Johnson, Australia rattle England

Lunch England 2 for 55 (Carberry 31*) trail Australia 295 (Haddin 94, Johnson 64, Broad 6-81) by 240 runs
Live scorecard and ball-by-ball details

Australia made productive use of their first sight of England's batsmen in the opening Ashes Test at the Gabba, as they dismissed Alastair Cook and Jonathan Trott within 17 overs to strike back impressively at the Gabba.

Cook built his Ashes reputation in Brisbane three years ago. He made more than 300 runs in the match and England's second-innings score of 517 for 1, the harbinger of their series victory, remains seared in Australia's consciousness.

There was to be no great statement, though, for England's captain on his return to the river city. Cook moved to 13 in unperturbed fashion but then succumbed to an insistent new-ball spell from Ryan Harris, edging a challenging delivery around off stump to the wicketkeeper.

The physical confrontation to relish, however, was Mitchell Johnson's testing of Jonathan Trott against the short ball. Johnson, whose wayward opening spell lasted only three overs, immediately returned upon Cook's dismissal and, with his first ball to Trott, rapped him on the glove with a fast, short one, without quite disturbing the batsman's expression of imperturbability. Australia's captain, Michael Clarke, unhinged by a similar delivery on the first day, would have approved.

Johnson managed a further over with seconds remaining on the clock and it paid dividends when Trott got too far over to his first ball, a relatively nondescript delivery, and glanced a simple catch to the wicketkeeper Brad Haddin.

Michael Carberry, playing in only his second Test at 33, must have felt an onerous responsibility as he reached lunch unbeaten on 31, helped there by a succession of clips into the leg side as Australia's bowlers strayed.

He settled to his task immediately, tucking Harris through the leg side and then punching him down the ground within his first three balls. There was a noticeable one-day element in the manner in which he deliberately steered Johnson over the slips but he had cause to be content with his first hour as an England Test cricketer in Australia.

England were hopeful that once the sun had baked the moisture out of the second-day surface, it would turn into a batting paradise, if not quite the quality of surface of three years ago. But that sense was nowhere to be seen as lunch was taken with the Test in an intriguing position.

Earlier, Brad Haddin was run out six runs short of what would have been a thoroughly deserved Ashes hundred as England required only 7.1 overs of the morning to wrap up Australia's first innings

Haddin fell attempting a second run into the off side, with Australia's last pair together. Carberry's retrieval was slick and Matt Prior did the rest by collecting an awkward take and breaking the stumps.

Haddin had marshalled Australia's lower order superbly for four-and-a-quarter hours in carrying his side from a disastrous 6 for 132 to a total which, if it felt at the innings changeover perhaps 100 runs below par, may at least prove competitive.

Stuart Broad, who had 5 for 65 overnight, accounted for Harris. He walked off with 6 for 81 to a mixture of applause and boos from the second-day crowd. Broad struck with the sixth ball of his second over as Harris, intending to leave a length delivery, only managed to guide it to the wicketkeeper Prior.


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