Australia built a lead of 221 on the third day of the second test at Lord's before rain stopped play, adding 130 to their first-innings score for the loss of two wickets after skittling out England's tail end in the morning.
Usman Khawaja was the pick of the batters, racking up 58 not out, while England's bogeyman Steve Smith was on six when the rain brought the day's play to an end.
In contrast to England's swashbuckling and at times reckless approach with the bat, Khawaja and fellow opener David Warner put on 63 slowly and methodically before Warner was trapped lbw on 25 by a ball nipping in from Josh Tongue in the 25th over.
While it is the first time since 1971 that two sides' opening partnerships have scored more than 50 in the first three innings of a test match, the two teams' approaches to the job could hardly be more different.
Warner's 25 came off 76 balls, a glacial pace compared with England's Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett in the first innings.
At the other end for Australia, Khawaja has faced more than 700 balls in the first two tests of this Ashes series.
The visitors will look to set England as big a target as they can as they bid for a 2-0 lead in the series - the only side to successfully chase down a fourth-innings target of more than 300 at Lord's were West Indies in 1984.
England suffered a minor collapse earlier on Friday, adding just 47 to their overnight score for their last six wickets, hitting 325 in reply to Australia's first-innings total of 416.
Captain Ben Stokes (17) fell to the second ball of the day, swishing at a shortish one from Mitchell Starc only to get an edge on it, with Cameron Green reaching up to his right to take a difficult catch in the gully.
Harry Brook added five runs to his overnight score to reach his first 50 in Ashes cricket but then tried to swipe another Starc ball down the ground moments later, instead slicing it high into the air to Pat Cummins for a simple catch at cover.
Jonny Bairstow (16) chipped a simple practice stroke off Josh Hazlewood to Cummins at mid-on, and Stuart Broad, Ollie Robinson and Josh Tongue all fell cheaply, with even part-time spinner Travis Head bagging two wickets for Australia.
Starc was the toast of the bowlers, however, taking three wickets for 33 runs in the morning, having been hit for 55 without a wicket on Thursday afternoon.
"England were in a commanding position and didn't recognise they were on top. They created the risk themselves," their former one-day captain Eoin Morgan told Sky Sports.
Reuters.
