Anderson revels in Boxing Day glory
English opening bowler James Anderson is over the moon after potentially delivering the knock out punch to the Aussies on day one of the Boxing Day test match at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
The Englishmen rolled over the Aussies for a paltry 98 on day one of the highly anticipated Melbourne test; they have consolidated their grip on the Ashes and are now virtually guaranteed of a win after accumulating a 59 run lead at the end of the day’s
play.
"I think looking back it was a great toss to win," said Anderson. "There's always a danger you'll get carried away when you're expected to get wickets, but I thought we stuck at our task and kept pressure on all day. We use [a rate of] three an over as a
rule as a bowling unit, so 270 is the target in a day, and even though we put them in, we still used that template at the start of the day. At no point did we get carried away, even at six- or seven-down, we just kept on trying to create pressure."
The English opening bowlers Anderson and the lanky Chris Tremlett were the stars of the show, they snared 8 wickets between them to have the hosts on the mat within the blink of an eye. The Aussies had no answer as they collapsed for the third time to the
swinging ball.
At Sydney last year it was http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 who rolled them for 127 runs, followed by their capitulation at the Headingley in Leeds for 88 against the same opposition.
Earlier today they folded for 98 runs as the tourists completely tormented the Aussies who were left bemused and stunned by the onslaught.
"It doesn't matter who gets the wickets as long as you get ten of them," said Anderson. "I thought it was brilliant bowling. Throughout the series we've bowled really well. We've beat the bat a lot, we've had lbws turned down and created
chances, and today was the day when all those bits of luck came together and we got the nicks. Hussey may have played and missed at that one in Perth, but it just one of those days when everything came off."
"It's an amazing feeling," he said. "In an Ashes series to bowl Australia out for less than 100, and then be 150 for none at the end of play is just unheard of.
We've been good at bouncing back strongly so we didn't expect anything less, but to do it so emphatically probably wasn't on the cards."
The English think tank was wondering how the bowling attack would fare after Stuart Broad was ruled out of the series after sustaining an abdominal injury during the second test win at Adelaide, they gambled with Tremlett and the giant
has not disappointed them one bit putting in gigantic performances in every innings since then.
He ably supported Anderson at the MCG claiming 4 wickets of his own, his pace and bounce caused real discomfort to Ponting’s men.
If the abysmal batting was not enough, the hosts were let down by their bowlers also, who failed to make inroads into the English batting line up resulting in one of the most one sided days in test cricket in recent years.
The disappointment is further compounded by the fact that the match is as good as over as early as the first day, only a handful of matches have gone in favour of the teams that have been rolled over under 100 in the 125 odd years of test
cricket and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746 has to hope for a similar miracle to unfold if they are to harbour hopes of regaining the little Ashes urn.
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