Sidebottom grudgingly hands the mantle over to Siddle

The former England left-armer, who claimed the memorable feat against New Zealand two years ago, could only watch on in disbelief as Australia's Peter Siddle tore into the tourists on the opening day of the Ashes series in Brisbane.

He ripped out England's Alastair Cook, Matt Prior and Stuart Broad in successive balls and now, with only the 38th hat-trick in the long history of Test match cricket, directly follows Sidebottom in the esteemed list.

"You have got to hand it to Siddle as hat-tricks – no matter what the standard or who they are against – are just so hard to come by," he told the Yorkshire Post.

"Whether it be Bangladesh or the West Indies, it's a real achievement so, to do that on the first day of an Ashes series and become only the fourth Aussie to do it against England is tremendous for him.

"I am a bit gutted, though. I was the last Test player to get one and was hoping to be holding on to that for quite a long time. But it was only in 2008!"

Siddle is the first player to perform such a feat in an Ashes Test since another Yorkshireman – Darren Gough – heroically starred in Sydney 11 years ago.

There was no such success for the tourists yesterday but, despite England being dismissed for a paltry 260, Sidebottom insists there should be no panic in the ranks.

"Ian Bell showed how much he has improved with the bat," he said.

"He's older, wiser and knows what it's all about a little more and I still think he's England's best player at the moment.

"Cook fought hard and showed gritty character to get his score and I think this series is going to all be about someone doing something out of the ordinary.

"It might be a quick hundred here or someone doing something with the ball.

"Today, Siddle has stuck his hand up and got a six-for but there are going to be days when England put on a swift 50 or grab some wickets to turn a session.

"He did bowl well and put the ball in the right areas. Maybe there were one or two loose shots but, as I say, there's going to be 25 days of Test match cricket and both sides will suffer that.

"Players have to stand up and be counted and I'm sure that will happen with England, hopefully more so than Australia."

When Sidebottom earned his place in history against New Zealand, he took the scalps of Kiwis captain Stephen Fleming and Mathew Sinclair – both caught by Cook – and then trapped Jacob Oram lbw during their first Test in Hamilton.

He was the first Englishman to claim a hat-trick since his former Yorkshire team-mate, Matthew Hoggard, stunned the West Indies in Barbados in 2004.

Meanwhile, Andrew Strauss endured the most inauspicious of starts yesterday as he was sent packing by Ben Hilfenhaus for a duck to the third ball of the series but it was not, it seems, just the current England captain who was finding things difficult – former captain Michael Vaughan was bombarded with abuse from Australia fans as he waited for a taxi back to his hotel.

The Australian press pulled few punches in their damning indictment of the state of their team pre-Ashes but just one day in and they quickly changed their tune.

"Sid Vicious smashes Poms," blazed the Herald Sun. "Siddle hat-trick tears England apart," claimed the Australian. "Siddle hat-trick rocks England," proclaimed the Sydney Morning Herald.