Spearhead Mitchell Johnson has more than made up for his ordinary start by putting the clamps on England in the first Ashes Test in Cardiff.

The left-hander bowled three largely ineffective overs to start the match before being removed by skipper Ricky Ponting at Sophia Gardens.

But Johnson (2-37) found his groove later in the session by dismissing skipper Andrew Strauss (30) and Ravi Bopara (35) as England reached 3-97 at lunch on day one.

Kevin Pietersen (6no) and Paul Collingwood (5no) were unbeaten.

After opting to bat in clear conditions on a fairly lifeless deck, Strauss and Alastair Cook negotiated the first half-hour without any great threat. It appeared that Australia could pay the price for naming an attack devoid of Ashes experience.

But just as the Poms looked like making a dream start, Cook (10) lost his wicket playing away from his body off a wide Hilfenhaus delivery.

It caught the edge and Mike Hussey took a spectacular diving catch to his right at gully and the Australians immediately turned up the heat on Bopara.

Paceman Peter Siddle roughed him up. His second ball to him struck Bopara just below the throat and deflected onto the grill of his helmet.

He followed that with another short ball and the tourists even employed a field that crowded around Bopara’s bat as the right-hander lived dangerously.

Johnson returned and made amends for his poor start by causing enormous enormous grief to the English batsmen in his sixth over.

He had a confident lbw shout on Strauss turned down before deceiving Bopara with a slower ball which the right-hander just managed to bunt over mid-on.

However he was rewarded with his final ball of the over with Strauss failing to handle his skidding short ball that crashed into his gloves and lobbed gently to Michael Clarke at first slip.

Pietersen entered and brought all of his nervous energy to the field and his innings to date was streaky at best.

Then just before lunch, Johnson showed all of his smarts to deliver another slower ball that again deceived Bopara, getting an outside edge and Hughes accepted an easy catch at point.

Australia earlier made the surprise decision to play Hilfenhaus (1-17) instead of Stuart Clark but the Tasmanian swing bowler justified his selection in the opening session.

Spinner Nathan Hauritz was also picked to play a role as the pitch wears later in the match.

© AAP 2012

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