CRICKET: HARMISON IS THE NEW MCGRATH..BUT OLDIE'S STILL NO.1

ENGLAND'S MOST CAPPED PLAYERTHE minimum requirement for England to win a Test match against the Australians this summer will be the ability to take 20 wickets in a match.

And whatever the outcome of the first Test, Steve Harmison's eight-wicket performance has at least confirmed Michael Vaughan has one proven weapon of mass destruction at his disposal.

Equally important over the remaining Test matches will be to grab those wickets while keeping the Aussie run totals within bounds.

To do that, catches have got to be held. And England's catching at Lord's - with the main culprits Kevin Pietersen and Geraint Jones - fell way below international standard. Dropped catches were a problem in the losing Ashes series that I played in and it's vital that England quickly return to the high standards they have set in recent years.

As Vaughan's men yesterday set off in their unlikely pursuit of 420 to win, two key turning points in the first Test hit the nail on the head.

On Friday, when England were within sight of matching or even passing Australia's first innings 190, Damien Martyn took a truly outstanding catch on the boundary to cut short Pietersen's innings.

Later in the day, when Martyn and Michael Clarke were trying to dig Australia out of a hole, Pietersen dropped a straightforward chance in the covers offered by the youngster when he had made only 21 - and it was downhill all the way for England after that.

With their tails up after all their early tour hiccups at Southampton and Taunton, the Aussies - and Glenn McGrath in particular - are going to very hard to beat now.

I played in the game at Lord's in 1997 when McGrath took his 8- 38. Well, for all England's pre-match media talk that he might be over the hill, from the other the side of the boundary it appears to me he is bowling better than ever.

To take the first five wickets as he did on Thursday was, if anything, an even better performance than 1997. Not one of his English victims played a bad shot - they were just dismissed with skill and accuracy.

That said, when McGrath finally calls it a day I now believe that Harmison will quickly inherit the title of the world's No.1 fast bowler.

It was a great sight for English eyes to see him hit Justin Langer, Matthew Hayden and Ricky Ponting with short balls. First blood to Harmison.

Later in the innings he was also not afraid to drop it short to the Aussie quicks knowing he would be on the receiving end when it was his turn to bat.

Yesterday he hit McGrath two painful blows on the fingers - on another day he might have broken one of them and changed the course of the series. While Harmison is fit and firing, England have hope.

Upon such small incidents the rest of the series between the world's two top-ranked sides could easily turn around.

Inevitably, in the next few days a full inquest will be held into Lord's, and after his three dropped catches Pietersen is not going to receive all the praise he might expect after his debut with the bat.

But I don't think there should be any suggestion of trying to talk my old Surrey mate Graham Thorpe into changing his mind about retiring from international cricket.

He was left out from Lord's because the selectors felt his bad back would not stand up to five Tests in six and a half weeks, and there would be no point in bringing him back now for two or three games.

Thorpey has now gone, but his contribution to English cricket should not be downplayed. He played 100 Tests, and but for a complicated personal life and injuries he would have played a lot more.

But in notching his century of caps he proved to be one of the best left-handed batsmen England have ever produced.

I just hope history will judge him on his playing record on the field and not for what has gone on off it.

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