By Jonathan Agnew BBC cricket correspondent at Lord's

Glenn McGrath stole Steve Harmison's thunder on a spectacular first day of the Ashes series at Lord's as Australia fought back against England.

Vaughan was bowled by a ball that kept low

The pitch! How was it that 17 wickets should fall on such a harmless, benign-looking strip?

The Lord's groundsman, Mick Hunt, told me that in his opinion, his pitch was one day 'over prepared'.

That means, ideally, he would have liked the match to start a day earlier than it did. That is not the observation of a man who expected the ball to move off the seam as it did throughout the first day.

No one exploited this better than Glenn McGrath who, to add to the batsmen's discomfort, also found some indifferent bounce on his length.

The first ball after tea when Glenn McGrath claimed the wicket of Marcus Trescothick to record his 500th in Test cricket.

He had looked dangerous before the interval as England's openers survived a nasty 20-minute session, but his first success helped him settle into a remarkable spell from the Pavilion End.

Four balls later, he removed Andrew Strauss and with Michael Vaughan, Ian Bell and Andrew Flintoff all following, McGrath claimed 5 for 2 from 31 balls.

It was classical McGrath, with his easy robotic action producing unerring accuracy.

Surviving every delivery was an ordeal in itself, but England's batsmen must take a long and critical look at their inadequate footwork, which led to three of the first five being bowled.

Until McGrath's heroics after tea, Steve Harmison would have been the toast of Lord's.

Harmison's heroics were not enough to make him player of the day

He still deserves special mention because he bowled with great hostility to take 5 for 43.

He was well supported by Flintoff and Simon Jones, and the Australian batsmen did not look comfortable against the high proportion of short-pitched deliveries that came their way.

There were, though, too many boundary balls that Justin Langer, Adam Gilchrist and Shane Warne seized on.

When Australia were bundled out for 190, these loose deliveries did not seem to have been particularly damaging, but McGrath then stole the show as England's supporters endured a day in which they experienced every emotion.

England's batsmen will not have been thrilled to see Shane Warne spin a couple of balls in his two overs.

But after a day such as this, nobody could possibly make any predictions other than to say that, with their 98-run lead, Australia have their noses in front.

However, Kevin Pietersen remains undefeated on 28 not out, and if the tailenders can stay with him he could very easily rub out Australia's advantage.

His wicket will be key on the second morning.