THE ASHES: The curse of momentum

Score at stumps Day 1: Australia 98, England 157-0

It was a record day at the MCG, as expected. The mega crowd did not actually eventuate, 84,245 leaving the fifty-year-old world attendance record intact. The records instead were of ruin: from the lowest Australian first innings at home in almost sixty years, to its lowest in the Ashes at the MCG ever.

As a long day waned, having been prolonged by a rain break, England were fifty-nine runs ahead with all its wickets in hand, Australia having capitulated for 98 in 42.5 overs – ten more runs than they scraped together against Pakistan five months ago, although that was at Headingley while their countrymen were thinking football-shaped thoughts rather than on the biggest day of the local summer. With an unchanged XI and a ring of confidence, Australia allegedly came into this Fourth Test with that sought-after twenty-first century quality of 'momentum' – just as England did in Perth, in fact. The way things are going, pretty soon we'll be talking about the curse of momentum.

As batting conditions go, these went. It was cool, overcast, with a little moisture in the pitch as well as the air. In the middle of the day, the bowlers were refreshed by a ninety-minute weather hiatus; errors of line and length were forgiven by an outfield rendered slow from football; grass lush from rain preserved the ball's shine.

Both captains wished to bowl. Only one could. Strauss was blessed – and burdened, because inserting the opposition attracts disproportionate condemnation when it goes wrong. Under such circumstances, a captain wants everything to stick, and Watson vexed him by being dropped twice before he had scored, by Collingwood low to his left at third slip, by Pietersen at head height in the gully. Although neither chance was straightforward, both fell into the category of chances England have become accustomed to taking. There would have been some sweaty palms in the visiting cordon until Tremlett's lift caught Watson unawares in the fourth over.

It was a nervous, even slightly messy first hour. Hughes and Ponting, 170cm and 178cm respectively, were repeatedly tucked up by the bounce; both inside edged close to the stumps. England's direction was also poor, Prior too often sent skedaddling down the leg side. In one such instance, Prior cost his team a referral for an Anderson delivery that clearly glanced Hughes' shirt. His reputation for optimism now precedes him; you would not ask him for a tip on the stockmarket or the races.

Having emerged to a pleasing ovation, and from back-to-back Herald Sun front pages, Ponting played the first resounding shots of the day, when he twice pulled short deliveries from Anderson that arrived a hospitable waist high. But in the next over, Hughes drove expansively with an open blade, a culpable shot, providing Tim Bresnan with a first Ashes wicket.

Ponting fell immediately after drinks when Tremlett, relieving Anderson from the Southern Stand end, found just about the perfect length for this pitch; Australia's captain departed with a reproachful glance at the pitch, and perhaps a rueful rumination on his luck at the toss. To the home team's three for 37, there was a dismaying familiarity, the team's starts in this series having ranged from the calamitous to the merely mediocre: three for 100 in Brisbane, three for 2 and three for 64 in Adelaide, four for 36 and three for 64 in Perth. Hitherto they have relied on Hussey to set them straight; today they did so once too often. Just as the weather closed in, Anderson drew from him a reluctant, firm-footed jab and an edge that, to English ears, would have reverberated as pleasingly as the peal of a church bell.

Clarke tided Australia over the rain, but he is not the player who last year almost could not stop himself scoring runs; with the exception of his second innings at Adelaide, he has been batting non-start all summer long. He played one firm drive, several harried prods, and his crouch, pronounced in Brisbane, seemed lower than ever, like he was trying to peer underneath a lorry.

The bowling was consistently dangerous. Tremlett, quicker than in Perth, made Stuart Broad's injury look like England's greatest stroke of good fortune this summer. Normally inscrutable, he allowed himself a sardonic smile when he beat Hughes' outside edge on one occasion, and what bordered on glee when he had Siddle caught behind.

Anderson, less talkative and more accurate than in Perth, puzzled the Australians' again with his use of the crease, which exaggerates the need to play him. Bresnan, who replaced Finn, filled in the gaps, and dismissed the dangerous Haddin; Prior took six catches without having to dive or even stretch for any of them. With Australia nine for 91, the stump cam showed that the back of Harris's bat read appropriately 'CHAOS'. Funnily enough, he showed as good a defensive technique as anyone, looking disarmingly comfortable on the back foot, and essaying a tasty square cut. When your most composed batsman has a Test average of 6.4, you know you are in trouble.

As the innings ended, both Harris and Hilfenhaus ran for the boundary, either eager to partake of the bowling conditions themselves, or trying to minimise Australian embarrassment. In the intermission, however, the sun emerged to welcome Strauss and Cook, and the swing pretty well vanished.

England's openers enjoyed the conditions, especially the trampoline bounce which made short balls sit up and beg for punishment: they cut and pulled with ease. Only Hilfenhaus found the consistency necessary for the circumstances, gaining an affirmative lbw verdict against Alistair Cook (30) from Tony Hill, only to have it promptly countermanded on referral to Ray Erasmus after the replay revealed a thick inside edge.

Australia's avenging angel at the WACA, Mitchell Johnson, was here distinctly earthbound, his first three overs without pace, accuracy or threat. Most importantly, they hung as shapelessly as Mama Cass's kaftan. In his two spells from the members' end, 3-0-17-0 and 4-0-25-0, Johnson also sent four byes past Haddin's outstretched right gauntlet that would have brought a gulp of recognition to the throat of anyone who watched him in Brisbane.

Standing at mid-off for the sake of his finger, Ponting looked unusually friendless and forlorn. The crowd had already started to thin, the lower terraces left roomy by early, disillusioned departures. The captain must have wished he could have joined them.

Gideon Haigh is covering The Ashes for Business Spectator throughout the series.