Calm down dear, it’s only the first day!

I had high hopes of staying up to watch the all important coin toss and the momentous first delivery as England headed down under to enemy territory looking to win the Ashes on Australian soil for the first time in over 20-years.

However the need of sleep beat me and I had to retreat to the warmth of the duvet only dreaming that when I awoke the following morning I would be greeted with some good news. That wasn’t the case, bleary eyed I checked my phone and saw to my horror that we had been bowled out for 260.

Worst was to come as I scrolled further down the page to see Peter Siddle had taken an all important hat-rick. I then avoided looking at the barrage of abuse from my Aussie mates on Facebook and headed downstairs to have a brew and catch the post match discussions.

It was expected that Australia were going to be fired up, in what could be Ricky Ponting’s last Ashes before he hands over the captaincy to someone else. It would be fitting to see him go out a winning one, Ponting couldn’t have asked for a better start really from a side desperate to avenge the disappointment of last summer.

Having had a good warm up the England team were in high spirits and with the Aussies coming off the back of a couple of test losses it would seem a solid start was on the cards. Winning the all important toss Strauss put the boys into bat, and three deliveries later he was out! The worst possible start.

What followed was an up and down innings in which the likes of Bell, Pietersen and Cook steadied the ship. With the exception of the blip in the middle in which Siddle claimed his birthday hat-rick causing scenes of massive elation from the green and gold crowd, the 260 scoreline was just about below average.

It would have been nice to get a late wicket but the Aussies at 25-0 look like they could be growing in confidence and control. However Australia shouldn’t be getting ahead of themselves, this is not the same team that was whitewashed 5-0 the last time they were on these shores and the home side will not have it all their own way.

This England side, despite showing early signs of nerves are a solid team and will come together sooner rather than later. There should be no room for complacency just yet for Australia, but you can’t deny their performance on the opening day was just what Ponting and the home crowd would have been looking for.

The main focus for tomorrow is for England to go out and get that first wicket, shut the crowd up and you start to get on top of the Aussies. We know that England have vastly improved in the field and they have some of the best pace bowlers in the world so the expectation for them to fight back is high. What they mustn’t do is to hit the panic button and slip into the England of old.

Spin wise Swann was knocked for two fours during his one over which would have delighted the home support. This however might not be a wicket for spin, at least not this early. But when it breaks up a bit Swann’s time will come don’t worry about that.

It wasn’t a good start but it wasn’t the worst either, this is a marathon not a sprint and there are still four tests to go and four very different grounds and wickets to play on. So for me its game on!