England quicks James Anderson and Graham Onions exploited Australia’s weakness against the swinging ball by skittling the tourists for 263 at Edgbaston.
The tourists resumed at 1-126 on the second day of the third Ashes Test but Anderson and Onions used the overcast conditions to hoop the ball through the defences of the batsmen.
Anderson (5-80) produced a devastating patch of 5-13 off 38 balls as the Lancashire right-armer captured his maiden Ashes five-wicket haul.
Onions (4-58) earlier snatched control of the match for his side in just two balls as he captured 3-13 in 27 balls to start the day and deserved to have a couple more scalps to his name.
He opened the day in sensational fashion by trapping Shane Watson (62) in front and then clipping Mike Hussey’s (0) off stump with the two balls of the day.
Watson played around a ball that came back in slightly and Hussey had a shocker by leaving a ball that went straight into his stump and the left-hander quickly marched off the ground.
Chasing a hat-trick with his next ball, he put in a short pitched delivery that Michael Clarke (29) just managed to draw his gloves away from in time.
Onions’ performance lifted the boisterous home crowd and he continued to prove a handful with his probing line and length, taking the crucial wicket of Ricky Ponting (38) just before the hour mark.
Ponting had been lucky to survive that long with Ian Bell missing a run out chance after he pursued a non-existent single the over before his demise.
The captain, who eclipsed Allan Border’s national record for the most Test runs during his innings, was out after he made a hash of a hook shot and was caught behind.
Onions should have had Michael Clarke’s scalp on 18 as Australia enjoyed the rub of the green for the second lbw decision of the match.
Then six overs later Andrew Flintoff added to Onions’ frustrations by dropping Clarke on 20 at second slip.
The ball raced through his hands after coming off the middle of Clarke’s bat as he was late pulling it out of the way.
But the deputy captain’s good fortune ended when umpire Rudi Koertzen lifted the finger for an Anderson shout off an inswinging delivery that looked to be just sliding past the leg stump.
The swing bowler soon after lured Marcus North (12) into a drive and wicketkeeper Matt Prior claimed a superb one-handed diving catch in his left mitt.
North was furious at his downfall and swiped his bat against the ground, having felt he was starting to get set.
Then Anderson had his very next ball swing back in to Mitchell Johnson (0) and Koertzen lifted the finger to a delivery that looked like going over the top of the stumps.
The right-armer finished the session with a bang by knocking back debutant Graham Manou’s (8) off stump with a terrific ball and lunch was then taken.
Anderson claimed his five-wicket haul with a good ball that Siddle edged behind before Onions suffered again at the hands of his teammates with Ravi Bopara dropping a running catch with Ben Hilfenhaus (20) on eight.
But the Durham quick was rewarded with the final scalp of Hilfenhaus with Nathan Hauritz unbeaten on 20.
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