Australia vs England - Trent Bridge

With one test remaining, Australia needs to pull the finger out. England did it well after their first test debacle, and subsequently has Australia on the back foot after their thrilling 4th Test victory at Trent Bridge. Thrilling for England, not for me! Australia tends to fall the wrong side in close finishes, and this was another.

With one test remaining, Australia needs to pull the finger out. England did it well after their first test debacle, and subsequently has Australia on the back foot after their thrilling 4th Test victory at Trent Bridge. Thrilling for England, not for me! Australia tends to fall the wrong side in close finishes, and this was another.

Vaughan again won the toss, elected to bat, and charged to 105 before the first wicket fell. After 27 overs England went to lunch 1-129 after only 27 overs, with Australia having bowled a record 19-no balls for the session (finally a session had the equivalent of 30 overs, but still fell short by 3 overs). Trend of play would suggest the overs would not be made up, even without the rain that pissed down minutes before resumption!

Play was held up until 2.10pm, and then at 2.30pm another downpour had the teams off until 3.55pm, to play until 6.30pm, without a tea break! Yes, the jurisdiction of the game would often, not surprisingly, schedule tea some 30mins into play after several hours’ stoppage, for the ease of calculating a 2.5hr session to stumps. If the teams have been in the shed stumped on So Do Ku for the afternoon, keep them playing until the sky goes black for my mind. Stumps on day one were called at 6.08pm after 60overs with England 4-229. If there was consolation for Australia, England only scored 100 since lunch!

Day 2 kicked off at 10.30am instead of 30mins earlier like the rest of the cricket world must do. But this is England, where new playing laws are written, and as such any overs lost to rain were just that, lost. Yes, we have 30mins at the end to make up lost overs, but having lost 30+ overs between lunch and tea, not even the real world can bowl 30overs in 30mins, so the public gets gypped again!

Back to day 2, yes, it ended at 6.29pm with the wicket of Michael Clarke sending Australia back to the shed 5-99 in reply to England’s giant 477, Flintoff again taking Australia by the throat with a superb 102, and Jones timing a priceless 85. Not a good for Australia, and not a good feeling at camp either. A few lads felt like climbing into the fire that’s for sure! Like England has spent many years clutching short straws, Australia was 5-99 in India in 2001 yet still won by 10wickets, but that was when our lads were in form. This year, the lads appear to be slightly jaded in their efforts, some of which have been not so grand!

Starting day 3 at 5-99 they were bowled out for 218, 259-runs behind. I was standing in line for the toilet when the announcement came over the PA that England had enforced the follow on! The best words I heard all day. Bad move as far as I know the game. With 2.5days remaining why would England not bat, make 250+ and put Australia completely out of the game? There’s no guarantee Australia would capitulate, and this was the sniff we needed. Australia would bat with resolve, purpose, and the memory of Kolkata 2001, when India followed on, bashed 657runs, and won by 171runs.

Hayden and Langer put on their 2nd 50run partnership for the series and were looking good until Hayden was out. 1-50 became 2-129, 3-155, and 4-161. It wasn’t a poor effort you could see the lads playing with determination, although the wickets were falling. Australia went to stumps 4-222 still 37runs short of England batting again. Day 4 would be dynamite with Clarke and Katich at the crease!

Clarke got his 50, erased the deficit, and brought up the 100-partnership with a 2run lead. This was the launch pad Australia wanted to set a troublesome total. Alas, Clarke was out just before lunch, and the great work he and Kato did, dissolved. Gilly survived the break, and looked damn good, but straight after lunch, yet another shocker sent him back for 11 and Australia had to rely on Kato and Warnie to get the lads up there.

All the while I stood with Gluv in the Radcliffe Stand counting runs, avoiding security that kept trying to move us along, trying to get Australia across the line, the flags feverish in their endeavour. At the tea break it was all but over as far as England was concerned. Australia was out for 387 (highest score for the series). Kato made a superb 59 before the umpire incorrectly fired him. Warnie hit a swashbuckling 45. Brett Lee was resistant with 26, as was Kasper with 19. Tate had to survive one ball to give Lee the strike, but words can’t define what he did to get bowled so will limit myself to say he should be relegated to number 12!

England needed 129 runs to win and until they got them, there was always hope for Australia. Gluv and I stood perplexed, as England raced to 32 without loss and champagne corks were flying in the England shed. But on came Shane Warne Popcorn to send Trescothick for a shower. Excitement rained upon us as Vaughan quickly followed. Then Strauss, and then Bell, England 4-57 and Australia now just had to remove Flintoff and Pietersen and we’d be right!

Each ball had Gluv and I near bursting valves to spur the lads on, and though the 5th wicket added 46, the 6th wicket fell at 111, and the 7th at 116; 13runs to win, 3wickets left. Momentum was clearly now with Australia and brain haemorrhage clearly on the cards for me. The England crowd, until this point assured us we were going to lose, sat stunned as their Ashes world fell apart, but not entirely.

Warnie did brilliantly to get Australia into the match and then bowled grenades that went for runs and amid an explosion of emotion and unbridled thrill, Giles and Hoggard held on to see England to a 2-1 series lead. My heart rate slowed, and the pain in my head worked its way into the heart, that I still feel days later. With word that camp was being broken, Gluv and I rolled the flags and darted back to roll tents and consider the options! Beer was the answer! Lots of it!

Luke Gillian 03/09/2005 05:28:15