The Daily Telegraph

England enigma Kevin Pietersen was having nightmares about his crazy shot as much-maligned Australian spinner Nathan Hauritz snared the biggest wicket of his life.

On a dramatic day of the first Ashes Test in Cardiff, fortunes fluctuated wildly but the main talking point was Pietersen's pre-meditated paddle-sweep from well outside his offstump - which came just as England had been threatening to take a stranglehold. Ben Dorries

Sydney Morning Herald

Sophia Gardens lived up to its reputation for providing moribund surfaces favouring front-foot batsmen and, latterly, spinners.

By mid afternoon Ricky Ponting had thrown the ball to his spinners, a specialist and an occasional, and spread his field.

But he overdid the tactic, persevering with his mild tweakers for overs upon end, denying Johnson opportunities to bowl at his favoured River End and keeping Ben Hilfenhaus inactive. Peter Roebuck

The Australian

Kevin Pietersen has taken just one day to reinforce what many already suspect.

It is his brain, or more precisely when it will explode, that will prove the axis on which this Ashes series turns.

The super-talented South African-born batsman cannot be considered amongst the game's great batsmen as long as he continues to throw his wicket away in such spectacular fashion as he did yesterday. Malcolm Conn