On a day that befitted the build up to the series, Joe Root scored a superb unbeaten 118 at Edgbaston on Friday before England asked Australia to navigate a difficult final 20 minutes.
David Warner and Usman Khawaja both survived against the new Dukes ball, with Warner driving arch-nemesis Stuart Broad for two boundaries.
Lifeless as the Edgbaston wicket may have been, the play was anything but.
England hit 46 boundaries and went at a rate of 5.03 an over through an innings that only contained two maidens.
Australia had three men on the boundary from the third over onwards with the quicks bowling, and had a fourth man on the rope in the first hour when Lyon entered the attack.
Root was England’s most composed batsman, but his innings still included two reverse-scoops for six off Pat Cummins and Scott Boland, along with a flurry of reverse-swept fours.
Boland, long regarded as the most economical bowler in the world, went for 1-86 off 14 overs as England made a point to use their feet to the Victorian and go after him.
Nathan Lyon took 4-149 among the chaos, going at more than a run a ball while still providing key breakthroughs and getting the key scalp of Jonny Bairstow for 78.
Australia, though, insist they can still walk away from the day happy.
“You’ve got to try and look at probably the end score,” Josh Hazlewood said.
“Basically all out for just under 400. You take that on that wicket for sure. Whether it takes 80 overs or 160, it’s the same score.”
Australia have arrived with the opinion that wickets will come given England’s aggression.
It’s why they plan on keeping three men on the boundary throughout the series to control run scoring, despite questioning of it from the likes of Ricky Ponting, Eoin Morgan and Kevin Pietersen in the commentary box.
“There’s a lot more singles probably, but if we shut down the boundaries then that score doesn’t really go through the roof at sevens and eights,” Hazlewood said.
“If we can keep it at five and over and keep taking wickets throughout the day, that somewhat keeps them in check.”
Hazlewood also took 2-61, including the big wicket of Ben Stokes driving hard at a ball outside off for one, on his return from injury after Australia left out Mitchell Starc.
Australia’s first introduction to Bazball came on ball one of the series, when Zak Crawley crunched Cummins for four through cover.
The opener also sent Hazlewood’s first ball to the square-leg boundary, before he was caught behind for 61 before lunch when Boland took his glove.
Fellow opener Ben Duckett was out early for 12 to Hazlewood, who exploited the opener’s unwillingness to leave when he drew the edge outside off stump.
And after Lyon trapped Ollie Pope (31) lbw and bowled Harry Brook (32), England were in a spot of trouble at 5-176 following Stokes’ dismissal.
But from there, Root and Bairstow stabilised.
Having failed to convert any of his 12 half-centuries to centuries against Australia in the past eight years, Root was superb.
He routinely reverse-swept Lyon, still showed patience against the quicks and waited for the bad ball to attack.
The pair put on a 121-run sixth-wicket stand, with Bairstow monstering the ball through the offside as he appeared to be charging towards a century.
But Lyon saw him coming on 78, had him stumped, and soon after removed Moeen Ali in similar fashion to leave Australia content at the end of day one.