Cricket: Ashes 4th Test Scorecard and Review

England 1st Innings – All out

			Runs	Balls	4s	6s
Strauss	c North	b Siddle	3	17	0	0
Cook	c M Clarke	b Clark	30	65	3	0
Bopara	c M Hussey	b Hilfenhaus	1	6	0	0
Bell	c Haddin	b M Johnson	8	26	2	0
Collingwood	c Ponting	b Clark	0	5	0	0
Prior	not out		37	43	5	0
Broad	c Katich	b Clark	3	12	0	0
Swann	c M Clarke	b Siddle	0	15	0	0
S Harmison	c Haddin	b Siddle	0	6	0	0
Anderson	c Haddin	b Siddle	3	10	0	0
Onions	c Katich	b Siddle	0	1	0	0
Extras		3nb 1w 5b 8lb	17
Total		all out	102	(33.5 ovs)
Bowler	O	M	R	W
Hilfenhaus	7.0	0	20	1
Siddle	9.5	0	21	5
M Johnson	7.0	0	30	1
Clark	10.0	4	18	3

Australia 1st Innings – All out

			Runs	Balls	4s	6s
S Watson	lbw	b Onions	51	67	9	0
Katich	c Bopara	b S Harmison	0	4	0	0
Ponting	lbw	b Broad	78	101	12	1
M Hussey	lbw	b Broad	10	10	2	0
M Clarke	lbw	b Onions	93	138	13	0
North	c Anderson	b Broad	110	206	13	1
Haddin	c Bell	b S Harmison	14	23	1	0
M Johnson	c Bopara	b Broad	27	53	5	0
Siddle		b Broad	0	1	0	0
Clark		b Broad	32	22	1	3
Hilfenhaus	not out		0	3	0	0
Extras		3nb 4w 9b 14lb	30
Total		all out	445	(104.1 ovs)
Bowler	O	M	R	W
Anderson	18.0	3	89	0
S Harmison	23.0	4	98	2
Onions	22.0	5	80	2
Broad	25.1	6	91	6
Swann	16.0	4	64	0

England 2nd Innings – All out

			Runs	Balls	4s	6s
Strauss	lbw	b Hilfenhaus	32	78	4	0
Cook	c Haddin	b M Johnson	30	84	4	0
Bopara	lbw	b Hilfenhaus	0	1	0	0
Bell	c Ponting	b M Johnson	3	12	0	0
Collingwood	lbw	b M Johnson	4	10	0	0
Anderson	c Ponting	b Hilfenhaus	4	10	1	0
Prior	c Haddin	b Hilfenhaus	22	29	3	0
Broad	c S Watson	b Siddle	61	49	10	0
Swann	c Haddin	b M Johnson	62	72	7	1
S Harmison	not out		19	28	4	0
Onions		b M Johnson	0	7	0	0
Extras		11nb 5w 5b 5lb	26
Total		all out	263	(61.3 ovs)
Bowler	O	M	R	W
Hilfenhaus	19.0	2	60	4
Siddle	12.0	2	50	1
Clark	11.0	1	74	0
M Johnson	19.3	3	69	5

Well how do Australia fans review fourth test, two words, Kicked Ass! That’s exactly what happened, it was a great effort for the baggy green’s to get 20 wickets leaving England trailing an innings and 80 runs.

There wasn’t much secret to this victory but just to say England players played poorly, looked awfully weak in all areas of their game, and lacked some serious backbone without Freddie and KP. You could see the wheels turning in the heads of the middle order batsman over thinking too much, it showed on the faces of players like Bell and Bopara who had to prove their worth with their test life hanging in the balance, and the Australian players were just licking their lips after the first inning demolition knowing that it would take a major thunderstorm for them to lose this one.

If we look back at the bowling its hard to really point out a star, Broad’s 6 wickets is probably the only thing to be proud of, but his figures 6-91 probably doesn’t show the real picture of his bowling but impressive none the less.

There were many stars in Australia’s bowling line up, Stuart Clark with figures of 3-18 in the first innings was just half the story for how he bowled that day, jaffer after jaffer catching the batsman in two minds nearly every ball, I don’t know if this is a credit to him or how bad England were with the bat, but it was some beautiful swing bowling. Peter Siddle mopped up the tail in that first innings with his own 5 wicket haul.

The second innings of bowling for the Aussies looked like this, Mitchell Johnson, Ben Hilfenhaus, Johnson, Hilfenhaus, Johnson, Johnson etc… This was the two bowlers show along with some brilliant catching in the slips and by Brad Haddin, just too good, I had a discussion with my mates that when Mitchell Johnson will get stuck in and find form he will be a power house, and along with his performances with the bat, he was one of the outstanding players of that match, he also may be the difference in the 5^th.

As with the bat for Australia, Marcus North showed how you don’t have to show off like Matt Prior to get runs, whilst Michael Clarke and Ricky Ponting played some elegant strokes to get their runs for this match Marcus North showed a Steve Waugh or a Rahul Dravid like innings with some classy shots and some discipline play, with 3 centuries under his belt after 6 tests, this is the type of player England need for their middle order. Maybe time to see him move up the order?

Overall this game leaves an interesting and exciting final, Australia will go for the win its in their nature, and if Justin Langer’s dossier is anything to go by England will act hard on the first day and clam up like little girls for the rest of the match. My Predictions, Australia!

Cricket: England vs Australia – 3rd Test Ashes Preview

After a nail-biting first two tests we are in for some contest for the last three tests. England’s nervous start to the campaign let the Aussies dominate in the first test, and their was big talk on how after that Australia will sail through 4-0 to win the Ashes, most notably from Glen McGrath who did say he found laughable England’s claims that they were the better and more complete side of the two before the contest. But now England have shown they are big contenders and maybe favourites we are in for a mouth watering 3 tests.

Team News

England have just received the shocking blow that the KP will miss the rest of the Ashes, Ian Bell is set to replace him in the team. This is quite bad news as he is one of very few players in the team who is a match winner. As proved in the last test Freddie Flintoff is the other. In other news Andrew Strauss has confirmed England won’t be using Monty Panesar for this test and he has been sent home to do his First Class cricket duties.

Apart from that one replacement it looks as though England will be unchanged from their win at Lords, Ravi Bopara and Stuart Broad will be under the spotlight for not performing so well in the previous tests, but to be fair their really is no great replacement for them at this time, so the pressure will be off for now and hopefully this will give them freedom to perform better.

Australia will most likely keep the same team, in the first innings of the 2^nd test their whole team collapsed so no individual can be blamed, this happens to every team once in a while. Mitchell Johnson has been in the spot light since the first test and their recent game against Worcestershire still causing problems for the Australian pace man, there are talks about Stuart Clark replacing him, so we will have to wait near to the end who will be Australia’s bowling line up. Brett Lee has been ruled out for the third test officially which is a shame as when it comes to pace he matches right up their with Flintoff. With Lee you can’t always guarantee wickets but you can guarantee pressure and a hitting the rib cage of the batsman at 95mph, lets hope to see him on the fourth.

Predictions

It is easy to get excited over England’s win in the last test, but people seem to forget the first test when Australia looked their usual dominating selves. This is a mistake England make all the time, they get hyped up over a win, the media go crazy and the fans start rejoicing in the view that they will be the best team in the world. Australia have a completely different view on winning, its normal to them, and this is why they do better.

England do look strong as a team, but this match will be the biggest test from them, because Australia will bounce back, they don’t like to lose, and people like Mitchell Johnson will be looking for revenge so this is key for him.

As a prediction to the way the pitch looks like its defiantly going to be a lot for batters and not much for the bowlers to work on, the pitch has dried over the last few weeks and their won’t be much for both spinners to work on.

Its hard to say overall but I say Australia should win this if not then the rain will take the game to a draw.