Ashes 2015: England toil valiantly but true test of their depths now awaits

The way Ricky Ponting rang the five-minute bell foretold all that was to come. It was a peremptory, no nonsense, no-time-for-ceremonies plu-ck on the rope, which seemed to say the team he once led were impatient to get out there and take up arms. When they had finally laid them down, centurions Chris Rogers and Steve Smith both undefeated, the scorecard conjured memories of the 1993 Ashes Lord’s Test, in which three Australia batsmen ventured deep into three figures, Mark Waugh perished one short of that landmark, and the touring side reached well over 600 runs for the loss of four wickets.