Australia reduced England to 97 for three at lunch on the opening morning of the first Ashes Test on Wednesday after two hours of unrelentingly hostile pace bowling.
Andrew Strauss, captaining England for the first time in an Ashes Test, showed what he thought of the pitch by naming both spinners Graeme Swann and Monty Panesar in his XI and opting to bat after winning the toss.
Mitchell Johnson extracted little out of the pitch in his opening three overs but the introduction of Peter Siddle in partnership with Ben Hilfenhaus transformed the Australian attack.
Ravi Bopara, scorer of consecutive centuries in his last three Tests, played forward calmly to his first ball from Siddle. The second hit him on the grill of his helmet and the third was fended perilously close to short-leg.
Strauss relieved the pressure with a pulled four and seemed to be settling in for a long stay when Johnson returned to the attack. The left-armer produced a vicious ball aimed at the throat which struck Strauss (30) on the glove as he ducked and flew high above the slip cordon. Michael Clarke, runnng back from first slip, held the simple catch.
Bopara played and missed repeatedly but also produced some sumptuous drives, with 11 coming off one Johnson over.
He had reached 35 when Johnson released a slower delivery which Bopara played at too early. The ball ballooned to cover and Phillip Hughes accepted the easy catch.