Lee turns up the heat after Langer knocks England's bowlers out cold

Controversy is catching on a day of pyrotechnics while Butcher gets rough justice for his honesty

If honesty really is the best policy, whisper it softly in the presence of Mark Butcher. On the first day of this Test Butcher all but received the freedom of Melbourne for his generosity in choosing not to cheat by falsely claiming a catch. Yesterday evening at the MCG, with England once more desperately struggling to stay in a Test match, he got his reward when a ball from Jason Gillespie cannoned almost from the face of his bat, on to his pad, and he was dismissed lbw for 25.

That the bowler must have known the circumstance is almost certain, something made all the more poignant by an incident three overs earlier when the England captain Nasser Hussain hit a full toss from the leg-spinner Stuart MacGill low to mid-on where Gillespie dived and claimed a catch.

Hussain, on 14, remained at the crease, as virtually everyone does nowadays, and replays proved inconclusive to the third umpire, who was obliged therefore to find in favour of the batsman. If, as he may have, Gillespie took a clean catch he has a right to feel his integrity has been questioned. But how does that square with his subsequent dismissal of Butcher?

Similarly, it is difficult to see how Steve Waugh, the beneficiary of Butcher's sportsmanship, could justify standing with hands on hips when a simple edge from Craig White ended his attempt to score a 29th Test century with his total 23 runs short. "Here lies a lawyer and an honest man" reads the inscription in an apochryphal churchyard and the response is that generally only one at a time is buried in a grave.

Cricketers, who mistakenly believe that cheating is merely a synonym for gamesmanship, are right up there. You would not buy a used car from any of them.

The Butcher incident left a sour taste after a day that had provided vast entertainment to another massive crowd of more than 50,000, beginning with Justin Langer who took his overnight 146 to 250, the fourth highest innings at the MCG, and ending with eight theatrical overs of high- octane, raw, aggressive and intimidating (as opposed to intimidatory) fast bowling from Brett Lee as he strained every sinew in attempting to put speed records off the dial.

This was the very essence of Test cricket at the cutting edge. There is something about Lee that is vastly irritating at times, from his Tintin quiff to the naff way he requests a recording of his own duff band to announce himself in one-day matches, and on to the cultivated leap and air punching when he takes a wicket that one-day will be called "trademark".

What cannot be denied, however, is that when Glenn McGrath takes his sweater and Lee removes his, hands over his baggy green and his sunglasses and walks back to his mark, a frisson of excitement goes through the crowd as it does for Shoaib Akhtar and did for Michael Holding and Jeff Thomson.

It was the 15th over of England's innings when Lee appeared at the City End, with the gap created by the demolition of the Ponsford Stand funnelling a breeze behind him. Michael Vaughan had already been bowled by McGrath - unluckily off the inside edge - and Australia were searching for further breakthroughs on a good pitch.

Lee's first over involved running through the gears: even a Ferrari has to accelerate. His next overs touched the heights, as gradually the heat was turned up. One ball to Marcus Trescothick touched 97mph; another was only two miles per hour slower. This was heady stuff, each smack on Adam Gilchrist's gloves as the ball hammered into them greeted with roars from the backdrop of the Great Southern Stand.

Now Lee went round the wicket, banged the ball in short of a length and Trescothick, batting as well as he has all series, was unable to withdraw his bat quickly enough as the ball angled in, with Gilchrist taking the catch. It was an exhilarating dismissal but all the better for the thought that had preceded it. Now Hussain got a roasting. A short ball may have flicked his glove - the umpire Russell Tiffin thought not - and yet another clipped his shoulder blade as he tried to pull. Once Hussain shut his eyes, swung mightily and the ball flew almost for six to square-leg.

Hussain, instinctive, gutsy and fortunate, survived to the close with the nightwatchman Richard Dawson. England were 97 for three, still 454 behind Australia and 255 away from avoiding the follow- on. That Waugh declared at all, shortly before tea, to end the bowling misery for England's persistent but inadequate attack, was contingent on several things.

First Langer's dismissal after almost 10 hours - a cut sliced to backward point - ended any debate about his being allowed to have a shot at Brian Lara's Test record score of 375 (assuming he would have been granted permission to step over the sacred boundary that is Bradman's 334). Secondly, Waugh, clearly intent on a 5-0 whitewash, may have been mindful of some impending indifferent weather late in the weekend.

Langer's departure was doubly unfortunate for it probably denied the understated but elegant Martin Love the chance of a century on his debut. His unbeaten 62, however, will place its own pressure on the absent Darren Lehmann, who has ruled himself out of the fifth Test because of the leg infection that kept him out of this one.