Adelaide, Dec 3: England paceman James Anderson claimed four wickets as Australia was dismissed for 245 after failing to recover from a horrendous start to the second Ashes test that saw Simon Katich and captain Ricky Ponting out in the first over Friday.
Katich and Ponting were dismissed without scoring in the first five balls of the match as Australia slumped to 0-2 at Adelaide Oval after winning the toss and opting to bat. Michael Clarke was dismissed for 2 two overs later to leave the hosts languishing at 2-3.
Mike Hussey's 93 and Brad Haddin's 56 ensured a score above 200, but its total is Australia's worst first innings in an Ashes test when batting first since 1912.
England faced one over before stumps and will resume Saturday on 1-0 with Andrew Strauss and Alastair Cook yet to score.
Although the Adelaide Oval is known as a good batting pitch on the first three days of a test, Anderson felt the experience of playing a first class game at the ground in the lead-up to the Ashes, along with guidance from coach David Saker, gave the England quick bowlers confidence they could make an early impression.
"We knew there might be something in the pitch because there was a tinge of green there, so if we bent our backs there might be something for us," Anderson said. "And also in the warm-up game we played here there was a little bit in that as well so we weren't too disappointed to lose the toss.
"David Saker's been fantastic, he's got a huge knowledge of Australian conditions and he's been giving us a lot of advice, but the biggest thing for us is we played here a couple of weeks ago."
Play started in incredible fashion when Jonathan Trott threw down the stumps from mid-wicket to run out Katich, who did not face a ball. Ponting nicked an Anderson ball to Graeme Swann at second slip off the next delivery.
In the first ball of Anderson's second over, Clarke also edged to Swann, reducing Australia to their worst start in test cricket for 60 years.
"To be honest the tone was set by Jonathan Trott's run out, I thought it was a fantastic bit of fielding, he kept his composure when he could've panicked and we just took it from there," Anderson said.
Of the wicket of Ponting, Anderson said: "All bowlers want to get the best players in the world out and I think he's one of the best players in the world.
"It was a fantastic start and we obviously didn't expect to have them 2-3 ... so we were delighted but we didn't want to get too carried away with that, and we just created pressure all day."
Resuming on 94-3 after lunch, Shane Watson was soon Anderson's third dismissal, edging a drive to Kevin Pietersen at point.
Hussey and Marcus North then made comfortable, if unspectacular, progress before the latter at was dismissed for 26 when he nicked a Steven Finn delivery behind while attempting to guide the ball to third man.
Anderson was clearly the pick of England's bowlers with 4-51, and could have had better figures if he had been able to hold onto a return catch from Hussey or if the Australian left-hander's nick had carried to Swann at second slip. The latter was an identical incident to Hussey's first ball of the first test, when the veteran batsman went on to make 195.
Anderson said the experience of playing in the same test four years ago was important, not due to his own performance as he took just one wicket, but because he saw teammate Matthew Hoggard take 7-109.
"I played in that game so I remember that spell well, it was a slightly different wicket, but his methods were to bowl from straight, swing the ball from straight and that's pretty much what we try to do," Anderson said.
Swann (2-70) bowled 23 overs in an uninterrupted session either side of tea before making the key breakthrough later in the third session, prompting Hussey to edge to Paul Collingwood at slip. He then had Ryan Harris trapped lbw without scoring as Australia lost two wickets in as many balls for the second time in the match.
Xavier Doherty fell for 8, the second Australian to fall to a run out, and Siddle (3) guided a simple catch to Cook at square-leg to give Anderson his fourth wicket.
With only last batsman Doug Bollinger for company, Brad Haddin tried to hit Stuart Broad for a six over square-leg and was caught 15 meters in from the boundary by Finn. AP
