Mark Butcher rode his luck and celebrated his 50th test with a dogged century yesterday as England ended the opening day of the fifth cricket test against Australia at 264 for five.
At stumps, Alec Stewart was not out 20 and John Crawley was unbeaten on six.
Butcher survived two confident appeals -- a shout for lbw before he'd scored a run and a bat-pad catch on 95 -- and was dropped on 43 by wicketkeeper Adam Gilchrist en route to 124.
The England No. 3 was eventually out in the 86th over when he played a Brett Lee ball onto his stumps after almost six hours at the crease. He faced 276 balls and hit 19 boundaries.
In the process, Butcher shared a 166-run third-wicket stand with skipper Nasser Hussain to lift the England total from 32 for two to 198 for three.
After a nervous start, Hussain posted 75 from 149 deliveries before getting a glove to a Jason Gillespie ball that carried to Gilchrist.
Butcher didn't mind that luck played a big part in his sixth test century and third against Australia.
``I wouldn't be the first person on either side to have had more than one go at it in an innings on this trip, so I'm not going to make any apologies,'' he said. ``I struggled a bit, to be honest. Fortunately, things came back to me as the innings went on.''
Knowing the Australians were missing champion legspinner Shane Warne (492 test wickets) and leading paceman Glenn McGrath (422) gave England more confidence, Butcher said.
``There's nearly 900-odd test wickets missing from the ground. They're a couple of champion bowlers, but the guys who replaced them are not the worst either,'' he said.
``I'm more concerned about how I'm batting -- if that's OK, I don't really care who's bowling at me.''
Lee was the pick of the Australian bowlers, snaring two wickets in a 20-over spell at a cost of 66 runs.
Desperate to avoid defeat, Hussain won the toss and elected to bat.
In a torrid opening spell, Lee had dangerman Michael Vaughan caught behind without scoring in the fourth over and was unlucky not to dismiss Butcher with the subsequent delivery when he cannoned a fast ball into his pads.
Vaughan, who scored a century in the fourth test and was the leading test scorer in 2002 with 1,481 runs, hadn't scored before edged an out-swinger and was caught behind.
Andy Bichel, recalled to replaced injured pace spearhead Glenn McGrath, had opener Marcus Trescothick (19) caught behind, Gilchrist gloving a spectacular one-handed catch in front of Martin Love at first slip.
The Australians toiled for four hours before Gillespie made the next breakthrough to remove Hussain.
Two overs later, the capacity 44,298 crowd erupted when Australian skipper Stephen Waugh trapped Robert Key (3) lbw with the last ball of his first over. Butcher was the last wicket to fall on the opening day.
The 37-year-old Waugh equaled former Australian skipper Allan Border's international record of 156 test caps with what is most likely to be his last test match at home on the Sydney Cricket Ground. Waugh conceded two runs and took a wicket in a four-over spell that included three maidens.
Australia's usually reliable fielding became its downfall in the opening two sessions, with Butcher and Hussain both getting reprieves when routine catches went to ground.
Coach John Buchanan said the dropped catches changed the complexion of England's innings.
RSS