Ashes 2013
T20 Double at Chester-le-Street
September 1st
[09:00 CEST]
A double for England’s men and women made the cumulative total this summer
England 9-2 Australia. In neither game were Australia really at the races and
in both games the Australian big-ticket items fizzled. It was a microcosm in
one day of the entire Ashes summer.
Even the
players themselves seemed to be taken unaware that the womens’ match that
closed the Australian tour, would start at the somewhat absurd early hour of
10am, even though the men’s match would not start until 14:30. Australia
struggled to get out of first gear and only twelve runs off the last over helped
them to set a target over 4-an-over. England made another poor start but, once again,
the Australian change bowling let England off (this has been an on-going story
of the Ashes summer, both for the women and for the men). Ellyse Perry, reduced
to second change now was, by some distance, the most expensive bowler of the
day and took her tour figures to 2-259; the way that England have reduced Perry
to a rather marginal figure in the series has been one of their great successes
and has been a major factor in winning. In the end, England cruised to victory
with almost four overs to spare. Apart from the first ODI, which England had
completely under control until collapsing when it would have almost been easier
to win, England have won every match apart from the Test.
It has been
a magnificent performance and the team deserved to receive the trophy in front
of a full house, either at the climax to the evening or, at least, just before
the start of the mens’ game rather than at 10am before the game had started.
When it came
to the second match of the double-header, both England and Australia provided
surprises. England by picking the same side that lost on Thursday and Australia
by winning the toss and choosing to bowl, when the side batting first has
dominated every single game in the series. Despite having a squad of 18 for the
two matches, Australia chose to make just one change in their side. Given that
the squad will now be reduced to 15 for the ODIs, it seemed a bit pointless to
take so many players, when a number of them will not be used.
Lumb and
Hales gave England a fast start that was backed up by Wright and Morgan. At
187-2 with seven balls to go, England must have been confident of going past
200 again and of Hales becoming the first England batsman to score a T20
century. However,
Fawad Ahmed was bravely given the last over and responded superbly to deny both
individual and team. Alex Hales though does have the
compensation that he is now the world’s #1 ranked batsman in T20, despite the
fact that he is not even so well known in English cricket, apart from the
regular followers of the county game. It all goes to show that there is life
outside the IPL and the Big Bash.
Australia
were left with 197 to chase. It was a huge chase in any T20 game. My feeling
was that Thursday had been a freak performance of the kind that happens
sometimes and would not be repeated. Australia needed a good start to get
anywhere near, but Steve Finn sent down an excellent first over, Stuart Broad
backed him up and, at 15-2 after 3 overs, the RRR was already climbing towards
11 with Finch and Watson, two of the three danger men, back in the pavilion.
From then it was just a matter of England keeping their nerve. Although Ravi
Bopara was again relatively expensive, Danny Briggs and Joe Root both took
revenge for Thursday’s humiliation with economical spells and three wickets
between them. Jade Dernbach again produced the best figures of the attack with
3-23. At 148-8, with just 15 balls to go, the game was all over and England
closed it out quietly.
England now
go to Dublin for an ODI, while Australia travel to Edinburgh to take on
Scotland; both on Tuesday, before Friday’s first England v Australia ODI. Why a
couple of extra days could not be added to allow England to play Scotland and
for Australia to go to Dublin too is a matter for debate. However, both
Associates should be grateful for small mercies and to get an ODI each against
a Full Member. While Scotland will only hoping to keep the result respectable
against Australia, England know that they have lost to Ireland in an ODI and
can expect a tough match, particularly with a very young and inexperienced side
going to Dublin. One thing is certain: the game may be a warm-up for England
but, for Ireland it is an ODI that they badly want to win.
[PS: In the
last 16 months, Alex Hales has hit three of the six highest scores by England
batsmen in T20s. The best remains Luke Wright’s 99* v Afghanistan in the 2012
World T20 but, with scores of 99, 94 and 80* it can only be a matter of time
before Hales scores England’s first international T20 century, adding to the
ten scored in the history of T20 internationals.]
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