Shane Warne and Brett Lee put Australia on course to win the first npower Test as they instigated a post-tea England collapse before bad light and rain halted proceedings at Lord's 25 minutes before the scheduled close.

England nose-dived from 80 for none to 119 for five in the space of 14 overs with Andrew Strauss, Marcus Trescothick, Ian Bell, Michael Vaughan and Andrew Flintoff all departing to the deadly duo.

The ray of sunshine for England was provided by Kevin Pietersen's unbeaten 42 as the host nation limped to 156 for five by stumps.

Trescothick and Strauss had given England a solid start, even if the pair did not look comfortable against Lee, in reaching 65 without loss in 22 overs up until tea.

But the danger signs were already there from Warne in just two overs before the interval when he had confident lbw shouts rejected against both batsmen.

Lee's hostility - he constantly worked up a pace of around 90mph - was rewarded when Strauss (37) went to pull a delivery which came too quickly onto him.

The ball looped up into the air and Lee ran at full steam to his right before diving to get both hands under it and take a magnificent catch inches above the turf.

That was 80 for one and 16 runs later Warne's trickery undid Trescothick (44) who pushed forward and fell to a smart catch at slip by Matthew Hayden.

Ian Bell did not look comfortable from the start against Warne and he had made only eight when he went back and trapped lbw by a ball which straightened to leave England on 104 for three.

England plunged into further trouble when Vaughan (four) was undone for pace by Lee and had his off stumped knocked back. Then Flintoff (three) tried to cut Warne and was caught behind.

In theory Vaughan's side would have to achieve the highest winning score by a side batting second in the history of Test cricket if they were to triumph but that long hope was blown apart by Warne and Lee.

The last three Australian wickets had added 105 in 30.2 overs with the tail-enders giving staunch support to Simon Katich, who scored an excellent 67 in a total of 384 all out.

But they were aided by some slipshod fielding - three catches were spilled on Saturday including two by wicketkeeper Geraint Jones - and some wayward bowling.

England had made an early breakthrough thanks to a superb piece of fielding by Ashley Giles who ran out Lee (eight) with a direct hit from point.

Katich found the bowling of Flintoff to his liking and struck him for three successive boundaries while Gillespie (13) gave him solid support in a ninth-wicket stand of 52 before Simon Jones knocked out his off stump.

Glenn McGrath helped Katich add another 43 runs for the final wicket to further frustrate England.

The innings finally ended when Katich sliced Harmison into the hands of Simon Jones at third man after making 67 off 113 balls with eight boundaries to leave McGrath unbeaten on 20.