Neil Edwards makes his Under-19 debut for England in Adelaide

It was honours even at the end of the first day's play in the Under 19 Test Match between England and Australia at Adelaide, that had seen the visitors make 331, thanks to a fine 108 from skipper Bilal Shafayat and the hosts end the day on 18for the loss of one wicket.

Somerset's Neil Edwards was making his debut for England at this level and opened the innings with Yorkshire's Andrew Gale.

Left handed Edwards, who hails from Penzance made 18, before he was out in the 13th over LBW to Daniel Cullen.

However Neil Edwards England debut almost didn't happen. When he spoke to me after the close of play he told me: "I was given a late fitness test this morning, as yesterday in training I was practicing my slip catching when I got one on the end of the finger. At the end of yesterday it was quite bruised and it was just a precaution to have a test but thankfully everything was fine."

He continued: "We had good preparation before the day's play and I was really looking forward to making my international test debut! We won the toss and elected to bat on a good track. At the start of play the temperature was a roasting 40 degrees and the nerves really began to kick in when I had all the England kit on and the umpires were walking to the middle! The opening over was a maiden, but the first ball of the next over ( my first ball ) was a straight drive for two runs and this really calmed everything down for me!"

He went on: "I batted well, but I was not as comfortable as I would have liked.I was given out LBW for 18 by their first change bowler Dan Cullen, an off spinner, but overall I was happy with what I had done and in the future I will be looking to go on from there and make a bigger score."

I am sure that all website readers would like to wish Neil every success on his trip 'down under' and will be watching his progress with great interest.