Brilliant Broad swings series decider England’s way

England 332 (Bell 72, Siddle 4-75, Hilfenhaus 3-71) and 58 for 3 (Strauss 32*, Trott 8*) lead Australia 160 (Broad 5-37, Swann 4-38) by 230 runs

In a fascinating series that has fluctuated both ways, the pendulum swung perhaps decisively to England on a dramatic second day at the Oval. An amazing 15 wickets fell as England closed the day 230 runs ahead at 58 for three in their second innings, with captain Andrew Strauss a resolute 32 not out. This should prove to be a decisive lead with the Oval pitch providing ample help to spinners and seamers alike. How Australia and Ricky Ponting must rue the decision to leave spinner Nathan Hauritz out of their XI.

The unlikely heroes of the day for England were the much maligned Stuart Broad, who took 5 for 37 in an unbroken 12 over spell, and Graham Swann, who took 4 for 38.

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England 307 for 8 (Bell 72, Siddle 4-63)

After 4 Tests, 16 days play, 4542 runs and 116 wickets England and Australia arrived this morning at the Oval in south east London squared at one game all in the 2009 Ashes. Only a win would do for England in their quest to win back the Ashes, and while a draw would be enough for Ricky Ponting’s men there was no way that they would be playing for anything other than a victory.

Australia named an unchanged side meaning that they would have no frontline spinner, and for England Freddie Flintoff returned at the expense of Graeme Onions to make his 79th and final appearance in a test match, and Jonathan Trott makes his debut coming in for Ravi Bopara. Andrew Strauss won the toss and chose to bat.

England made it to lunch for the loss of just one wicket, Alastair Cook again chasing a wide ball outside of his off stump and edging to Ricky Ponting at second slip. It was 50/50 how the first wicket was going to go, Strauss was either going to be LBW to a Hilfenhaus inswinger or Cook was going to do that. Let’s hope with some prolonged net work after this series he can sort this issue out. Ian Bell came in back at number 3 with the score at 12-1, precisely the sort of situation England did not want him to be in. He made it through to drinks with his captain though pushing the score on to 56-1 at exactly four an over. The second hour of the morning created no real alarms for either batsman, Strauss reached his fifty ten minutes or so before the break and a four from Bell brought up the hundred in the very next over. Well played both of them and England would have been happy to have avoided losing anymore early wickets, while Australia will still have felt that 108-1 could easily become 150-5 with the batting England have to come.

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England trusts Trott to get the runs

So after the endless debate and rumours of which England batsmen would be replaced after the Headingley debacle, the axe only fell on Ravi Bopara. Ian Bell, who some thought would also be guillotined, survived and will bat at three for the crunch winner takes all final Test at the Oval. This despite his poor record against Australia (566 runs in 12 Tests against Australia at 24.60) and at number 3, where Bell has yet to score a Test match century and only averages a touch over 30.

With probable number one choice Marcus Trescothick ruling out a reversal of his retirement from international cricket and Kent captain Robert Key again being ignored, the selectors chose the uncapped Warwickshire batsman Jonathan Trott to replace Bopara. Despite what amounted to a media campaign calling for his selection, it seems that the return of 39 year old Mark Ramprakash was never seriously considered by the selectors.

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Time for cool contemplation & tough decisions but not panic

Quite rightly Andrew Strauss and Andy Flower both said yesterday that England were not going to panic ahead of the Fifth Test, which starts at The Oval on 20th August. Despite the crushing defeat at Headingley, the series stands at 1-1 and if England wins the final Test, the celebrations of 2005 will be repeated, although hopefully with no MBEs this time!

As usual following a bad England defeat, frenzied speculation has already started as to the wholesale changes that will be made for The Oval. This is music to the ears of Ricky Ponting and his newly rampant Australian team. “Ah, that’s obviously all started, so for us that’s terrific,” he said with a smile like a Cheshire cat in his post-match news conference. Thankfully, it seems Flower and Strauss are going to take a more philosophical approach, with Strauss reminding one interviewer that England has a “good record of coming back after bad performances”.

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