England wrap up series win over Australia
It may be slipping under the radar of a nation stricken with football World Cup fever, for which Germany found the brutal cure with a 4-1 defeat, but England took an unassailable 3-0 lead over Australia in the NatWest Series at Old Trafford with a one-wicket victory.
But they made hard work of it as Australia took them to the last over of the day.
Having called correctly at the toss, Andrew Strauss, the England captain decided to ask Australia to bat first. It might have appeared a flawed decision when Shane Watson and Tim Paine took the score to 54-0 by the 10th over, as Tim Bresnan and Stuart Broad took the brunt of the battering. It was the third successive half-century partnership for Australia in the series but again the top-order batsmen failed to make the most of the platform.
The opening pair had reached a stand of 75 in under 14 overs, which gave prospects of a total approaching 300 and the need for England to apply the brakes. Michael Yardy was perceived as being the holding bowler for England, having taken only one wicket, but he held up Australia’s gathering momentum in the most proactive way by taking the wicket of Paine, lbw, in his first over. From there it was his spin partner, Graeme Swann (pictured), who then kept the pressure on the batsmen with figures of 4-37.
He took the wickets of Shane Watson (61), Ricky Ponting (three), Michael Clarke (33) and Cameron White (12) as the Australia innings stuttered. Mike Hussey then came unstuck against one of Paul Collingwood's cutters at the start of the last 10 overs, and James Anderson mopped up the tail with three wickets among the seven which fell for only 58 runs as Australia were bowled out for just 212 in 46 overs.
A number of Australia’s front-line bowlers were not playing in this series and went into this match without a second spinner because of Nathan Hauritz's injury. But his replacement, Shaun Tait, got Australia off the perfect start when he bowled Craig Kieswetter for a first-ball duck, as Tait - 3-28 - blasted out his middle-stump with late swing.
Strauss then set about playing a captain’s innings as he set up a series of half-century partnerships with Kevin Pietersen, Paul Collingwood and Eoin Morgan. But none of them proved decisive and the innings really began to wobble once Strauss was dismissed, caught by Paine off the bowling Ryan Harris, for 87.
From there, Ponting, marshalling his bowlers, scented blood and his players needed no directions as to where England’s jugular was or how to attack it.
One of the aspects of England’s one-day team now is that the tail wags rather than hanging limply. The fall of Swann and Broad – both from the bowling of Bollinger - raised the tension, after six wickets had fallen for 18 runs, and slumped from 185-3 three, but they slumped to 203-9.
But the nerves seemingly had little hold on Bresnan. He eased the nerves when striking a boundary off the final ball of the penultimate over and sealed victory with another one edged off the first delivery of the last over.
“It was pretty horrendous,” Strauss said of the final overs. “We looked like we were cruising when Morgs and I were going well, but we had a couple of speed bumps in the first two one-dayers and today was a major one. There were some pretty nervous guys and fair play to Tim Bresnan, he kept his head and got us over the line.”
Ponting accepted the defeat, while knowing there were plenty of positives to take from it to the next match at the Oval on Wednesday. “We’ve some work to do but it will be a good test of character for the guys,” he said. “We’ve done enough talking, it's about actions, standing up when the pressure is on. We have to work it out and work it out quickly.”
England now rise to fourth place in the ICC world rankings but Australia may be down, but far from out. And England know it.
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