Just sitting down to a huge bowl of humble pie - surely now England will help me to polish it off and ask for second helpings?

Fantastic response by England after Perth. Watson, Hussey & Haddin all out cheaply in the same innings, and the rest of their batting has failed yet again. Lowest ever Australia total in an Ashes Test at the MCG, and we've been playing them there since 1877!

Tremlett's figures of 11.5-5-26-4 are extraordinary when you consider he went for ten off his first over. I don't think I'll be seeing much of him for Surrey in the Championship next year.

Apart from the fact he removed Ponting straight away, I'm sure the economy of Bresnan's bowling must have helped the opening bowlers. There's less pressure on them and on the captain when you can be confident the first change bowler isn't going to give away cheap runs, and if the pitch is taking spin in the second innings there's going to be more pressure on the Aussies to force the pace against Swann and take risks when there are no cheap runs to be had elsewhere. And the lower order batting now has a nicely robust look to it should the need arise.

Another big opening partnership from Strauss & Cook, with Johnson going at six an over just like the old days. Surely only the weather can stop us now?

Brilliant - I am not sure how that could have gone any better other than seeing punter getting chased by a rogue crocodile, superb comeback from England

Yes. I went to bed during the extended lunch break thinking 58/4 would be as good as it got with Hussey at the crease and was amazed to wake up, switch the radio on, and hear someone telling me England now led by 40+. It was one of those "If Carlsberg did Test cricket . . ." kind of days.

I had a bit of a lie in

and have just seen the score.
I thought it silly to win the toss and not bat ... WRONG!!!!
Brilliant.
Now get a good score and blast the b'stards!
Come on!!

Have England ever had a better opening day against an established international side?

When the aussies scored 300+ for none in 1997(?) it was described as a perfect start but you wouldnt swap that for Englands day.

And Warne seems convinced that the pitch will spin after 3 days.

Yes, it might, but am I the only person who thinks Warne is a bellend?.....Along with Botham, he is a fine example that great player does not neccessarily equate to great commentator.

As for the match itself?.....Well, if we can manage a full day of steady batting we should be around 350 ahead by the end of day 2 - That should be our first objective. If we get to that stage the Aussies will be waving the white flag and you could probably declare from anytime then onwards.

Personally, I'd grind them into the dirt as much as possible if we can and look to bat until halfway through day 3, when we'd be about 500 ahead.....In this position, I don't just want to win, I want to make them pay for all those years of misery by humiliating them.

I am glad i was so wrong but that was never a 98 all out pitch as our openers have shown.

Terrible from the aussies

You weren't the only one, there was a lot of panic and knee jerking going around after Perth. But even after that it was clear that this is a mentally tougher outfit than any touring team of the previous 20 years. They dusted themselves down, admitted they were beaten by a better team on the day, made no excuses whatsoever, and just laughed off the Aussie goading. Especially Mitchell Johnson.

Not for one minute did I expect a day like we've had, but I was confident enough that we wouldn't crumble.

My thoughts exactly!

I'd say our only worry is Strauss negativity as a captain when it comes to declarations etc. I'd like to see us really go at them and put them back in on day 3. We need to make sure we win this test from here on out. Anything less will be a massive psychological boost for the Ozzies.

I know we have done incredibly on the 1st day, but to imagine we might still have the opportunity to still be batting our 1st innings by the 4th day is a little far fetched.

Ideally, we'd like to be able to set the pace with a declaration, but realistically this match should just run its natural course and we should still comfortably win with time to spare.

The match situation is one that we would have been happy with at the end of day 2, the fact we are 1 day ahead of ourselves already is a huge bonus....Our main aim should be to bat steadily on day 2 - If we do that then this match should be in the bag by the end of day 4.