England lose early wicket

After numerous anthems in the 20 minutes before the toss, including three national anthems, the teams took to the field.

England openers Strauss and Alastair Cook ran past their opponents, who had gathered in a huddle, as the ground rung with cheers.

The opening overs of the past two series were memorable for contrasting reasons, with Steve Harmison roughing the Australians up four years ago and then beginning with a wide in Brisbane in 2006-07.

This time it was left-armer Mitchell Johnson who was given the responsibility of getting things under way and he sent down a rather undistinguished first six balls.

The first two were left outside the off-stump by Strauss and, after he leg-glanced the fourth delivery for a single, Cook got off the mark straight away with a pull to fine leg.

England's opening pair did manage to pierce the infield in the opening overs but the slowness of the pitch meant they settled for twos and threes. The first boundary of the contest was struck from the final delivery of the third over when Strauss worked a delivery from Johnson off the stumps through midwicket.

Tasmania's Hilfenhaus took the new ball ahead of Peter Siddle and did achieve some aerial movement. He looked the most obvious source of an early breakthrough, in fact, and Johnson was taken out of the attack after a three-over spell as England progressed to 21 without loss.

That breakthrough duly came in the eighth over - a wicket maiden - when Cook played a forcing stroke away from his body and Michael Hussey clung on to a spectacular, diving catch in the gully.

The dismissal brought Ravi Bopara to the crease on the back of three hundreds in his last three Test innings.