilfenhaus to the waiting Ricky Ponting at second slip.

Strauss remained unbeaten throughout the struggles at the other end and he ended the day on 161, having struck 22 boundaries from 266 balls faced in a superb display of controlled batting.

Stuart Broad was seven not out, with Hilfenhaus the pick of the Aussie attack with 2-77 from 25 overs.

Miguel Angel Jimenez leads the Open Championship after a sizzling opening round 64, but day one at Turnberry belonged to veteran Tom Watson.

The 59-year-old rolled back the years to shoot a five-under par 65, heading the clubhouse leaderboard for much of the day until the Spaniard closed with two birdies.

Joining Watson at five-under par was 2003 champion Ben Curtis and Kenichi Koboya from Japan.

It was a day to make the most of the perfect conditions on the west coast of Scotland and with 67 golfers at par of better it was far from the predicted battle against the elements.

Padraig Harrington, in pursuit of a hat-trick of Open victories, belied his recent lack of top level form to shoot an encouraging 69, while world number one and sportsbook favourites Tiger Woods made a typically sluggish start with a one over par 71.

Can Tiger Woods recover and win the Open Championship? - Latest Golf Betting

In cycling, Nicki Sorensen won the 12th stage of the Tour de France to Vittel.

The Dane was part of a lengthy seven-man breakaway alongside Sylvain Calzati, Egoi Martinez, Remi Pauriol, Laurent Lefevre, Markus Fothen and Franco Pellizotti for much of the day.

However, he broke away with 20 kilometres left in the stage and managed to keep the chasing pack at bay to win.

On a quiet day in the overall standings, Italy's Rinaldo Nocentini retained the leader's yellow jersey and Britain's Mark Cavendish is still in possession of the green jersey.

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