England, after winning the toss and electing to bat, collapsed after tea from 197-4 to 260 all out thanks mainly to Siddle who became only the fifth Australian of all time to achieve a hat-trick in Ashes cricket.
The Victorian picked up the wickets of Alastair Cook, Matt Prior and Stuart Broad in consecutive balls to add to his other victims, the middle order pair Kevin Pietersen and Paul Collingwood and the dangerous tailender Graeme Swann, leaving England well below par on a docile pitch.
Australia, in reply, were able to negotiate the remaining overs of the evening session and end the day's play 25-0, only 235 runs behind.
Andrew Strauss set the tone for a disappointing day when he cut the third ball of the day from Ben Hilfenhaus straight to the grateful Mike Hussey at Gully. And despite a number of the top order getting starts, the England batsman were more than guilty of indecision and a looseness to their strokeplay. Even the seemingly unflappable Jonathan Trott gave his wicket away relatively cheaply in an uncharacteristic show of early aggression.
Aside from Cook and the impressive Ian Bell who scored 67 and 76 respectively, no English batsman passed fifty and the lack of application on the first day of such an important series was alarming to say the least.
The performance of the England line up is even more disappointing considering the lack of penetration from the Australian attack, Siddle apart, and Strauss and his men will look to put things right in the Second Innings.
England go into Day Two looking for inspiration from their pace trio, James Anderson, Steven Finn and Stuart Broad alongside the world's best spin bowler, Graeme Swann. And, if they can pick up wickets early with the new ball then we're in for an intriguing Test Match.
very well wrote.. lets hope tonight are bowlers are on form too!
ReplyDelete*very well written
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