THIRD ASHES TEST - DAY ONE

The expression on Ricky Ponting's face reflects the general mood of the Australian cricket following populace.

All the talk leading into this third test was whether Australia could reverse the trend of the series thus far which had seen the Englishmen dominant in all facets of play from the second innings at the Gabba onwards. The signals sent out by the Australian selectors so far have been of an organization that has lacked vision and was prone to making some bewildering decisions with very little aforethought.

However, with the selection of the unheralded and almost obscure Michael Beer in the squad for this make or break third test, it finally let the cat out of the bag that the Australian selectors were consuming industrial quantities of mind altering hallucinogenic drugs that were not so much clouding all rational thought as completely obliterating all semblance of logic.

Exciting New South Welshman Steve Smith was brought in for the punch drunk Marcus North who was finally discarded after one failure too many and Phil Hughes was drafted in to replace the injured Simon Katich. Hughes is undergoing the first form slump of his short career and while the clammer to bring him back to the test team has been loud, perhaps a safer option like the experienced Phil Jacques or Shaun Marsh who is in the middle of good run of form may have been a better bet.

Mitchell Johnson was recycled as was Ben Hilfenhaus and Doug Bollinger was axed after a lethargic showing in Adelaide where he was but a shadow of himself from last summer looking overweight and under prepared.

England's sole change was an enforced one as Stuart Broad sustained a series ending injury that has seen him sent home. The favourite to replace Broad was the corpulent Tim Bresnan, a man talked up by the English media as being the lineal successor to Ian Botham. Personally, when I look at Bresnan I don't see Botham, but I do see Trevor Jesty. Common sense prevailed and the giant Chris Tremlett was selected in his stead.

Strauss won the toss and put Australia in on a deck that would offer the English seamers bounce and some side ways movement in the first session. True to form in this series, there was an early wicket right on cue when the horribly out of form Hughes swished across the line in cavalier style and his stumps were rattled by the jubilant Chris Tremlett who could hardly believe his luck.

Ponting was rather fortunate not to be out without scoring when he edged through where fourth slip should have been and the ball raced to the boundary. Ponting smashed two more boundaries to race to twelve off ten balls when he hung his bat out away from his body and offered up a sharp chance to slip that was spectacularly taken by the airborne Collingwood who held a splendid catch off the dangerous bowling of Anderson who prior to this series had displayed all the killer instinct of a castrated canary when facing Australia.

Ponting is dismissed by a remarkable catch by Paul Collingwood.

This brought Michael Clarke to the crease yet again in a crisis. After his strong eighty one in Adelaide, it was hoped that his rediscovery of his mojo would lead to something substantial here today, but it was not to be. In fact, Clarke never looked like staying around for long and it came as no surprise when he meekly hung the bat out more than a foot away from his body and offered up yet another catch behind the wicket to Prior off the suddenly rampant Tremlett for a paltry four.

Next to go was the usually reliable Watson who was plumb LBW to a Steve Finn yorker that hit him on the toe on the full dead in front thus rendering Watson's request for a review superfluous to the extreme. Australia was yet again in this series teetering at 4 for 36 and this was soon after lunch reduced to 5 for 69 when Smith edged to slip to end his unconvincing stay at seven, yet again another victim to the irrepressible Tremlett who hitherto had as much presence and fear factor as the cuddly Bookaboo.

This brought Brad Haddin to the wicket to join Mr Fix-it Mike Hussey in order to yet again salvage something from the wreckage of the Australian batting - an all too familiar occurrence this summer.

Together the two form Australian batsmen breathed life back into the Australian innings to offer a glimmer of hope that perhaps a competitive total might be posted. Hussey was in a belligerent mood hooking and pulling anything short with gusto while Haddin saved his finest shots for when Graeme Swann was bowling smashing the accurate Englishman back over his head for four and a mighty six in one over.

Whilst Australia held their collective breaths in the hope of a repeat of the pairs Gabba heroics, it was ultimately asking too much with Swann claiming the breakthrough wicket of Hussey with the faintest of edges behind to Prior from an arm ball. Hussey fell for a polished sixty one when another test century looked on the cards.

Mitchell Johnson played some belligerent strokes in his innings of 62.

Mitchell Johnson joined Brad Haddin with the Australian score card at a critical 6 for 137. Johnson who had a miserable Gabba test prior to being jettisoned from the test team responded in an aggressive fashion by playing some signature drives with his rudimentary - but effective - technique. Together with Haddin the pair added an entertaining and crucial partnership of fifty two before Haddin fell for an enterprising fifty three.

Ryan Harris lasted marginally longer than his two innings combined in Adelaide to contribute three to the total when he was Anderson's third wicket by being bowled neck and crop.

Peter Siddle the mad axe man from the wood chopping district of Gippsland came out to support Johnson with Australia in an embarrassing position of being 8 for 201. Siddle played the straight man to Johnson's star turn and the pair added a valuable thirty two when Johnson fell for an entertaining knock of sixty two.

The last pair of Hilfenhaus and Siddle then proceeded to embarrass the Australian top order batsmen with an enterprising stand of thirty five with some swash buckling strokes to loose balls to go along with some sensible defence to anything threatening.

Australia's ultimate score of 268 all out was much better than the early forecasts after the disintegration of the top order, but was probably two hundred shy of a competitive total on this increasingly batsmen friendly pitch.

Strauss and Cook then negotiated safe passage to stumps, but not without some hair raising moments with Strauss being particularly fortunate to survive when an edge flew just short of Ponting at slip before Strauss had even scored.

So England ended the day at 0 for 29 at stumps and the high ground having seized first day honours yet again much as they had done at Adelaide. For Australia, the mountain to climb just got higher and it is very difficult to see any other result here but an English victory and the retention of the Ashes.

What does this mean for Australian cricket to be comprehensively outplayed by a decidedly average English team that survived by the grace of God last southern summer against South Africa and looked decidedly ordinary at at times against a lack lustre Pakistan?

The time for post mortems is near - but not yet.