England set new record at the Gabba and in The Ashes
England’s batting pair of Alastair Cook and Jonathan Trott surprised everyone with a record second wicket stand of 329 on the fifth day of the first Ashes Test at the Gabba and secured a comfortable draw for England.
Cook was able to get his maiden double hundred and Trott secured his second highest against Australia and it was the first time that the top three batsmen of England hit tons in the Ashes after Andrew Strauss decided to declare on 517 for the fall of only
one wicket, which led Australia to face only 41 overs.
England gave a chasing score of 296 to Australia in 41 overs, which was possible but hard to get as England wanted to prepare its bowling side to be psychologically more strong and confident before the Test ahead in Adelaide.
This gave Broad the wicket of Simon Katich when he edged the ball into the slips as Broad was wicket-less in his first innings. Ricky Ponting put the fielding frustration behind him and hit a brisk half century with a second wicket stand of more than a hundred
with Shane http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Watson-c96326.
Alastair Cook made his brilliant maiden double hundred which came from 306 balls and left his personal previous best of 173 against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Bangladesh-c747 at Chittagong far behind. Trott was also elegant with the bat who came with an impressive hundred from 213 balls.
The landmark that Cook achieved also brought a record for him, which was previously held by Don Bradman for the highest individual score at the Gabba. He also bettered his individual score than that of Mathew Hayden in the Ashes series of 2002-03.
The second wicket partnership between Cook and Trott was the highest by any English pair in Australia and also surpassed the record that was set by Michael Hussey and Brad Haddin, which could last for only two days. England also finished the innings with
the highest score in an innings with the fall of only one wicket.
When England began in the morning on Monday they applied a careful batting strategy but punished wayward bowling. Cook and Trott batted with a fantastic pace against an unthreatening bowling attack and at lunch England was quite stable.
On the other hand, Ponting set a defensive field for the day, which led to number of edges making their way through the slips and the only chance Trott gave was when he was on 75 was but Michael http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Clarke-c51120 dropped it in the slips.
English teams have faced difficulties for years in http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746 especially at the Gabba but the confidence that was showed by English batmen in the second innings of the first Ashes Test and the psychological effect that it will leave on the English squad is
alarming to the hosts. England proved how threatening they can be in Tests to come especially with the Adelaide Test starting on third December.
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