It had the formidable bowling attack of Fred Trueman, Frank Tyson, Brian Statham, Peter Loader, Jim Laker and Tony Lock; the all-rounder Trevor Bailey; the outstanding wicket-keeper Godfrey Evans; and the batting of Colin Cowdrey, Tom Graveney, Raman Subba Row and Ted Dexter.

Fred Trueman was laid low by lumbago, which also affected him when he arrived in Queensland in 1962–63, and was replaced by Peter Loader even though he had just recovered from a strained Achilles tendon and high temperature.

Bearing this in mind it was a bad toss to win and May made the difficult decision to bat on a green wicket which looked favourable to the fast bowlers in the expectation that it would flatten out in the afternoon.

[8] Keith Miller recalled "Meckiff was all over the place...the cynical reckoned he fired too wide to be hit...it was, in fact, the most erratic piece of fast bowling I had ever seen in a Test match.

[10][11] There was only time for two overs before stumps and Brian Statham made the ball lift outside the off-stump, which might have produced a wicket given another quarter of an hour, but Colin McDonald and Jim Burke survived the day on 8/0.

The teams went off for lunch at the fall of the wicket and returned on 55/1 with Neil Harvey coming in instead of Ken Mackay as announced by the scoreboard, indicating that Benaud wanted the runs to flow.

One pressman roused himself to ask when Bailey had last scored a run, "Twenty minutes past two" answered the England scorer George Duckworth, "Today or yesterday?"

They returned after lunch and the crowd saw the unprecedented sight of "The Boil" hitting Benaud for successive boundaries, but he was caught by the Australian captain off a slower ball from Meckiff, who had finally replaced Davidson and England were 92/4.

The captain reached his century by pulling Kline to the mid-wicket boundary and hitting the next ball with such power that Mackay, 50 yards away, did not have time to move before it flew past him for another four.

Lacking the pace of the Australian bowlers Statham and Loader could not make the ball lift as they had done and Trevor Bailey and Jim Laker suffered as Harvey struck 10 fours in his 60 not out by the end of New Year's Day.

Norm O'Neill came into a defensive field to Tony Lock bowling round the wicket and found it difficult to make runs, but tried one cracking drive that was stopped by the bowler and hurt his hand.

He became only the sixth England bowler to take seven wickets in a Test innings in Australia after Tom Richardson (8/94), George Lohmann (8/35 and 8/58), Wilfred Rhodes (7/56 and 8/68), Doug Wright (7/105) and Frank Tyson (7/27).

Peter May joined Trevor Bailey, who was back to his usual stone-walling self and had stayed in for an almost an hour for 14 when he was finely caught by Jim Burke, also at short-fine leg, off a brute of a ball from Meckiff that rose high and hit his glove and bat-handle.

After the rest day nightwatchman Wally Grout was stumped by Evans off Jim Laker (1/7) despite the wicketkeeper's broken finger, but this was inadequate consolation for the easy Australian win as they made the 42/2 required.

He had even survived complaints by New South Wales when he was chosen for the 1957–58 tour ahead of one of their bowlers, he had been filmed and given the approval of the Australian Board of Control and had the support of his captain Richie Benaud.

He is widely considered to be England's greatest fast bowler and with good reason; he was the first man to take 300 wickets in Tests—307 at (21.57)—had tremendous stamina and bowled with a near perfect side on action that produced late swing at high pace.

Tom Graveney (33) and Peter May (42) restored the innings as the fast bowlers found little swing, but Benaud kept them on for over an hour and May edged a ball past Neil Harvey at slip.

Seeing the end was near Fred Trueman scattered the close fielders with a few powerful strokes and heaved the ball into the stands, but he was caught by Burke off Benaud to give the Australian captain 5/83 and England were out for 219.

May switched the bowlers' ends using Statham, who O'Neill edged twice through vacant second slip to the boundary, but the change produced a wicket when Graveney dived forward to take McDonald off Lock.

May asked McDonald, who had pulled a hamstring when playing the MCC for the Australian XI, if he wanted to retire, but as he was walking off the pitch Benaud sent out a runner and insisted that he bat, but was bowled first ball.

Ian Meckiff had bruised his Achilles tendon at Sydney and was unfit to play, but any joy the England camp may have felt was reduced when they debuted the 6-foot-5-inch (1.96 m) "Blonde Giant" Gordon Rorke after he had taken 6/58 against Queensland and 4/57 in the recent tour match.

For England, Peter Richardson returned to open the batting with Trevor Bailey because Arthur Milton had re-fractured his broken finger and Raman Subba Row still had a damaged wrist.

Peter Loader had a groin strain that had kept him out of the New South Wales game, but the great shock was that the off-spinner Jim Laker, England's best bowler, could not play because his arthritic spinning finger was immobile.

Godfrey Evans replaced Roy Swetman as wicket-keeper even though his broken middle finger had not fully mended as the young Surrey keeper had proved fallible behind the stumps.

As a result, May had four fast bowlers and only one spinner on a pitch that was traditionally a good batting surface with low bounce, though the South Australia game at Christmas had seen a green, pacey wicket.

Neil Harvey came in and at the end of the day hit Tony Lock for a long straight six towards Adelaide Cathedral, the longest boundary in the world, and "directed our eyes to the towers and pinnacles".

[62] Norm O'Neill (56) was playing well and one terrific pull smacked into the boundary fence before any fielder could move and added 75 with Richie Benaud who hit 7 fours in his 46, including a powerful hook off Trueman (4/90).

He was a master at upsetting the concentration of batsman and reach their subconscious"[65] Benaud then dismissed Trueman, Lock, Tyson and Evans, two caught by Wally Grout, one by Burke and the other by the bowler himself.

[66][67] As the teams returned up the pavilion steps Sir Donald Bradman called Richie Benaud to one side and reminded him that England's only chance of retaining the Ashes was it they were forced to follow on and made a lot of runs.

[75][76] For the first time in the series Richie Benaud won the toss and took the unusual step of putting England into bat, but he had four fast bowlers in his team and wanted to use them in the humid, swinging conditions.