Life still no easier for Johnson

Mitchell Johnson left Wantage Road after an Australia win in the same trough of form in which he arrived

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Australia left Northampton for Birmingham tonight with a heartening victory - and a coach full of concern for the well-being of would-be strike bowler Mitchell Johnson.

If the original Ashes gameplan centred on Johnson’s pace-bowling prowess, after his solitary tail-end wicket for 107 runs in 18.1 overs at Wantage Road the pertinent question is not how many Englishmen he can eliminate but whether he will feature at all in the third npower Test.

In the credit column for the tourists, however, from their 135-run win over Northants are wickets for Stuart Clark, runs at last for opener Phillip Hughes and the impressive all-round contributions of Shane Watson and Andrew McDonald - who hastened the hosts’ collapse after tea with 4-15.

Hughes can be inked back in at the top of the order after his far from convincing 68 in Australia’s second-innings 270 for three declared; Clark was the pick of the bowlers and should therefore come into the Test reckoning, and it is hard to see what else either Watson or McDonald could have done to state a better case.

Needing to respond quickly to going 1-0 down with three matches to play in the npower Ashes series, Australia will be guarding against panic measures.

But there is little doubt that Johnson, or possibly Peter Siddle, is vulnerable to Clark - and Test number six Marcus North to Watson.

Set 353 to win from 71 overs, Northants hinted briefly at a competitive if always unlikely chase as openers Niall O’Brien (58) and Ben Howgego (46) put on 99.

Johnson was once again in the firing line. Denied the new ball, as he was in the first innings, the left-armer - for whom absolutely nothing appears to be going right - thought he had a wicket in his first over.

Niall O'Brien initially threatened to lead an unlikely chase of 353 before falling to the omnipresent Shane Watson

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But as O’Brien began to walk off after clipping a ball low to square-leg, he was reprieved when Simon Katich indicated it had not carried.

Instead it eventually needed Watson to make the breakthrough, O’Brien skying an attempted pick-up shot into the off-side ring.

There had been no hiding place for Johnson, who conceded nine boundaries in his seven-over first spell and was unable to bowl consistently to the packed off-side field he was set.

While O’Brien plundered 11 fours in his 44-ball half-century, his fellow left-hander Howgego’s career-best knock was less fluent - and he twice survived relatively routine chances off Clark.

Johnson, almost inevitably, was one culprit - tumbling forward at mid-off when Howgego had only eight - and Hughes let him off on 35 at first slip.

Clark responded by having home captain Rob White edging a drive behind and then Alex Wakely gloving a catch down the leg-side as three wickets fell for 19 runs.

Australia had another one before tea too, Howgego stalling in sight of a maiden half-century and mis-pulling McDonald to mid-off - and after the same bowler deflected a Riki Wessels drive on to the non-striker’s stumps to run out a backing-up Mark Nelson, even the threat of forecast rain and some belated tailend resistance could not stop Australia.

David Wigley this morning had two more says in the tourists’ plans for Edgbaston - seeing off Hughes again, and then suffering a mauling from Watson.

Watson tears into David Wigley as Australia chose to bat on and rack up 270 before declaring at lunch only three wickets down

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The unheralded seamer reprised the Stephen Harmison role by bagging opener Hughes’ wicket for the second time in the match, with another short ball on off-stump.

But he soon had to take the rough with the smooth as Watson continued to press his claims by crashing five successive fours off Wigley.

Despite a 28-ball 50 from the all-rounder, Australia stayed put till lunch - reserve wicketkeeper Graham Manou (59no) adding a half-century of his own.

Hughes and McDonald (75) added only seven to their unbroken overnight opening stand of 139 before the latter’s attempted pull at David Willey resulted in an easy catch at short cover.

Hughes (68), who could have done with a hundred to underline the much-needed confidence boost of yesterday’s runs, managed only three more.

The tall Wigley had the little left-hander splicing a catch to gully for only 10 two days ago, and a similar ball did the trick this time - albeit in differing circumstances, as Hughes’ attempt to guide the ball downwards resulted in an under-edge back on to middle-stump.