James Anderson (centre) celebrates bowling out Australia’s Peter Nevill on the first day of the third Ashes test at Edgbaston, on July 29, 2015
Birmingham (United Kingdom) (AFP) – James Anderson returned the best Ashes figures of his career as England took charge on the first day of the third Test against Australia at Edgbaston on Wednesday.
Anderson took six for for 47 as Australia slumped to 136 all out inside 37 overs after winning the toss and batting in the overcast conditions that the Lancastrian has relished throughout his career.
Australia were indebted to opener Chris Rogers’s 52, with their next best score Adam Voges’s 16.
This was Rogers’s ninth fifty in 11 Test innings.
It came after he was cleared to play following a balance problem in the inner ear caused when struck by an Anderson bouncer in the course of his Test-best 173 during Australia’s crushing 405-run win at Lord’s which levelled the five-match series at 1-1.
When rain forced an early close, England were three runs adrift at 133 for three.
Joe Root, who hooked fast bowler Mitchell Johnson for a fortunate six, was 30 not out and recalled Yorkshire team-mate Jonny Bairstow one not out.
The under-pressure Ian Bell had made a fluent 53 before giving his wicket away with a rash shot against off-spinner Nathan Lyon, whose two for three in two overs helped Australia limit the damage.
“We’re very happy, especially after losing the toss,” Anderson told Sky Sports.
“There was a large percentage of bad shots from them, but saying that, Chris Rogers was watchful and then put away the bad ball.
“The pitch carried more than Lord’s, so Broady (Stuart Broad) and I discussed that trying to hit the pitch hard, wobble the ball and hit the seam on a full length was going to do more than swinging it, and it worked well for us,” he added.
Meanwhile the 37-year-old Rogers, who put his experience of seaming conditions gained in English county cricket to good use, said: “I was desperate to play.
“Even to miss the last day of Lord’s, they’re memories you miss, but I’ve got the all-clear and there was nothing to stop me playing here,” added Rogers, who plans to retire after this series.
Wednesday also saw England fast bowler Steven Finn mark his first Test since 2013 with two for 38 in 10 overs.
– Early blow –
At Lord’s, where Australia hit back after England won the first Test in Cardiff by 169 runs Anderson, 33 on Thursday, had been frustrated by a placid pitch with no sideways movement during a match return of none for 137.
But conditions were far more in his favour after Clarke, despite the potent pace attack at his disposal, opted to bat first.
Anderson needed a mere eight balls to take his first wicket on Wednesday when David Warner was lbw on the back foot for two.
Finn, who replaced the injured Mark Wood, then took two wickets for two runs in nine balls.
Steven Smith, the world’s number one ranked Test batsman following his Test-best 215 at Lord’s, fell for seven when squared up by a good length ball he edged low to England captain Alastair Cook at first slip.
Finn’s excellent yorker then clean bowled Clarke for just 10.
Australia had no answer to Anderson’s spell of four for seven in 19 balls after lunch.
But it was Broad who had Rogers lbw after more than three-and-a-half hours at the crease.
Anderson wrapped up the innings when he bowled last man Lyon.
England opener Adam Lyth’s poor run continued when he was caught, at the second attempt, for 10 by first slip Voges off Josh Hazlewood.
Cook and Bell were rarely troubled until the skipper exited for 34 when a full-blooded pull off Lyon was somehow held by Voges at short leg.
Bell, under threat of being dropped following several low scores, was in superb touch on his Warwickshire home ground, cover-driving Mitchell Marsh to spark a sequence of three fours in as many balls off the all-rounder.
Another boundary, off Mitchell Starc, saw Bell to a 51-ball fifty with 10 fours.
But Bell — looking to become the first Warwickshire batsman to make a Test hundred at Edgbaston — carelessly holed out off Lyon when a miscued drive was caught by Warner, running back from short midwicket.