Ashes 2013: England v Australia, third Test day two report Other than spin the pitch holds few demons yet, as Clarke showed in scoring 187, his highest Test score against England. His template of leaving the ball well outside off stump, picking off the bad deliveries and using the pace of the ball to score off the decent ones, is something Cook will have noted. That and the fact that in the last Ashes Test here in 2005, which was drawn, both captains made hundreds. So far, for England, only the bowlers have reached that milestone, with James Anderson, Stuart Broad, Tim Bresnan and Graeme Swann all conceding over a hundred runs apiece. In fact, Anderson's nought for 116 were the worst figures of his Test career, a less than glorious homecoming for the leader of a pace attack rendered workmanlike by the largely intransigent surface. At least Swann had the pleasure of a five-wicket haul, his 17th in Tests, while Broad reached his 200th Test wicket when he bowled Clarke off his mid-riff with one that bounced and cramped the batsman for room. Broad spent 326 balls on 199 wickets but his elevation means England now have three members of the 200-club playing in a Test for the first time since February 1982, when Ian Botham, Bob Willis and Derek Underwood, all played against Sri Lanka. Siddle has 161 Test wickets, having added a curiously strokeless Joe Root and Bresnan, the nightwatchman. After getting off the mark, Root was scoreless for 43 balls, pinned down by Shane Watson and Lyon. When Clarke eventually turned to Siddle as his fifth choice Australia began to make progress as Root nicked one behind to Haddin. Bresnan followed to the same combination, given out off the bottom edge after attempting a pull shot. Unsure that the ball had made contact with his bat, he sought Cook's advice from the other end, only to find his captain unwilling to risk a review on a nightwatchman. Bresnan looked unhappy, his grievance justified when TV replays showed daylight between bat and ball, not that such evidence guarantees a reprieve in the currently muddled world of the Decision Review System. There was nothing muddled about Clarke's intentions when Australia resumed on 303 for three. Since becoming captain, Clarke has gained an appetite for big hundreds. Last year he made one triple century and two doubles, some going for any batsman, let alone one suffering from chronic back pain. He did not reach those heights here but it was his highest score against England in his 23 Tests. With Australia needing to win this match to keep the Ashes alive, he needed to score runs quickly but without resorting to great risk, a balance he and Steve Smith struck by targeting certain bowlers; Clarke picking on Bresnan, Smith on Swann, after they had seen off Anderson and Broad's opening salvo. Bresnan came close to dismissing Clarke during one such burst. Two flat-bat drives into an off-side field set for the shot, saw the first drop just short of Kevin Pietersen at extra cover and the next parried by Swann, fielding closer on the same line. Clarke then miscued a lofted drive just over Anderson's head at mid-off, before returning to the task of making England's bowlers suffer. Smith's attempted assault on Swann proved far less successful, falling to the spinner's sixth ball of the day, trying to slog him to cow corner. With just 11 runs needed for a first Test century it was an impetuous shot, though having enjoyed several lives on the opening day Smith probably felt fate was still on his side. The wicket brought David Warner to the crease and the left-hander was greeted by a cacophony of boos. It was a brutal introduction to Ashes cricket, but when you start punching opponents as angelic looking as Joe Root even Old Trafford's hardest turn into maternal protectors. Sensing that the weight of public opinion was on his side, Root seized the opportunity to join the chorus, firing off a few choice words at Warner before he had taken guard. It was all a bit pantomime-predictable, though when Warner edged Swann to Jonathan Trott, via Matt Prior's knee, few expected him to consider a review, let alone persuade Clarke to let him waste one on an edge so obvious even Tony Hill had picked it up. Clarke had no compunction in sending the deserving Chris Rogers packing the previous day, when he had sought his captain's opinion about the lbw Swann had won against him. Conspiracy theories abound in cricket but it may not be too much of a coincidence that Warner has long been a staunch Clarke supporter in the dressing-room politics. It remained out as did Siddle's wild hack at Swann, which struck off stump. At that point a quick wrap and England would have escaped bruised but not battered. Unhappily for them, Haddin and Mitchell Starc added 97 in 117 balls, with Starc especially destructive.