England started the day in fine form as Graham Onions removed Shane Watson and Michael Hussey with the first two balls of the day, before taking the wicket of Ricky Ponting soon after as the Australian captain tried to hook a quick bouncer. The Australians only added another 30 runs before James Anderson took the next wicket, sparking a sequence of four Anderson wickets in four overs for just 10 runs. Anderson and Onions shared the last two wickets between them as Nathan Hauritz and Ben Hilfenhaus put on 34 for the tenth wicket. England opened their innings with the momentum in their favour, but they had to face the same batting conditions as the Australians had, and Alastair Cook was removed for a duck in the second over. Ravi Bopara was the next to fall as he continued his poor run of form and put on just 23 runs. However, Andrew Strauss and Ian Bell batted until the end of the day to take England into the third day at 116/2.