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 sadly didn’t have a scooby doo in the 4th Test.

Some dismal reading  Top 10 England Collapses. Congratulations to the Australians – a fine performance and a side that seems to be gelling at the right time. Johnson and Siddle, who took pelters from all corners, both got five-fors. Would our players when criticised ram it down journalists throats? The idiots booing Ponting should be booing the England top 5.

Hayden talks some sense here. England shouldn’t panic and restructure the entire side for the Final Test that would be madness. We will go into The Oval Test 1-1 and we should remember that in two of the four Tests England have dominated even though the likes of Bopara haven’t been firing. We should also remember that this is a good Australian bowling attack but it is not a great one.

That said, I think Bopara has to be dropped in my opinion. He has been unlucky twice but at the same time he doesn’t look like a Test Cricketer. One minute he’ll be smashing a cover drive so beautiful that you think Michael Vaughan is back at the crease and then, for an over or two, he is scratching around slowly looking like a club batsman who has been dropped into the England team by mistake. I think the Australian bowlers have him in their sights and they would be delighted to see him on the teamsheet for The Oval.

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The Ashes – Third Test, Final Day:

Australia 263 (Watson 62, Anderson 5-80, Onions 4-58) and 375 for 5 (Watson 53, Hussey 64, Clarke 103*, North 96) drew with England 376 (Strauss 69, Bell 53, Flintoff 74, Broad 55, Hilfenhaus 4-109)

The ‘day of the series’ began with Onions and Flintoff bowling to the overnight pair of Watson and Hussey. Hussey got a painful knock from Freddie between his thighs, but batted on freely. The duo were inseparable when Onions was replaced by Swann. Shortly Australia went into the lead. Anderson came into the attack, and Watson fell to a faint edge just after reaching his half century. He had played admirably with Hussey, who also reached his 50 the very next ball. Clarke joined Hussey, and Hussey played some of his trademark drives, signs of his regaining form.

But Broad came into the attack, and had Hussey caught behind in his second over of the day, the Australian stalwart departed for 64. England began to sniff chances of a victory but Clarke and North staved them off till lunch, Australia were 59 ahead and the match poised for a draw. If only the rains had not poured on Saturday! Clarke and North played out the second session, getting some useful batting practice ahead of the next test.

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