England complete a dominant Ashes triumph
After adding 68 runs in the day’s play, the Australian team was all-out for a total of 281 in their second innings. The victory ensured yet another innings defeat for Australia in the Ashes. and as a result England secured the series 3-1 after today’s win.
Australia started the day at 213 for the loss of seven wickets. Steve Smith and peter Siddle were the overnight unbeaten batsmen at 24 and 17 runs respectively. The pair took the score over 250 before Siddle got out, contributing 43 runs to the total.
Both the batsmen gave their team an 86-run partnership but it wasn’t enough for the team in the context of the match. Ben Hilfenhaus and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746.
Steve Smith remained unbeaten on 54 until the end of the match but his effort was in vain as Australia only managed a second innings total of 281, adding to their first innings total of 280 runs.
It was just a matter of time for the English bowlers to dismiss all the Australian batsmen, after the day's play started. The team was granted an extra half hour yesterday as captain Andrew Strauss wanted to wrap up the match, however, the Australian tail
along with Smith didn’t allow England to finish things up that early and they continued to hinder the English celebrations for some time. All the English bowlers took wickets to support each other.
James Anderson and Chris Tremlett were the pick of the bowlers as they took three wickets each. Tim Bresnan took two wickets in the innings whereas Graeme Swann also chipped in with one wicket.
Alastair Cook was named man-of-the-match following his tremendous century in the match. He would consider himself a little fortunate after he was caught off a no-ball on 46 but survived through the help of technology.
He also got the player-of-the-series award following his extraordinary run in the series with the bat. He was given tough competition by team-mate James Anderson who ended up as the top wicket-taker in the series.
The Australians will be disappointed with their overall performance. Apart from the Perth Test, the team was below par in all forms of the game. Even the Perth Test was won due to some exceptional bowling performances whereas the batting struggled throughout
the series.
Both the teams will now be playing a two match Twenty20 series and it will be followed by the ODI series. The ODIs will be very important for both the teams considering the World Cup preparations.
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