Ashes 2013
The Focus Shifts
August 29th
[09:00 CEST]
With the dust finally beginning to settle over the Ashes series, despite some
attempts to re-ignite the propaganda war with news of ungentlemanly late-night celebrations,
reported by horrified scribes of the losing side, the focus shifts. Two T20s
are followed by six ODIs for each side, with Australia playing Scotland in a
warm-up and England taking on Ireland in what is becoming a regular fixture.
Today, the
circus starts in the Ageas Bowl which, in its previous incarnation of the Rose
Bowl, heralded one of the most historic limited overs internationals ever
played, as England dismissed Australia for 79 in 14.3 overs in a T20 in 2005, to win the match by
100 runs and cause a psychological shift in the balance between the sides. A
great quiz question is: “who was the bowler who led the carnage?” (answer at
the bottom)
While the
ODI squad is missing some familiar names, the T20 squad is just about England’s
strongest, although it features only 3 of the Ashes-winning team, with a whole
string of short-format specialists being included. Two of the more contentious
names are Jade Dernbach, who seems to get an extraordinary number of opportunities
despite rarely showing his potential and Joe Root, who has played two T20s
without ever wielding a bat in anger. Three of England’s squad of 14 will miss
out, wih Lumb and Carberry probably contesting the opening spot, Rankin and
Dernbach the fast bowling position and Danny Briggs almost certain to miss out
to James Tresdwell.
Having had
the courage to give up an international career with Ireland to push for England
honours, one hopes that Boyd Rankin will get a chance to stake his claims. It
would be galling to all concerned if he has jumped ship for the singular honour
of only playing a single T20 for England against New Zealand. Seen at the start
of the Ashes as the likely reserve for Steve Finn and Stuart Broad, he was never
named in an Ashes squad, as the resurgence of Tim Bresnan made Steve Finn a peripheral
figure in the series and a replacement for him an irrelevance.
Similarly,
one hope that England will recognise the impressive form of Michael Carberry
and will allow him to add to his single England appearance (a Test cap in
Bangladesh).
While the
big prize has already been decided, the T20s and ODIs have their role in
deciding momentum. Certainly Australia will enter the return series in better
heart If they can point to a solid showing and a win in the limited overs series to back up
their claims that they were clearly the better side over the second half of the
Ashes series. England, in contrast, will wish to ensure that they do not allow
Australia to claim that the momentum has definitely shifted to them.
It is as
well to remember that Australia’s record in this format is rather poor: they
have lost their last 5 T20s and have won just 5 of their last 19. With the
World T20 coming up in March, there will not be many opportunities for either
side to hone their squads.
The ODIs are
another matter. Australia’s Champions Trophy was, in contrast to England’s,
brief and disastrous but, with England selecting a weakened squad, Australia
will expect to take a crushing revenge. England will though have the advantage of
a having a number of highly motivated players who did not figure in the Ashes and
who will be hoping to ensure a winter trip to Australia, either with the main
squad, or with the Lions, to give them a chance to be on hand if England come
calling for replacements.
England will
be hoping for a convincing win tonight to ensure that they will, at worst,
share the T20 series.
Answer:
England’s
new ball pair was Darren Gough and Jon Lewis (Steve Harmison and Andrew
Flintoff were the change bowlers). Gough’s 3-16 was trumped by Lewis’s 4-24, as
Australia slumped from 23-0 to 24-5 and then 31-7, with Lewis and Gough taking
all seven wickets in 20 balls.
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