Andrew Flintoff gave England another injury scare today as another set of Australian batsman made the most of their opportunity after being asked to bat first at Bellerive Oval.

The Lancashire all-rounder was off the field for over half-an-hour after tea to receive further treatment on his groin and promptly renewed fears about his ability to continue on the tour.

He returned to join England's demoralised team on the field although he failed to bowl again as Martin Love, who scored 250 against them for Queensland, hit an unbeaten 201 before Australia A declared on 353-3 midway through the final session of the opening day.

Just like at the Gabba, when Nasser Hussain's miscalculation in opting to bowl first contributed to Australia's 384-run victory, stand-in Marcus Trescothick made the same mistake and allowed the A team to dominate England's attack.

It was a decision which appeared to have been vindicated with Alex Tudor sending opener Matthew Elliott to hospital when he hit him on the right elbow with the first ball of the day and then had Jimmy Maher caught behind in the seventh over of the morning.

Trescothick's decision to bowl gave Tudor and Steve Harmison an early chance to impress as they battled to replace the injured Simon Jones in next week's second Test.

After making early inroads, though, Durham's overseas professional Love dominated the England attack and forged a 140-run second wicket partnership with Greg Blewett.

Love raced to his century off only 114 balls before Blewett departed for 25 when he was bowled by a Craig White delivery which seamed back and hit his off-stump. Love then teamed up with highly-rated batsman Michael Clarke to forge a 123-run stand, the latter hitting a determined half century until he got a leading edge to Richard Dawson which was collected by substitute fielder Silverwood.

In reply, England closed on 50-1, Michael Vaughan falling to Williams for eight.