England rock Australia on day one

Three wickets fall for just two runs on the board as hosts struggle to 245 all out in second Ashes Test in Adelaide

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Anderson, middle, celebrates getting Ponting out for a duck as England get off to a stunning start [GALLO/GETTY]

Paceman James Anderson fired England to a stunning start in the second Ashes Test and kept going through three baking hot sessions to help bowl Australia out for 245 shortly before the end of the first day.

Anderson accounted for two of the three wickets to fall in the first 10 minutes on Friday, made a key dismissal just after lunch and then returned to remove the penultimate Australian batsman to finish with figures of 4-51.

England openers Andrew Strauss and Alastair Cook faced one over from Ryan Harris, which netted one leg bye, to leave England 1-0 at the close of play in Adelaide.

“It was a hugely satisfying day for everybody,” Anderson said. “Hopefully we can push on now, although there’s a long way to go in this game, let alone the series.”

Australia’s Mike Hussey, who made 195 in the drawn first Test at the Gabba, again offered the sternest resistance to the tourists but he was dismissed by spinner Graeme Swann for 93, precipitating the collapse of the tail.

“It’s probably not the best day we’ve had but after the  start we got, we probably would have taken 250, having been 3-2,” Hussey said.
 
“We would have liked a few more, it’s a pretty good pitch and obviously we are pretty disappointed in the dressing room tonight.”

Having lost the toss at a ground which is traditionally batting-friendly and where huge first innings totals are the norm, England were expected to spend a long, hot day toiling in the field with little return.

Anderson clearly had other ideas although the first wicket to fall came courtesy of Australian confusion.

The match was just four deliveries old when Watson set off for a single off his pads but Katich, who had not faced a ball, failed to react and was left fuming as Jonathan Trott fired in from midwicket.

Golden duck

The next ball removed Ponting for a golden duck, the Australian skipper getting an outside edge to an Anderson delivery and Graeme Swann swooping to catch it at second slip.

Day one scorecard

Australia first innings
S Watson c Pietersen b Anderson 51
S Katich run out 0
R Ponting c Swann b Anderson 0
M Clarke c Swann b Anderson 2
M Hussey c Collingwood b Swann 93
M North c Prior b Finn 26
B Haddin c Finn b Broad 56
R Harris lbw Swann 0
X Doherty run out 6
P Siddle c Cook b Anderson 3
D Bollinger not out 0
Extras 8
Total (all out, 85.5 overs) 245
Fow 1-0 2-0 3-2 4-96 5-156 6-207 7-207 8-226 9-243

England first innings
A Strauss not out 0
A Cook not out 0
Extras 1
Total (without loss, one over) 1

Ponting, the most prolific Test batsman of all time at the Adelaide Oval, looked as angry as Katich to have marked his 150th Test with his fifth duck.

Vice captain Clarke, who again looked out of sorts, lasted just seven minutes before Anderson and Swann combined to dismiss him for two runs.

“It was all happening very quickly,” said Hussey. “I couldn’t really believe it to be honest and before I knew it I was out in the middle.”

Anderson thought he had added Watson to his list of victims soon afterwards but his loud lbw appeal was ignored and the tv review showed the ball was going over the stumps.

The impressive English quick also dropped a difficult return catch off Hussey, a let-off which the Australian mid-order batsman looked to determined to exploit.

Anderson finally got Watson two overs after lunch when he managed to find some swing which fooled the batsman into a shot which ended up in the hands of Kevin Pietersen at gully.

“It was a fantastic start and we obviously didn’t expect to have them 2-3 or 3-2 or however you say it over here,” Anderson said.

“So we were delighted but we didn’t want to get too carried away with that, and we just created pressure all day.”
 
England kept plugging away as Hussey accumulated runs and Steve Finn accounted for Marcus North caught behind for 26.

That dismissal reunited Hussey with Brad Haddin, however, and for a while it looked like the pair might reprise the partnership of 307 they enjoyed in the first Test.

Swann finally separated them when he finally got some real movement and Hussey plonked the ball to Paul Collingwood at first slip.
 
Swann added Harris’s wicket lbw on the next ball but was unable to complete a hat-rick when new batsman Xavier Doherty fended off the first delivery he faced.

Haddin continued to battle on bravely on his own but, running out of partners, he barrelled a Stuart Broad ball to Finn out by the boundary to end the innings with a 56.

“We’d love to have 400 on the board but we haven’t,” said Hussey. “We’ve just got to stick to our task for long periods of time and be willing to do the hard work.”

Source: Reuters