England seamer Brydon Carse hailed an ‘unbelievable day of Test cricket’ after captain Ben Stokes helped the tourists reduce Australia to 123-9 after being skittled for 172 on day one of the first Ashes Test in Perth.
The build-up talk focused on the fact that the Aussies were missing star bowler and captain Pat Cummins – but Mitchell Starc was in their line-up, and he ripped through the England batting order with a blistering spell of 7-58.
They were Test-best figures for the fearsome left-arm paceman, who snared opener Zak Crawley and Joe Root for ducks before claiming another five scalps.
Pope stands tall
Number three Ollie Pope scored 46 off 58 balls before being trapped lbw, and vice-captain Harry Brook faced up to the hosts with a brilliant 52 off 61 balls (five fours and one six).
Wicketkeeper Jamie Smith racked up 33 off 22 balls – but Starc stole the show to leave England 172 all out off 32.5 overs having elected to bat.
‘Bazball’ is all about aggressive cricket, however, and with ball in hand, England came out firing on all cylinders, with pacemen Jofra Archer and Carse reducing the Aussies to 31-4.
The hosts rallied briefly after Travis Head (21) and Cameron Green (24) steadied the ship.
Stokes steps up
But then England skipper Stokes turned up the heat, taking five wickets in aggressive fashion to end the first day with figures of five for 23.
Carse was full of praise for his captain, saying on Sky Sports after stumps: “He [Stokes] is amazing.
“You know his character and his resilience is everything that this team strives to be and it’s obviously a game-changing spell in that session.
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Beast mode
“I think Ducky (Ben Duckett) made a comment the other day that he’s been in beast mode since he arrived in Australia and he thoroughly deserved that.
“The way he runs through brick walls for this team is something that everyone looks up to.
“Stokesy said, ‘let’s smash the wicket hard’, get as much as we can out of it. He kept it very simple.
“We had 45-50 minutes before tea and he said to the lads with the ball, ‘just give everything’.
“The way Gus and Jofra started was phenomenal. We continued it as a group of five seamers throughout that last session. I thought we were quite relentless.
“It’s an unbelievable day of Test cricket, I think everyone that came to watch today was thoroughly entertained.”
Helter skelter
Australia trail by 49 runs with one wicket remaining – and Starc was in defiant mood, saying: “I think both teams bowled really well.
“We know how England want to take the game, the approach of being aggressive, that creates opportunities and I thought we bowled quite well.
“Even in a period there where it felt like it was kind of helter-skelter, we still bowled them out for 172.
“I’m sure both teams would probably want to change the way, perhaps, of their approach, but sometimes you can sit there and say it’s pretty good bowling from both teams.
“It’s not the first time that we’ve been in [the] field for a long time before and things haven’t gone our way and we’re pretty calm off the field.
“We’ll come tomorrow with the same approach of being pretty calm and pretty level. What are we – 50 odd behind? There’s still a long time left in this game.”
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Newsjustnews writers 
Carmela Calling 
Wendellyn Mateo