England win in thrilling finish to first ashes Test by Andy Jalil

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Scorecard:	England v Australia
Event:	Australia in British Isles 2013

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DateLine: 14th July 2013

 

By Andy Jalil at Trent Bridge.
In association with INVESTEC.

 

Andy Jalil at Trent Bridge In association with INVESTEC © Pakistan Cricket Website

 

Nottingham – Forecasting is a funny business. It makes prophets of the lucky ones and fools of those who get it wrong. Who could have predicted which way this first Ashes Test would go? It swung like a pendulum from the first to the last day. And in an agonising finish England pipped the Australians at the post by 14 runs to go one up in this five-Test series.

 

But the heroics of Australia’s last wicket stand has to be applauded as Brad Haddin battled for little over three and a half hours, facing 141 balls for his score of 71 before a faint edge from his bat went into the wicket-keepers gloves fourteen minutes after a delayed lunch to bring this gripping match to an end.

 

It gave James Anderson 10 wickets for 158 for the match of which he had 4 for 12 from 45 balls on the last day in a marvellous bowling spell. James Pattinson’s brilliant effort in helping Haddin to add 65 runs for the tenth wicket saw him to an unbeaten 25 from 57 balls faced in an hour and ten minutes of sheer defiance.

 

Had Australia made it home with the help of their tenth wicket pair, they would have done so for only the first time since 1951-52 against West Indies in Melbourne. England have won a Test by a lesser margin on six previous occasions of which only once at home and that was in 2005 against Australia in Birmingham when they were victorious by two runs. They went on to win the series by two Tests to one.

 

This Test was poised for a thrilling finish going into the final day. England had the edge perhaps, but with Australia’s batting line-up going deep they could not be ruled out. Indeed they battled hard for the crucial first hour with Haddin and young Ashton Agar resuming on the overnight score of 174 for six and trailing by 137.

 

Opening the bowling with a combined spin and pace attack of Graeme Swann and Anderson, England struggled to get a breakthrough with both batsmen playing watchfully and waiting patiently for the loose ball to score of. Australia would have hoped that Agar would show his first innings’ fluent batting form but with the necessity of keeping wickets intact he was quite defensive until the square drive he played for four off Stuart Broad, who had replaced Swann, to take his score to 14.

 

That was Agar’s last scoring shot as England then got the breakthrough which they were urgently seeking for nearly an hour. It came from Anderson having the left-hander caught in the fifth over with the second new ball. Agar had edged his shot to first slip reaching for the ball which was seaming away. Haddin, 11 overnight, meanwhile had picked up runs, his slog/sweep off Swann from outside off stump had taken him to 20 and a lovely cover drive after that, off Anderson, took him to 28 by the time of Agar’s dismissal.

 

Having taken the seventh wicket, Anderson in his next over accounted for Mitchell Starc having him caught at first slip as well by Cook for 1. It was a good wicket to take as Starc is a fair batsman with a score of 99 scored on tour in India last April. With that wicket Anderson had taken two in five balls without conceding a run.

 

Haddin went on to add twenty runs with Peter Siddle for the ninth wicket taking his own score to 36 before Anderson struck for the third time again with the help of Cook the solitary slip. It was a great catch by the England captain to dismiss Siddle (on 11) as he dived to his left to hold the ball one-handed. That was 231 for nine and Australia needed 80 at that stage.

 

Lunch was delayed by 30 minutes as is the rule with nine wickets down and Australia were 291 for nine, needing just 20 more runs. It was Haddin’s effort in particular that took them to that stage. He was on 69 and Pattinson on 22 having supported his senior partner admirably for an hour.

 

(Article: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author only.
Copyright © 2013 Andy Jalil)