Flintoff Injury Problems Resurface

Lancashire all-rounder Flintoff was off the field for over half-an-hour after tea to receive further treatment on his groin, which he had been scanned for the second time in five days before he was cleared to play.

His absence from the field renewed fears about his ability to continue on the tour, but he returned to join England's demoralised team on the field, although he failed to bowl again.

Martin Love, who scored 250 against them for Queensland just before the opening Test, hit an unbeaten 201 before Australia A declared on a commanding 353 for three midway through the final session of the opening day.

Just like at the Gabba over a week ago, when Nasser Hussain's miscalculation in opting to bowl first contributed to Australia's 384-run romp at the Gabba, stand-in Marcus Trescothick made the same mistake and allowed the A team to dominate England's attack.

It was a decision which appeared to have been vindicated with Alex Tudor sending opener Matthew Elliott to hospital when he hit him on the right elbow with the first ball of the day and then had Jimmy Maher caught behind in the seventh over of the morning.

With Chris Silverwood left out to accommodate all-rounders Craig White and Flintoff, Trescothick's decision to bowl gave Tudor and Steve Harmison an early chance to impress as they battled to replace the injured Simon Jones in next week's second Test.

After making early inroads, though, Durham's overseas professional Love dominated the England attack and forged a 140-run second wicket partnership with Greg Blewett.

This time Blewett was overshadowed by the strokeplay of Love, who raced to his century off only 114 balls before playing a slightly more cautious innings as England attempted to apply the brake to the A team's run-scoring.

Blewett departed for 25 when he was bowled by a Craig White delivery which seamed back and hit his off-stump to end that partnership but Love merely teamed up with highly-rated batsman Michael Clarke to forge a 123-run stand.

Clarke, rated as the batsman most likely to be called up by Australia in the future, contributed a determined half-century until he got a leading edge to Richard Dawson which was collected by substitute fielder Silverwood after running around from mid-off.