Ashes third test - day one

Day one of the third test did not provide the thrill a minute highs of the second test, but the outcome for the series might be very important indeed. For England, everything is coming right. Their problems coming into the match were the batting form of Michael Vaughan and Ian Bell. By the end of the day Vaughan was in the pavilion with 166 next to his name and Bell had ground out an unbeaten half century. Meanwhile the problems facing Australia just seemed to get worse. While McGrath and Lee returned from injury, Michael Clarke was invalided off the field after only a handful of balls. Gillespie continued his run of terrible form and five easy catches went begging. Adam Gilchrist had a shocking day behind the stumps and Ricky Ponting's captaincy was listless and uninspired.

Momentum is England's now, but the Australians showed at Edgbaston that they should never be written off until the last ball has been bowled.