Battle At Brisbane ends in draw as England earn moral edge
It was fairytale ending that would have made the Brothers Grimm proud. They began the story in disastrous fashion, they were on the back-foot for most of the match, yet like Cinderella who was saved by the Fairy Godmother or Snow White who met the Seven
Dwarfs, England managed to strike at the right time and take the game away.
The last two days of the Brisbane test proved to be as a fairy-tale for them as they were nightmarish for the hosts. Not only did the top 3 English batsmen score centuries together in an innings for the first time since 1924, Alastair Cook and Jonathan Trott
added 329 runs for the second wicket, which now stands at number 9 in England’s all-time Test history. Alistair Cook became the fourth batsmen after Wally Hammond, Reg Foster and Paul Collingwood to score a double ton on Australian soil as England hit an extraordinary
517 runs for the loss of just one wicket on the final day of the first Test before declaring.
Had there been any other team than the English, Australia would have gone for a win. They might even have won had the bowlers been from http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Sri-Lanka-c758. But with the English as opponents, it’s a different ball game. The match
ended in an expected draw because had the Aussies gone for a win, they might have lost. Their batting is brittle these days, if one has the permission to be blunt. After Shane Watson and Ricky Ponting, there were only Michael Hussey and Brad Haddin who could
have given the English a tough time. Rest would have fallen as they did in the 1st innings.
The day clearly belonged to England who began the proceedings with 309 runs for the loss of Andrew Strauss. Not only did their disciplined partnership better the 307 Hussey-Haddin stand achieved in Australia’s first innings but they managed to post the highest
stand by Englishmen in Australia. The previous best was scored nearly a century ago by Jack Hobbs and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Wilfred-Rhodes-c96605 who added 323 runs on the Ashes tour of 1911-1912.
Cook was the most accomplished of the three centurions from England. During the course of the innings, he also surpassed Sir Don Bradman for the highest Test score at the Gabba. Trott, who began the day at 54, managed to score his second Ashes century in as
many matches, making his run against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Watson-c96326.
Until they fell to the declaration from Andrew Strauss twenty minutes before tea, they had tormented each and every Australian bowler by scoring runs at will on bad deliveries and being patient with the good ones. The visitors finished their first innings at
517 runs for the loss of one wicket, setting Australia 297 runs to win from 41 overs. Australia ended the day with skipper Ricky Ponting hitting 51 not out and Shane Watson scoring an unbeaten 41. After the loss of Simon Katich for 4, the two managed to calm
the proceedings.
Australia’s main point of concern ahead of the next test that starts on December 3rd would be its bowlers. While nothing was expected from Xavier Doherty and Peter Siddle (his 6 wickets would have surprised himself), Australia had lots of expectations from
left-armer Mitchell Johnson who ended the Test wicketless at the cost of 170 runs. His one particular delivery to Trott hurtled three metres wide of the wicket and resembled Steve Harmison's now-famous maiden Ashes delivery in 2005, that heralded the end of
English supremacy in Ashes. It remains to be seen whether Johnson’s delivery has the same effect on his side, but he needs tuning ahead of the Adelaide test, or he might be axed for continuous loss of form. The last 3 days belonged to England who will enter
the next match at Adelaide with more confidence than their opponents.
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