Australia in Big Trouble with Hughes, Ponting, Clarke Out Cheaply | Thebigtip

The urn looks set to remain in England with Australia captitualting during the first session of the third Test in Perth.

After Andrew Strauss won the toss and sent Australia into bat, Australia have lost 3-28 in a top order capitulation that mirrors the collapse in Adelaide.

Opening bat Shane Watson has again witnessed the fall of three first session wickets with Jimmy Anderson and newcomer Chris Tremlett exposing the lack of class in Australia's batting.

The recalled Phil Hughes lasted only six balls before Chris Tremlett found the gaping hole between bat and pad to knock over the castle of Hughes for 2. Hughes played across the line and offered no footwork. He clearly looks a player stuck betwen his natural instincts and the words of a selection panel who have told him to adjust his style.

Ricky Ponting was next to follow, falling to a screamer from Paul Collingwood in the slips cordon. Ponting edged his way to 12 and was given a chance when his opposite number Strauss dropped a tough one-handed chance. Ponting's luck did not last. Jimmy Anderson got one to bounce and move and Ponting was out to a spectacular catch. Ponting, under enormous pressure to retain not only the captaincy but his spot in the team, looked a shattered man as he walked off after being dismissed cheaply yet again in this all-important series.

Vice captain Michael Clarke hardly made a claim for Ponting's position, however, when daintily poking at one outside off stump to be meekly caught by keeper Matt Prior. The bowler was Chris Tremlett, who was causing the Australian batsmen all kinds of grief after replacing the injured Stuart Broad. Clarke managed only four.

Shane Watson was also lucky to survive. Watson was given out, caught down the legside, in the first over only for the decision to be overturned on review.

With Australia requiring at least a draw to hold any hope of winning back the Ashes, all seems lost. Only a monumental change of fortune or Mother Nature will provide Australia with any hope of a live series on Boxing Day,