Swann: We're pleased, despite drops

England

England spinner Graeme Swann said the Three Lions were 'fairly pleased' with their efforts on day one of the second Ashes Test in Adelaide, restricting Australia to 273 for five, but did rue the three dropped catches.

England spinner Graeme Swann said the Three Lions were 'fairly pleased' with their efforts on day one of the second Ashes Test in Adelaide, restricting Australia to 273 for five, but did rue the three dropped catches.

England could have been six down at the close if not for Michael Carberry's dropped sitter off Brad Haddin near stumps, but Swann said the confidence was still high considering the belter of a pitch.

Swann said at stumps: "We're fairly pleased. It would have been ideal to get six or seven wickets but we missed a couple of chances that on another day we'd expect to take.

"We stuck to our guns fairly well. That's a first day Adelaide pitch. It's drier than it normally is but it's still a bit of a featherbed.

"We are disappointed [with the dropped catches] but we are not angry. That's cricket. You do drop catches and we've fielded exceptionally well so far and taken some belters. It's just a shame today was the day that a couple went down.

"We've got a great spirit in the camp and nobody's going to be hard on anyone else. We know how hard we work on our fielding, so we'll come back tomorrow and hopefully take those half-chances."

One catch that did stick was taken by Swann himself, a great diving effort to remove George Bailey and end a near-century partnership with Michael Clarke. Swann added that the slow wicket made pace wickets tough to find.

Swann said: "I'm not used to being out of the slips. I try and make a little trough for myself and stand there all day, to be honest. I went to square leg, Stuart Broad bowled one that rushed him.

"He middled it and there's no way someone of my age and mobility should catch it, but look at that!

"There's no pace in the pitch whatsoever. There's a little bit of turn. It's drier than we'd normally expect but it's still fairly typical for Adelaide – it was slow and fairly easy to bat.

"We have to get the ball talking early on tomorrow and get it reversing, then with a little spin from Monty and I.

"If we keep them below 350, we'll be happy. You never know what par is until the two teams have batted. We thought 500 was par last week and then we went and scored 120."

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