Cricket Update: Ashes 2010- England wraps up the urn as Australia slumps to an innings and 157 runs defeat
It is all over for Ricky Ponting and his men. England completed the formalities of wrapping up their first successful tour of the land down under in 24 years before lunch on the fourth day today. The Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) was the historical ground
where Andrew Strauss’s army won convincingly by an innings and 157 runs in the fourth Test to take a 2-1 lead in the series.
As England leads the Ashes, they have the honour of retaining the world’s smallest coveted trophy, the urn.
Australia has been reeling from their most embarrassing first innings on the first day when England’s James Anderson and Chris Tremlett took four wickets each and restricted Australia on just 98 runs with their top scorer being vice captain Michael http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Clarke-c51120
(20 runs).
England took a lead of 415 runs due to the heroic unbeaten innings of top order batsman Jonathan Trott (168 runs) who was aptly supported by England’s captain Strauss (69 runs), Alistair Cook (82 runs), Kevin Pietersen (51 runs) and Matt Prior (85 runs).
Even though Australia’s snarly fast bowler Peter Siddle took six wickets, yet it seemed as http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746 had run out of plain old luck.
Ryan Harris, the home bowler was ruled out on the third day as he suffered a stress ankle fracture on his left foot and was unable to bat on the fourth day. Therefore, Andrew Strauss and his men knew that they only needed to take three wickets in order to
retain the Ashes title. And the English bowlers abided by this even though Australia’s tail-enders admirably provided some initial resistance.
The fourth day started off confidently for England, as Tremlett took his only wicket of the second innings, dismissing Mitchell Johnson (6 runs) in the second over of the day. Brad Haddin (55 runs not out) was supported by Siddle (40 runs) as they shared
the eight wicket stand of 86 runs. They raised some hope as they took their team from 172 runs for the loss of seven wickets to 258 runs when Graeme Swann removed Siddle before Tim Bresnan finished with 4 for 50 as Ben Hilfenhaus was caught behind.
Bresnan was swept by his team-mates as Strauss set off in celebration to carry the urn back to their home.
Ponting, on the other hand now waits for the Grim Reaper as he became the only second Australian skipper to have three unsuccessful Ashes tournaments.
Ponting, who highlighted day two of the Melbourne Test when he got involved in a referral row with umpire Aleem Dar. He escaped a ban in the final and fifth Test match at Sydney and was charged 40 percent of his match fees.
The man of the match was undoubtedly Jonathan Trott as the Barmy Army broke into scenes of mass jubilation.
Australia could now only hope for a miracle in the fifth Sydney Test to level the series, however, the title and the urn are gone. The selectors will again need to scratch their heads as Ponting’s broken finger injury returned as he had x-rays before the
day started.
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