Cricket Special Report: Controversial 2010 summer- A victorious summer for England (Part I)
This summer turned out to be a victorious summer for England, as Andrew Strauss picked up the trophy yesterday at http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Rose-c86842 Bowl after defeating touring Pakistan side by 131 runs. It was England’s sixth trophy of the summer in as many series.
The 2010 summer in England brought a string of unpleasant reminiscences for international cricket, as it was http://www.senore.com/Cricket/A-Summer-c41330 that witnessed the 2006 Oval debacle, ball tampering fiasco of 1992 and 1996 and the match fixing shambles of 2000. The spot and match fixing
controversy that emerged in the middle of the Lord’s Test would always be remembered by the historic venue, as the worst nightmare for international cricket. Despite all these controversies, it was the luckiest summer for the English team over the past decade,
as the side has won all of its series that it was due to play as their summer assignment.
This summer, England played a tally of 22 matches across all formats of the cricket with a win loss ratio of 16:6. Off total 11 Test matches played against three countries – Bangladesh, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 - Strauss’s men won eight matches. When it comes
to the one day internationals, England side played 8 matches winning 5 of them. The 2010 World T20 champions, under Paul Collingwood’s captaincy, played only two T20Is against Pakistan and both the matches finished in England’s name.
England started its endearing summer with a victory against Bengali tigers back in May-June, when Strauss’s men had sealed 2-match Test series with 2-0. Victorious English team then played a single One Day International against emerging http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Scotland-c756 side before
taking on their Ashes rivals in five-match Test series, a series that was won by England with a margin of 3-2. England won the first one-day quite easily by six wickets.
England went 3-0 against the mighty Aussies in that very series and it was for the first time over the past decade that the Kangaroos had gotten the fear of 5-0 whitewash. Though the whitewash was fittingly denied by Ponting’s men - winning the last two
matches of the series with some decent margins - but 3-2 series victory against Australians, at home, turned out to be a morale booster for Strauss and his men.
With the confidence that they gained from Test series victory against the World Champions, the English players returned to the http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Bangladesh-c747 side once again to play a three match ODI series in July.
After winning the first ODI at Trent Bridge, England was planning to hand Bengali tigers another whitewash but the visitors had some other plans. Mashrafe Mortaza’s men came back strongly at Bristol setting a narrow 5-run victory against confident English
side. Though the Bengali tigers passed away 3-0 whitewash by winning second of the three-match one-day series but could not deny series defeat as England had won the series by 2-1.
Having defeated Bangladesh in the one-day series, England started its drilling against Pakistan cricket team who had won their 2-match T20 series against Australia by 2-0 followed by a 1-1 draw in the 2-Test series.
Both the sides started testing each other’s nerves at Trent Bridge, Nottingham on July 29th. The first Test of the four-match series brought second biggest margin defeat for the Pakistan team as England sealed a 354-run home. The confident English
attack had bundled inexperienced Pakistan line-up to a meagre total of 80 runs only in their second innings, while the visitors were chasing a target of 434 runs.
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