England tower over the not so mighty Australians, as they force a draw
The year 2010 has been a dismal one for Australia on the whole with misery upon misery piling up like a stack in a corner burdening their already stressed shoulders. With the departure of Glen Mcgrath, Bret http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Lee-c72382, Jason Gillespie, Shane Warne and others, Ricky
Ponting is struggling under the immense weight of responsibility that the tag of the World champion carries with it. Not only have they failed to find the ‘X’ factor in their bowling attack but their batting has been on the whole inconsistent. Their batsmen
have been a shade out of form, Hauritz has been far from satisfactory and Doherty is not much of a revelation either for the Kangaroos.
England on the other hand are steaming like a charging vessel looking to thwart the considerably weakened Aussies with supreme force. This year the Ashes is most certainly going to be a battle of nerves between the no 4 and no 5 team in the world. However
as they say, statistics tend to be misleading and so they are in this particular case as well. For the Ashes is no ordinary series. It is built upon decades of history, of rivalry, of brute force, of anger, of discipline, of sledging and of records being bundled
up by cricketing greats.
Just 8 decades ago Sir Donald Bradman scored the highest individual score at Gabba. Eight decades later an Englishman on Australian soil broke the record of the great sir Donald Bradman and while this might be for some people yet another double hundred by
a promising player it is also a rather ominous sign for the troubled Aussies. For neither, Cook has been as prolific in his career as the great Don Bradman and neither as charismatic. Many had in fact written Cook off completely.
Less than two days after a record partnership was set by Mike Hussey and Brad Haddin it was broken by the determined Englishmen. Their performance has been emanating the aura of a self assured team who have their goals set and their eyes on the Ashes. They
look like a complete unit and function like one. Despite the outwardly facade of calmness on the brows of Ricky Ponting, things are in as much anarchy in the Australian camp as they are at peace in the English.
Jonathan Trott the batsman who played like a veteran musician plucking at the chords of his harp, alongside the herculean Cook has never looked so sublime. He is by far the most stylish player England has produced in a long time and I am not saying this
just now, but rather have been saying this since the summers. His partnership with Stuart Broad against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 at a time when his team most needed it showed immense character and fortitude. As the two batted along against the struggling Aussie bowling attack
the Englishmen have never seemed so comfortable as they did on the day that mattered.
Strauss played a spectacular innings to score his century and the form of Jonathan Trott was never in question. The one man who did have a lot on stake was Alastair Cook and he silenced his critics with a deafening blow in the form of a double century. It
came as a punch on the nose for the unsuspecting Aussies who no longer could rely on the magic of Shane Warne to undo the Poms.
Cricket has always been a q***r sport and while many would be ready to latch their teeth on my sorry neck as I say it, I would propose that they at least give me some time to explain myself. http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746 and England, have collectively won 652 test matches which
is more than twice as many tests teams on number 1 and number 2 spot have won. The fact that rankings do not take into account how good a certain team was in the 1890’s could be the prime reason for this.
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