England 3-0 up against Australia in NatWest Series
By taking an incontestable 3-0 lead over Australia in the five-match NatWest Series at Old Trafford on Sunday, English Captain Andrew Strauss concluded the final leg of a Grand Slam against the World Champions in all the formats of international cricket including the Ashes, T20 World Cup and now the one-day international series as well.
England won the toss and decided to begin the match with the ball. The opening duo of Australia, featuring SR Watson and TD Paine, gave a strong foundation to their side. In the opening stand, the Aussie openers scored 75 runs in thirteen overs to propel the team to a fine start. Yardy gave the breakthrough to the hosts in the 13th over when Paine went back to the pavilion after being trapped in front of the wicket. He scored 44 runs from 48 balls with the help of nine boundaries.
Captain Ricky Ponting came at one-down position but failed to impress. He could only manage three runs and was stumped by Kieswetter in the 18th over. Clarke joined Watson at the centre to reconstruct the innings. They added 37 runs to the scorecard in a brisk partnership but England fought back with Watson losing his wicket. He was bowled by Swan in 26th over. At the time of dismissal, he was playing at 61 runs that included five boundaries and 2 sixes.
After Watson, no Australian batsman could settle down and seven wickets fell a meagre 72 runs in the next 20 overs. Australia was all out for 212 with four overs to spare.
From the English side, Swann was most successful with the ball. He took 4 wickets in his impressive ten overs spell, conceding just 37 runs with one maiden. Michael Anderson was up next who took 3 wickets by giving 22 runs in eight overs with one maiden.
The English started the run –chase with full confidence. Captain Andrew Strauss led his side from the front with a gutsy innings of 87 runs from 121 balls, smashing 8 boundaries which helped the hosts chase the target with a wicket in hand and five balls to spare.
At the time of Strauss’s dismissal, English side was 24 runs short of the victory, at 189-5 with 7.1 overs to spare. But a dramatic late collapse in the English innings brought some hope to the Australian bowlers. Six English wickets fell for just 18 runs in the space of 39 balls. But the sensible aggression of last pair Tim Bresnan and Jimmy Anderson handed England a one wicket win over the Aussies with five balls of the match still to be bowled. Both Tait and Bollinger took three wickets each. Harris was the most expensive bowler from Australian side conceding 59 runs in his ten overs spell.
Andrew Strauss is the second English skipper to go 3-0 up against the mighty Australians. For the first time since 1997when England, under Mike Atherton’s captaincy at the Texaco Trophy, took a 3-nill unassailable lead over an Australian team.
Strauss in the end said, "Not many sides go 3-0 up on Australia, so we should take a lot of pride and confidence out of our performances”.
Graeme Swann was man of the match for his 4-37, picking four of Ponting’s top five men, but Anderson was also superb with his 3-22.
Australia in the past decade has lost some Ashes series but in one day’s internationals, they have always had the English rivals covered. Over the past ten years, both England and Australia have played 36 ODIs against each other out of which the Kangaroos have won 25.
This is the first time since 1987 that England is leading ahead of the Australia in all forms of cricket. With the cricket world cup 2011 just a few months away, it is an alarming situation for the World Champions as their Ashes rivals are claiming bragging rights in all three forms of World cricket.
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