MELBOURNE (Reuters) - A miserly Australian attack captured two wickets to leave England 135 for three at tea on the opening day of the fourth test in Melbourne on Thursday but suffered a blow when all-rounder Shane Watson limped off the ground with a groin injury.
Watson bowled opener Michael Carberry for 38 but pulled up from his run-up in his seventh over and after a short exchange with captain Michael Clarke, trudged off the Melbourne Cricket Ground in front of a bulging Boxing Day crowd of more than 90,000.
Kevin Pietersen, under fire for repeatedly throwing away his wicket this series, was caught for six at deep backward square by Nathan Coulter-Nile but the substitute fielder overbalanced and jogged over the boundary rope to grant the South Africa-born batsman a life shortly before tea.
Pietersen survived to reach the break on 20, with Ian Bell adding 11 after number three batsman Joe Root was caught behind for 24 off seamer Ryan Harris.
England resumed on 71-1, having grafted their way through a nervous first session after Clarke sprung a surprise by putting his unchanged team into the field after winning his fourth successive toss of the series.
With morning clouds giving away to brilliant sunshine, Carberry smacked a pair of boundaries to try to break the shackles of a disciplined pace attack but was left ashen-faced when he shouldered arms to a Watson delivery that swung in viciously to clatter into his stumps.
Having faced 103 balls and gritted out nearly two-and-half hours at the crease, the 33-year-old Carberry swung his bat in disgust as he trudged off after another promising start cut short in the series.
Buoyed, Australia's seamers tightened the screws further, with Pietersen needing 13 balls to get off the mark before pulling Siddle for four.
Having never appeared comfortable, a flat-footed Joe Root was caught behind by Haddin, the revitalised wicketkeeper notching his 50th catch in a year in which he has also amassed more than 500 runs with the bat.
Root's laborious innings lasted 82 deliveries and nearly two hours.
IRONIC CHEERS
Clarke's decision to attack appeared foolhardy early as the MCG's drop-in pitch offered little help for his seamers, but the pace battery compensated with impressive spells of line and length that saw England's run-rate dip to one run per over in a 10-over period before tea.
The paucity of scoring prompted jeers from the sections of the crowd and Pietersen raised ironic cheers on the few occasions he executed scoring shots.
Siddle had earlier continued Alastair Cook's forgettable series by dismissing the England captain for 27 in the morning, breaking a promising 48-run opening partnership with Carberry.
Australia were rewarded for a sustained period of pressure after the morning's drinks break, when Cook, apparently flustered by a near run-out four balls earlier, was out nicking to Clarke in the slips from a ball he could have left alone.
Harris was unlucky not to take the match's first wicket, when he had Carberry nick behind when on two runs, but a diving Steven Smith put down a difficult chance that he might better have left for second slip Clarke.
England, who have already lost the five-test series 3-0 to surrender the coveted urn, dropped wicketkeeper vice captain Matt Prior, who paid the price for a poor campaign with the bat and behind the stumps.
Yorkshire's Jonny Bairstow replaces Prior, with spinner Monty Panesar, as expected, coming in for Graeme Swann, who retired from England and first-class cricket during the week.
England paceman Stuart Broad retains his place despite a doubt over his fitness after he was struck on the foot when dismissed lbw by a searing yorker from Johnson in Perth.
(Editing by John O'Brien)
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