Opening partnership flops again

England failed again to register their first half-century opening partnership of the Ashes series after suffering the shock of losing key bowler Matthew Hoggard for the final Test.

Needing to avoid defeat at the Sydney Cricket Ground to prevent Australia claiming the first Ashes whitewash since 1920-21, the tourists' hopes suffered a massive blow with Hoggard failing an early fitness test.

Having recovered from the loss of the Yorkshire seamer, England made a solid start to their innings after winning the toss, with Andrew Strauss and Alastair Cook forging their highest partnership of the series, but just three overs before lunch, Middlesex batsman Strauss attempted to cut a full-length ball from fast bowler Brett Lee and edged behind to leave England on 58 for one on the opening day at the SCG.

Hoggard's side injury, which he sustained in the previous Test defeat at Melbourne, had forced England into an unexpected change, with Lancashire seamer James Anderson recalled after claiming only two wickets in the opening two Tests.

England had expected to bring in off-spinning all-rounder Jamie Dalrymple for his Test debut as a replacement for Sajid Mahmood on a wicket which is renowned for being spin-friendly, but they instead elected to enter the final Test with Monty Panesar as their only specialist spinner, although Kevin Pietersen was expected to help out with his part-time off-spin.

Australia named an unchanged line-up yesterday with Glenn McGrath, Shane Warne and Justin Langer having confirmed this will be the last Test of their illustrious careers.

McGrath led the side out onto the field, followed just behind by Warne and Langer and quickly extracted encouraging bounce and lift once play got under way after an hour and 10 minutes delay following early-morning rain.

Strauss was fortunate to survive early on, edging Lee through the gap between the slips and gully to bring up his first boundary of the day in the fourth over.

The opener survived a strong appeal for lbw from McGrath in the next over and also edged just short of Langer at third slip and was dropped by the same fielder on 21 off McGrath as lunch approached.

Perhaps that missed chance influenced captain Ricky Ponting's thinking because he immediately replaced McGrath with Lee and just two balls of the over were needed to dismiss Strauss, who edged to wicketkeeper Adam Gilchrist to earn Australia their first breakthrough and leave England on 45 for one.

Fellow opener Alastair Cook survived to reach a cautious 20 by the interval, while new batsman Ian Bell had progressed to an unbeaten seven.