The Ashes: England battle hard on rain-affected opening day of Sydney Test

The first day of the fifth and final Test is in Melbourne.

Harris 38, Warner 30; Anderson 1-24, Wood 1-31, Broad 1-34.

England is yet to bat.

The scorecard is a summary of what happened.

England's bowlers battled hard to leave the fourth Test evenly poised after a rain-affected opening day.

After batting under grey skies and on a green pitch, Australia closed on 126 3 with just 46.5 overs possible.

The start was delayed by half an hour before there were two interruptions in the morning session.

The returning Stuart Broad had David Warner caught at second slip by Zak Crawley, while James Anderson had Marcus Harris caught by Joe Root.

England reaped the rewards of their tight, economical bowling as Marnus Labuschagne nicked Mark Wood behind for 28.

Steve Smith and Usman Khawaja are playing their first Test in over a year and will resume play at 23:00 GMT on Wednesday night.

England have lost the five-test series to Australia.

England's chances of avoiding a series clean sweep are increased by the forecast of more rain and thundery showers on days two and four.

The Australia batter who tested positive for Covid-19 and missed this Test has returned one negative test and two more negative results that will see him rejoin the squad on Friday.

Reaction, clips and analysis from the opening day.

England's patience is reaping rewards.

It is more difficult for batters during off days of Test cricket, but Australia was rarely troubled.

Warner's dismissal came with an element of surprise, with the left-handed opener barely threatening apart from an edge off Stokes, which went just past Crawley, when he was on 21.

The outside edge was only challenged on the odd occasion, and very few deliveries would have hit the stumps with England generally bowling too short or wide early on.

The pitch seemed easier to bat on for large periods of the final session, and that combined with the ball going softer due to the damp outfield resulted in England looking like they were being blunted.

The run-rate was kept relatively low, and that allowed Anderson to draw Harris, who was ragged, but starting to look more settled, into a tentative prod, before Wood dismissed Labuschagne for the second successive Test.

Broad impressed for England.

Broad spoke passionately in his Daily Mail column about his desire to continue representing his country after England's heavy series defeat and potential post-Ashes reset.

The 35-year-old came into the side for Robinson, who is nursing a shoulder injury, in England's only change to the team which lost by an armful in the third Test.

Broad was their top bowler on a stop-start day in Sydney, and he ended with another dismissal of Warner.

The Australia opener was dragged forward by a slightly fuller delivery and, as was so often the case in England when Broad dismissed Warner seven times, a little bit of seam movement away enticed the left-handed into an edge.

More to come.