mvaughan

English cricket fans will always remember the First Test at Brisbane back in 2002 as the one in which 'Nasser made the wrong choice'. Having called correctly, he opted to bowl first and it proved to be the wrong decision as Australia piled on just short of 500 runs; to make matters worse Simon Jones seriously damaged his knee and missed the rest of the Series. These things happen and Nasser has been carrying the can for that decision ever since but every captain makes a wrong decision at the toss at one stage or another and on the day he did what he thought gave him the best chance of winning the match.

I didn't have a great game myself, scoring 33 and 0, Australia won the match by a massive 384 runs and they never looked back after that.

Brisbane in an interesting wicket. It's the one that most resembles 'English conditions' with the ball seaming around whilst it's still new and I remember finding it hard to time the ball, opening the batting as I then was. It should make for a straightforward shoot-out between the 'quicks' on both sides and the slip catchers will have a big role to play. That means the opening batsmen will have their work cut out but if you can spend some time at the crease and play yourself in, the rewards are there and you can score heavily.

Read Michael Vaughan throughout the Ashes on http://betting.betfair.com/cricket/ashes-betting/