A truckload of treasure amid the trash-talking and rubbish I was about to start typing this column when some litter blew behind the computer screen, distracting me. I had to stop and walk away and re-compose myself. Meanwhile, a couple of hundred metres away, Kevin Pietersen was suffering the same indignities. Do Kev and I have to put up our GENIUS AT WORK sign before people start showing some respect around here? Batsmen's mania for stopping the cricket while a speck of reflective lint is removed from the fifth seat in the 11th row to the left of the sightscreen reached its absurd endpoint as a gusty change blew all manner of refuse across the MCG late on the third day. Pietersen was backing away from the bowlers even before he had a chance to back away from the bowlers. Getting him to face a ball was going to require the UN to send in a Spotless Services peacekeeping force. Mitchell Johnson becomes frustrated with Kevin Pietersen. When Pietersen kept walking away, Mitchell Johnson took exception. Some please-pick-up-the-trash-talking ensued. The conversation, ended by umpire Dharmasena, went something like this: Johnson: Come on, this is rubbish. Pietersen: That's what I'm saying - absolute rubbish! Johnson: I'll give you rubbish. Dharmasena (with hands full and bulging pockets): Don't give it to him, Mitchell, please give it to me. The Johnson-Pietersen duel, when resolved by bat and ball, was a highlight of another stop-start day in this strange yet increasingly fascinating Test match. Batting remained a puzzle to both teams, but not an insoluble one. If we could say that the quality of the bowling, and a two-paced pitch that chewed the ball into something like what the dog had been playing with, were wholly responsible, the story would be simple. The bowling of both teams has been excellent, and the pitch difficult, but Brad Haddin and Alastair Cook have struck the ball as purely as the cover-driven snow. That two players could score runs with such ease only heightens the mystery. Haddin's first innings ended at 65 after a flurry against the second new ball. This kind of thing is not unexpected from Haddin, whose attacking attitude and perpendicular technique can produce lovely strokeplay in any conditions. You can see it ticking over in the other batsmen's minds: if he can play like this, why not me? Inspired, Cook came out and started the English innings with a sweet cameo. The clips off his pads and the late cuts, off both fast and slow bowling, echoed Cook in his prime. When the Australians pitched the ball in his danger zone, he stepped forward with commitment and drove through the off side. When Cook is pasting boundaries through mid-off, surely the ball must be coming on to the bat. But it was what was happening at the other end that gave a truer indication of how hard things were. In the 21.3 overs Cook and Michael Carberry batted together, Cook scored 51 off 64 balls, while Carberry, off one more ball, scored six. The compact left-hander was simply unable to decode the pitch's mysteries. Australia contributed with more of what they've been doing all year: thoughtful plans (in Carberry's case, switching the angle to around the wicket), excellent field settings, and tireless discipline from the bowlers. The initial inroads were made by Johnson and Peter Siddle, but England's openers were the first and not the last to find Nathan Lyon a handful. Right down the order, when tied down by the seamers, England's batsmen were desperately eager to get after Lyon. Bowling into the stiffening breeze, Lyon drifted and dipped and deceived. When they couldn't get after him, they tried to get away from him, Joe Root losing his wicket attempting a fatal strike-rotation. Ian Bell lasted one ball when his positive intent couldn't be harnessed to sensible shot selection. Lyon has often been the man to precipitate a collapse, but here he became the main man. Ben Stokes played him respectfully, and then didn't: his attempted lash down the ground was caught two-thirds of the way to the fence. Even Pietersen laboured against Lyon. The moment he started letting loose against the spinner was the moment he set in train the events leading to his demise. Pietersen was Lyon's fifth wicket of the day, caught trying to lob one into the corner of Rod Laver Arena. He shook his head in disgust, unable to believe he had got himself out to such rubbish, the 101st Test batsman to misjudge Lyon at his peril. To see Lyon, a shy man growing into his role, rewarded in front of a big crowd was a pleasure. One man's trash is another team's treasure. Total votes: 5962.