Mitchell Johnson arrived on these shores amid a blaze of publicity proclaiming him as the best paceman in international cricket. One Test and one session later, however, and Johnson can no longer count himself among the best quicks in the Australian team, much less the planet, following a morning in which he ceded the early initiative to England.
Johnson's figures of 0 for 53 from eight overs, including eleven boundaries, didn't quite relay the horror that was his first session in a Lord's Test. Whether overawed by the occasion, thrown by the ground's pronounced slope or just shy of form and confidence, Australia's spearhead appeared decidedly blunt in his exchanges with Andrew Strauss (47 not out) and Alastair Cook (67 not out), neither of whom were troubled in any way by the man who so tormented the South Africans three months ago.
Johnson's inaccuracy contrasted sharply with the disciplined lines of Tasmanian paceman Ben Hilfenhaus. He delivered three consecutive maidens to start proceedings, and may well have had Cook caught at second slip had Ricky Ponting been fractionally closer to the bat. But any pressure Hilfenhaus created at the Nursery End was promptly released in the shadows of the pavilion, as Johnson surrendered the first session ascendancy in one of his poorer opening spells in recent memory.
