The fiery Siddle dismissed Joe Root before lunch and he added the wickets of Kevin Pietersen, Jonathan Trott, Ian Bell and Matt Prior in the afternoon session to put Australia in control of the match.
Jonny Bairstow was unbeaten on 32 at the interval with Stuart Broad on one.
England captain Alastair Cook won the toss and chose to bat in overcast conditions.
James Pattinson's first ball of the series was a massive wide and the fast bowler initially struggled to find his line as the ball swung extravagantly in the air.
Cook clipped Mitchell Starc crisply through mid-wicket for the first four of the game and although the England openers had to survive the odd unplayable delivery, they looked comfortable at the crease.
On 13, however, Cook drove loosely at a wide ball from Pattinson and nicked a routine catch through to wicketkeeper Brad Haddin.
The Australians wildly celebrated the wicket of the England captain, who scored 766 runs in the last Ashes series, but the situation was tailor-made for the phlegmatic Trott.
He greeted Siddle to the attack with successive fours and also dispatched spinner Ashton Agar's first ball in Test cricket to the extra cover boundary.
Root, opening for the first time in Tests, struck six neat fours but he was completely deceived by the first ball of Siddle's second spell, a rapid full-length yorker which crashed into his stumps to end a second-wicket partnership of 51.
England took lunch on 98 for two but Pietersen, returning to the side after injury, nibbled at a Siddle outswinger in the first over of the afternoon session and was well caught by Australia captain Michael Clarke at second slip for 14.
Trott struck eight sweetly-timed fours and was two runs short of his fifty when he carelessly dragged a wide Siddle delivery on to his stumps to leave England in trouble at 124 for four.
Bairstow and Bell shared a fluent 54-run partnership for the fifth wicket before Bell, on 25, limply hung his bat at a Siddle outswinger and edged a catch to Shane Watson at first slip.
Prior then swatted a wide ball from Siddle straight to Phil Hughes at point to give the bowler his eighth five-wicket haul in tests and send the few pockets of Australian fans in the crowd into raptures.
Australia sprang a surprise by picking the 19-year-old Agar, who has played only 10 first-class matches, ahead of off-spinner Nathan Lyon.
England opted for Steven Finn as their third fast bowler with Tim Bresnan and Graham Onions missing out.
0 comments:
Post a Comment