Ashes recap: Australia in deep trouble
There have been many shifts in the momentum in this year Ashes. Until the last match, Australia was dominant but England bounced back strongly giving Australia no option but to go on the defensive.
After getting out on 98 in the first innings, the Australian team may have thought to bowl out England within 200 runs if not a 100. The English batsmen showed no mercy to the Australian bowlers and scored a mammoth 513 runs in their first innings. England
started day three with Jonathan Trott and Matt Prior. Trott completed his 150 and remained the unbeaten batsman for England. Prior would have liked to score his century but he wasn’t able to capitalize on the opportunity he had. He got out for 85 but not before
giving a 183 run stand to England. Earlier, Alistair Cook also got out in the eighties and missed out on his opportunity of scoring a ton. The stand out performance came from Trott who scored an unbeaten 168 to crush the confidence of the Australian bowlers.
For Australia, Peter Siddle took six wickets and was the best of all the bowlers. Ben Hilfenhaus and Mitchell Johnson also grabbed a couple of wickets but Johnson was expensive and gave away too many runs. The second innings for Australia was very difficult
as the host team was trailing by 415 runs. The openers looked solid and gave a fifty run opening stand to the team. Just when things looked a little bit better, Philip Hughes was run out trying to take a quick single. His downfall was very crucial as England
were looking for breakthroughs. This brought Ricky Ponting to the crease, who looked solid for some time but he lost Shane http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746 as their middle order collapsed. Australia lost six
wickets for 158 runs, leaving Brad Haddin and Mitchell Johnson on the crease.
For England, it was Tim Bresnan who shined. He grabbed three wickets and was well supported by Graeme Swann and James Anderson. Both Swann and Anderson took one wicket each. At the close of play, Australia were 169 for six. A loss in this match was inevitable,
after Australia was bundled up below 100 in the first innings of the match. This victory would mean that England will retain the Ashes and Australia will have to do some serious thinking. Ponting may lose his captaincy after the end of the 2011 World Cup as
he has been criticized by many cricket pundits.
Ponting has not been able to score runs in this year Ashes which is also a big concern for the Australian selectors. A dip in his form seems to be the reason of losing the Ashes. His form will also be crucial for Australia in the World Cup and if he remains
like this, he may even lose his spot in the team.
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