Ashes 2010: The best pictures from day one of the third Test

There are two questions which I have not heard anyone answer in the last few days, not to any satisfaction anyway. The first is 'are England really that good?' And the second, perhaps more important, of the two: 'are Australia really that bad?' Photograph: Robert Cianflone/Getty Images

News from the toss: England have won it and decided to bowl. That sounds surprising, but it has been by far the most common decision in first-class cricket on this ground in recent years Photograph: Hamish Blair/Getty Images

Michael Beer, the second-best Australian spinner ever to play for Knowle CC (they used to have a fellow called Warne back in the day), has been left out of the Australian team Photograph: Hamish Blair/Getty Images

The two teams are out on the field, listening to the anthems. Andrew Strauss looks very, very tense. But then this is only the third time he has chosen to field first in a Test Photograph: Jason O'Brien/Action Images

REFERRAL! Watson 0 c Prior b Anderson Is that out? England think so, but Watson is very quick to refer it after being given out caught behind down the leg side. He's survived, just. The ball passed by the bat and clipped his pocket. It was a great take by Prior either way, leaping across to leg Photograph: Hamish Blair/Getty Images

WICKET! Hughes 2 b Tremlett (2nd over: Australia 2-1) He's gone! Bowled him. Oh my what a start. Hughes has been clean bowled swiping across the line of a fullish, inswinging delivery Photograph: Tom Shaw/Getty Images

That was a great first over from Tremlett. He made Hughes look a chump. Pushed him on to the back foot with a short ball then knocked over his timbers with a full one Photograph: Rob Griffith/AP

No wonder Strauss grinned when he said "I think we're pretty confident we know how to bowl at him" earlier in the week Photograph: Jason O'Brien/Action Images

5th over: Australia 12-1 (Watson 3, Ponting 12) And another chance. Strauss was so close to taking that, but he couldn't quite hold on. Watson tried to thrash the ball away to cover, but made a mess of it, toe-ending the ball up and over slip. Strauss tried to hang in the air like a basketballer making a jump shot, but he could quite defy gravity long enough to complete the catch Photograph: Mark Dadswell/Getty Images

WICKET! Ponting 12 c Collingwood b Anderson (Australia 17-2) He's gone. Ponting has gone, caught at third slip. Brilliantly caught at third slip. And I mean brilliantly caught. by Paul Collingwood. By Paul Collingwood. Of course. He didn't leap to his right so much as explode as though he had trodden on a pin. He shot off the ground and plucked the ball from the air as it whistled past his head. It was like the old bullet-catching trick that the sideshow conjurers do Photograph: Robert Cianflone/Getty Images

Australia are 17-2 and I'm too giddy to type Photograph: Mark Dadswell/Getty Images

It was a poor shot by Ponting, playing away from his body and misjudging the bounce of the ball, but had it not been for that superb piece of fielding he would have gotten away with it Photograph: Mark Dadswell/Getty Images

WICKET! Clarke 4 c Prior b Tremlett (Australia 28-3) This is like watching a man shoot salmon in a barrel with a blunderbuss. Clarke goes, caught behind playing a shot that was no kind of shot at all outside off stump on the back foot Photograph: TIM WIMBORNE/REUTERS

What a disgusting shot Photograph: Robert Cianflone/Getty Images

WICKET! Watson 13 LBW Finn (Australia 36-4) Finn thumps an inswinging yorker on to Watson's big toe. It looks plumb straight in front of off stump and the finger is up, but Watson refers it. Much good it does him. The decision stands and he is out. This is a turkey shoot Photograph: Hamish Blair/Getty Images

'Where did it all go right?' Photograph: Robert Cianflone/Getty Images

Watson referred it out of hope, not expectation. He was just a little late to pick the length, and brought his bat down into his boot as he tried to dig out the ball Photograph: Robert Cianflone/Getty Images

WICKET! Australia 69-5 (Smith c Strauss b Tremlett 7) This is extremely good cricket from England. Smith had just pulled unconvincingly for two so Tremlett pitched one up, found the edge of Smith's leaden-footed poke with a smidgin of seam movement, and Strauss at first slip took an accomplished low catch to his right. Smith probably didn't need to go fishing outside off stump – "tepid" says Bumble in the Sky box – but it was really good from England. Tremlett has been outstanding today, and not just for his frankly terrifying Popeye forearms Photograph: Hamish Blair/Getty Images

36th over: Australia 99-5 (Hussey 42, Haddin 17) Tremlett pitches one up on off stump and Haddin plays a princely drive through mid-off for four. "I think this bloke could get in any side in the world as a batsman" says Mike Atherton in the Sky box. Tremlett comes back well, first with a heavy ball that Haddin fences on the bounce to gully Photograph: Stephen Wake/AP

40th over: Australia 134-5 (Hussey 59, Haddin 35) Michael Hussey makes it four fifty-plus scores out of four in this series, uppercutting a disgusting delivery from Finn to the boundary. Man he has played well. He pulls the next delivery through midwicket for four more, and then swivel-pulls a third boundary from the final delivery. Top stuff from Hussey, but England could do with some control here: the last four overs have disappeared for 35 Photograph: Hamish Blair/Getty Images

WICKET! Australia 137-6 (Hussey c Prior b Swann 61) This is a huge breakthrough for England, and it's a wonderful piece of bowling from Graeme Swann. From around the wicket, he got one to turn and bounce and, maybe, just kiss the edge of Hussey's defensive stroke on its way through to Prior. He went up straight away, signalling for the referral even before he'd reached Swann to hug him. That can be a risk with caught-behind decisions – remember that incident in the first Test – but this time Hotspot showed a thin edge and Hussey was on his way Photograph: Hamish Blair/Getty Images

53rd over: Australia 177-6 (Haddin 51, Johnson 25) Johnson pings another slog sweep over the man at deep midwicket for a one-bounce four. He loves that shot against the spinner Photograph: Rob Griffith/AP

56th over: Australia 187-6 (Haddin 53, Johnson 32) Anderson takes the other end. We're told that Steve Finn has a tight calf and is struggling a bit. This could yet turn into a tricky situation for England. The fifty partnership comes up - off 92 balls - with a scampered single Photograph: Paul Kane/Getty Images

WICKET! Haddin 53 c Swann b Anderson (58th over: Australia 188-7) Got him! And it is the one they wanted too. A soft dismissal that, given that Haddin had been so scrupulously tight in his innings so far. He wafted the bat as though it were a magic wand he expected the ball to be disappear to the boundary - poof! - he succeeded only in slicing the ball straight to slip. That was shockingly sloppy shot selection Photograph: Robert Cianflone/Getty Images

"Everyone's a winner!" chuckles Bumble.That's another timely breakthrough for England, just after tea and with the innings just beginning to turn away from them a little Photograph: TONY ASHBY/AFP/Getty Images

WICKET! Harris 3 b Anderson (Australia 201-8) That's how you do it. After swapping a few friendly words with Mitchell Johnson Jimmy Anderson splashes Ryan Harris' stumps all over the ground with a devilish yorker Photograph: Robert Cianflone/Getty Images

Harris and Johnson really have rubbed the English team up the wrong way Photograph: Hamish Blair/Getty Images

WICKET! Johnson 62 c Anderson b Finn (Australia 233-9) Johnson goes. That was actually the best shot he had played in the over so far. He middled a pull shot, but only picked out Jimmy Anderson at square leg Photograph: Robert Cianflone/Getty Images

As he took the catch Anderson cramped up and collapsed on to the turf as he was half way through his celebration. Prior runs over for a high-five, realises what's up and then helpfully grabs Anderson's leg and forces his foot back towards his shin Photograph: Rob Griffith/AP

76th over: Australia 266-9 (Siddle 34, Hilfenhaus 13) Another vicious attacking shot from Siddle, and that's four. Oh. It's enough to make you weep this. He fetches the next delivery from outside off and pulls it through long-on for another boundary. These two have put on 31 runs together now. Make that 33, as Siddle slaps a lousy pull to mid-off Photograph: TONY ASHBY/AFP/Getty Images

WICKET! Hilfenhaus c Cook b Swann (Australia 268) And there, at last, is the wicket England needed. Hilfenhaus edged the ball straight to short leg. So England will settle for that, having won the toss. But given that Australia were 69-5, that's a great recovery by the lower order Photograph: Rob Griffith/AP

4th over: England 11-0 (Strauss 1, Cook 10) Cook has just hit the fifth six of his Test match career. He saw that the ball was short and wide and reasoned that he could throw the bat at it safe in the knowledge that the ball would fly away with the breeze to the boundary Photograph: Hamish Blair/Getty Images

Six more balls then, and we can all go to bed. Johnson sprays the ball over Strauss's head and past his off-stump. The fifth ball is in the right place, but Strauss's block is equal to it. Same goes for the sixth and that is stumps. That was a superb final little session for England. They trail by just 239 runs now Photograph: TIM WIMBORNE/Reuters