England Road to Supremacy
13th August, 2011, the day no English fan will ever forget. Certainly it has been a nervy, rollicking era for a nation, which are so called inventor of a sporting game, whose supremacy eluded them for the best part of 40 years.
For much of 90’s and early 2000, England has been playing in the shadows of their fiercest rivals, Australia. While the Kangaroos, dominated on all fronts with flying colors, it was the Poms, whose first task it seemed was to topple a star-studded Aussie
line-up and win the Ashes.
That moment duly came in 2005, when under the captaincy of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Glenn-Donald-McGrath-c60183, and won the series, which is regarded by many as the most closely fought Ashes
battle in years.
At that time, it was going all well for the English side. They had an inspirational captain in Michael Vaughan and an attacking opener in http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Andrew-Flintoff-c44360, an out an out all-rounder,
who remains one of the legends of the game.
Though his stats could never justify his true potential, but he was at the peak of his game in 2005, with both, bat and ball. In series which his side won, he scored 402 runs at an average of 40, while taking 24 wickets to mark a historical 2-1 triumph.
Though all seemed well for the Poms, it all changed in the matter of a couple of years as injuries to key personnel including skipper Vaughan, meant that they still were playing catch up cricket to http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746.
Losing convincingly on tour of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 in 05-06, English cricket hit its lowest patch, when they toured Down Under to retain their Ashes crown in 2007.
With Vaughan still out injured, Flintoff was given the captain’s arm-band, which the player was hesitant to take, right from the start. As it happened, England were whitewashed 5-0, as the all-rounder failed to motivate the side.
It seemed that the team’s main goal of winning the Ashes led them to appear blank on what task to look ahead. An inevitable Vaughan then retired in 2008, leaving it to the new darling of English cricket, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/KP-Pietersen-c1806 to take over the captaincy.
A South African native, Pietersen’s rise to stardom made him the obvious candidate for the vacant post. The tenure started well with a century and victory against Proteas, but it also turned soured soon, when a much publicized call for the removal of then
head coach http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Peter-Moores-c81848, had fatal consequences- both were sacked for their respective posts.
He remained in the line-up but now it left the ECB in a bigger dilemma of who too appoint for the top most jobs in England Cricket.
Finally, it was left to Andrew Stauss and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Andrew-Flower-c44362 to get the nod for the captain and head coach, respectively. Both join hands and steered the team out of their fiercest rival shadows and mastered the art of winning.
Firstly and most notably was winning the Ashes in 2009 when Strauss led from the front and was named the player of the series. However, the biggest moment followed a year later when a formidable English contingent outperformed the Aussies on their own back
yard and retained the Ashes crown in 2010.
Having given the fans a taste of victory, the duo went all the way as now the Poms possessed the top 6 batters in the world, followed by an attack, which is simply irresistible when at full flight.
Their wrath was surely experienced by an Indian side, fresh from their World Cup triumph, only to be outplayed in every department and handing pride as well the most coveted no1 spot to arguably, the best side in World Cricket.
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