Australia's fast bowlers fail to deliver yet again as England batsmen take heavy toll at SCG

Australia v England, 5th Test, Sydney, 2nd day

England 3 for 167 (Cook 61*, Anderson 1*) trail Australia 280 (Johnson 53, Anderson 4-66) by 113 runs

By contrast, England pacemen James Anderson, Chris Tremlett and Tim Bresnan forever hammered the right areas to great effect, strangling Australia's batsmen who have struggled to post competitive totals in the series.

Australia bowlers Mitchell Johnson, Peter Siddle, Ben Hilfenhaus and Shane Watson largely sprayed the ball from the outset on Tuesday and watched England blast nine boundaries and a huge six inside the first 10 overs.

One Johnson delivery was so full and wide that wicketkeeper Brad Haddin dived at full stretch to prevent four byes, while the left-armer also produced two shockers to Andrew Strauss and Kevin Pietersen that bounced inside his own half of the pitch.

"And I have to get that one bad ball out of my overs," Johnson said.

"The pitch maps were long and wide rather than short and thin. All these guys have played a fair bit of cricket now, so you'd think they'd know where to hit the spot.

"Mitchell Johnson is a real enigma and when he's on he's right on, but when he's not he's not there.

"We need to be consistent, which is exactly what England have done (all summer)."

Johnson and Hilfenhaus spent more than an hour in the middle together to help Australia reach 280, but Whitney said their entertaining knock with the bat would not have impacted on their energy levels when handed the ball.

Another former international quick, Nathan Bracken, said bowlers often struggled for line and length when trying to bowl quicker and defend low scores, an unwanted scenario faced by our speedsters all summer.

"When you push for wickets, things can go astray," Bracken said.