Daily dossier: Dropping Finn was a bit like putting Berbatov on the bench after his five goals... but boy, it worked!

By Nasser Hussain for the Daily Mail Updated: 16:48 EST, 26 December 2010

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I have said all week that I would have stuck with Steven Finn in this match, not least because he was the leading wicket-taker in the series before yesterday, and I am sure he too would have bowled well in these conditions.

I am old school. I would not have thought that the middle of an Ashes series was the time to rest a successful bowler and bring in fresh legs with an eye on the future. Apart from anything else, my England side did not have too many quality options to replace the likes of Darren Gough and Andrew Caddick.

Pacesetter: Alastair Cook scores another run with Australia's Ben Hilfenhaus going to ground

But you have to say that England's brave call to rest him and bring in Tim Bresnan was absolutely right. Andy Flower is clearly meticulous in his preparation and forward in his thinking and it is getting a bit like football now. Leaving Finn out here is a bit like leaving Manchester United's Dimitar Berbatov on the bench the match after he scored five goals but we are going to see more of this type of rotation.

To walk out there in front of more than 84,000 for your first bowl of the series in such a huge match takes some character but Bresnan rose superbly to the challenge. He held up one end and never lost his control.

It was Chris Tremlett, though, who continues to delight and surprise. He showed here that he is not just a one-trick pony, not just the man to take advantage of the pace and bounce of Perth, but a bowler who can adjust and bowl just that little bit fuller.

Remember, too, that there have long been these suggestions that Tremlett is too meek and is not made of the right stuff but this was the second huge match that he has been thrown the new ball by a captain who has just inserted the opposition and twice he has responded brilliantly. As long as he can stay fit, I think Tremlett is here to stay now and that's great news for England, who are building up such an impressive group of bowlers. Because of that England enjoyed a quite outstanding day.

Chris Tremlett induces Ponting to edge it behind with Graeme Swann taking the catch at second slip.g out: It proved to be yet another bad day at the crease for Australia captain Ricky Ponting after he was caught in the slips for 10 by Graeme Swann

Edge of despair: Chris Tremlett induces Ponting to edge it behind with Graeme Swann taking the catch at second slip.

Say what you want about the conditions - and I can't deny that England had the better of a green-top and the cloud cover yesterday - but the bottom line is that England played by far the better cricket. T

his was a day when simple, basic disciplines were required and it was England who provided them both with the ball - as Australia crashed - and then with the bat as they showed the home side how to play on a seaming surface. You are allowed to leave the ball, you know, but you would never have guessed it when Australia batted.

Apart from Ricky Ponting and Mike Hussey the Australians went searching for the ball, chasing it as if it were a typical, flat Australian wicket. But that was down to the pressure England applied from first ball to last. To get all 10 batsmen out to catches behind the wicket showed that England's bowlers got their lengths perfectly right.

I have not seen as bad an Australian batting line-up as this for many a year. Phil Hughes as a Test opening batsman? Steve Smith at six? Are you sure? So many of them have technical issues that they cannot trust themselves to keep the bowling out so they end up trying to score as many as they can quickly before their inevitable departure.

Picture perfect: Swann scoops up the ball at second slip to dismiss Ponting

I can fully understand why the curator would prepare a pitch like this because Australia just do not have a front-line spinner and they know England can struggle against pace when the ball moves around themselves. But Ponting was pressing 'G' for gamble at the 'G' by going into a Test here with an all-seam attack.

We will never know if England would have struggled as badly batting first had Ponting won the toss but I like to think they would have applied themselves much better and left the ball much more convincingly. They certainly did when it was their turn to bat in the final session, admittedly when conditions seemed to have been eased by the sun.

I would definitely have bowled first had I been captain yesterday, 100 per cent. It just looked like an English green-top as soon as we all went out there to have a look. But that did not stop England having a good, hard think about it yesterday morning.

I spoke to Paul Collingwood in the middle and I said to him: 'It might not be a good idea to listen to me because I've got previous in these parts but I would definitely bowl'. He agreed that if he were a bowler he would want to be out there bowling first up too. And so it proved for England.

But Australia could and should still have been there after tea, taking advantage of the change in the pitch themselves because what they had to do was see off the new ball and bat sensibly themselves. Yet they were incapable of doing so.