1. Watch Out
I'm back on a familiar hobby horse. The concept of the nightwatchman is one I've never really understood: if the number 10 is expected to see off the second new ball, so should the proper batsman. It baffles me at the best of times. But when the nightwatchman is sent in to protect Stuart Broad and Graeme Swann it becomes utterly mystifying. A scintillating partnership between Andrew Flintoff (who made the phrase "shades of 2005" mandatory) and Matt Prior looked sure to turn a tight, attritional day England's way. Aggression was England's friend in 2005, and it was again today. Until, in the last quarter of an hour, they decided to shut up shop. Jimmy Anderson does the job in tenacious, gutsy fashion. Fair play to him. But his arrival at the crease will, at best, lead to a slowing of the scoring rate and a loss of momentum that evening and the following morning. At worst, he gets out, and the opposition take heart from the gloss on the scoreline. It's a negative tactic that sends out the wrong message. Prior, having played with great freedom and real skill, suddenly looked indecisive and played all round an inswinger from Peter Siddle.

2. Swept Away
Oh dear. The abiding memory of the opening day of the 2009 Ashes series will be of the shot Kevin Pietersen played to give his wicket away. It probably won't have the significance of Steve Harmison's opening salvo in 2006/7 but it really was quite astonishingly bad. A brief office discussion failed to produce a worse shot ever by a top-five Test batsman. There must have been one, but I just can't think of it. We all know what a wonderful, instinctive talent Pietersen is. The usual stuff about not wishing to stifle his attacking instincts all applies. But there are limits. Pre-meditated strokes have their place: but a batsman always needs an escape route - here, Pietersen had the easiest of the lot: the leave - and whether Pietersen even needed to pre-meditate against a bowler of Nathan Hauritz's limited ability is also a valid question. Hauritz is not good enough to dismiss Pietersen without assistance from the batsman. So why give it to him?

3. I've Started So I'll Finish
England are in a reasonable position, but there remains a sense of 'what if?' and an opportunity missed as a familiar failing returned. Failure to convert starts into truly significant contributions has hurt England horribly in the last three years. Here the top seven all reached double figures, six reached 30, two reached 60 but none went further. If the Ashes are to be regained, pretty 50s and 60s will not get the job done. England need centuries.

4. Bowled Over
Australia's seam attack is not the force of old, but it's decent enough. Peter Siddle bowled better than his figures suggest - even after his crucial double strike late on - while Ben Hilfenhaus was impressive throughout. However, it's Mitchell Johnson who holds the key. He is the class act in this bowling line-up, but on this evidence the least consistent. After a lacklustre new-ball spell, he produced the over of the day apparently from nowhere. Strauss should have gone leg-before, Bopara could easily have been caught at mid-off, before the England captain was finally stuffed by a fast, short delivery that he could only glove to slip. The slower ball to dismiss Bopara also shows Johnson's brain is up to scratch. But Australia need more of that and less of the mediocre fare he served up for the rest of the day.

5. Duck Off
And still it goes on. Whatever the rights and wrongs of the nightwatchman, Anderson punched the ball through the covers for two runs just before the close to extend his astonishing record of avoiding ducks in Tests. He has still to be dismissed for nought at the top level after 49 innings - four clear of his nearest rival. Will he raise his bat to acknowledge the half-century?

Dave Tickner