In cricket, finishing on top has a lot to do with getting your starts right. In the first over of this Ashes series a gentle cut-shot from Justin Langer trickled slowly towards Michael Vaughan and – to general bewilderment all round – plopped straight between his legs. In the first over after drinks Andy Caddick tossed up two wide half-volleys which Langer gratefully drilled through mid-off for four. Just little psychological things. But, then, Australia's 13-year dominance over England has been as much psychological as it is physical. England's starts got no better as morning turned to mourning. Craig White's first delivery was both a no-ball and a half-tracker, which Matthew Hayden heaved through midwicket for his fifty. The first over of Caddick's mid-afternoon spell elicited a Hayden top-edge, only for Matthew Hoggard to dawdle out of the blocks, stumble and muff the simple catch. And then Simon Jones completed the most unwinning beginning of any Ashes cricketer, when one clumsy bit of fielding turned into six months on the scrapheap.

In truth, of course, England's blunder-strewn beginnings started long before any of that. Electing to bowl on the opening morning is usually considered a brave, brazen declaration of intent. From Nasser Hussain it seemed merely timid – a case of delaying the inevitable – and a little illogical too, for he soon appeared reluctant to employ half his attack. By 2 o'clock White and Ashley Giles, with bowling averages against Australia of 256 and 97.50 respectively, had managed only one over between them.

First-time visitors to the Gabba are invariably warned to keep the ball up and let the pitch do the work. Caddick and Hoggard over-compensated, with bouncers rarer than rain in Goondiwindi. Both men swung the ball appreciably and immediately hit on an ideal line – for right-handers – with Langer particularly punishing off his pads. Hayden miscued a couple of pulls and operated on about half-capacity until the cusp of lunch, when a stinging on-drive off Hoggard marked the beginning of business as usual.

Hayden's headline-hogging feats of the past year have partially obscured Ricky Ponting's emergence as a genuinely outstanding No. 3. There are some who still maintain Ponting is unsuited to the position, claiming he lunges too hard too early at the new ball. Today he disproved the theory yet again.

For an hour after lunch he batted circumspectly, playing only at what he had to, before erupting with a string of cracking cover-drives and thunderous pulls. Successive legside clumps off Giles sailed for six. His stock shot was a charming late-cut – hanging his bat wide outside off, he would wait for the ball's arrival before punching it wristily between the slips and gully. The stats underline his coming of age: in the last 15 months he has been dismissed only twice in single figures while averaging 74.63. If not the finished article, he is perilously close.

As for Hayden, his first Ashes hundred prompted unrestrained celebrations: he raised both arms, removed his helmet, crossed himself and jogged halfway to the boundary. This was his 10th Test century – nine of them coming in the first innings – which proves that in Hayden's hands Australia are almost guaranteed a good start. And a good start, you'll remember, counts for quite a lot.

Chris Ryan is a former managing editor of Wisden Cricket Monthly and a former Darwin correspondent of the Melbourne Age.

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