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Cricket Captain 2023
Ashes
First Test
England Vs Australia
Birmingham
Toss: Australia won the toss & chose to bat first.
Team News: Australia drop Uzzie and Boland from the WTC winning playing XI to bring in Renshaw and Hazlewood.
England drop Broad, Leach and Tongue from the team that played Ireland to bring in Jimmy, Mo and Ollie.
Match Summary:
Day 1
Australia lost Warner early (4-1) but centuries from Renshaw and Marcus give them a strong base and took them to 220-1 post-tea on day 1. Then, Stokes made some inroads through Australian top order by removing the two set batsmen and Smith (250-4). But Head’s counterattacking 51 meant that Australia ended day 1 on 349-7.
Day 2
Thanks to overcast conditions, Jimmy wrapped up Australian tail early on Day 2 to restrict them to 369.
Then, much awaited England’s first Bazball innings against experienced Australian bowling lineup began. There were some early jitters when Duckett fell to Starc (9-1). Then, Root and Crawley sailed a steady ship to take England to 50-1 at which point Rooty fell to Cummins. Then Pope entered and up the anti by playing a few shots but not long before Crawley departed. From there onwards, Bairstow and Pope formed a brilliant partnership to take England from 89-3 at 27th over mark to 224-3 at 60th over. After Bairstow’s dismissal, Stokes and Brook both played around run a ball cameos to end the day for England at 320-6 after 84 overs, of their innings.
Day 3
With the new ball in play and again overcast conditions, Mo and Pope started a cautious morning session before teeing off and getting a 67 run partnership. However, Pope departed at 387 after which a meagre resistance from Mo and Ollie could only stretch the lead to 52.
Australia started their second innings with a few jitters as Warner continued his poor form and Renshaw failed to get going (6-1, 33-2). Smith and Head soon followed suit (54-3, 68-4). With Australia in a spot of bother, Marnus and Green formed a brilliant partnership to take Australia to 179. At which point Marnus fell prey to nervous nineties. Australia ended the day at 195-5 after 64 overs.
Day 4
With overcast conditions again promising decent bowling conditions, Green and Carey stretched the Australian lead past 200 (253-5). However, Green’s perseverance came to an end when he got caught off Stokes’ bowling (255-6). With the second new ball taken, a few aggressive hits from Starc took the Australian score close to 300 (and lead close to 250). However, disciplined line and length from Robinson and Anderson wrapped up Australian tail again in a flash.
With the target set at 255, England had their work cut out. However the conditions were ever so favourable for the bowling side. After a couple of positive shots, Crawley edged one off Starc (14-1). With the positive intent in mind, others tried playing their shots but got out quickly by giving edges off quality Australian bowling (32-4). Stokes then came in and scored an uncharacteristic 15 off 34 before falling off to Starc (88-5). Albeit, Stokes’ innings was sparsely Duckett found his bat flowing runs as he epitomised the true nature of Bazball chases. At that point, another one of Bazball’s poster boy, Harry Brook entered the game and scored 17* off 8 balls. Now England were 105-5 in 20 overs with 40 overs still to go in the day (not to mention the, eventually not required, whole day 5 still remaining). Brook eventually fell after scoring 39 off 30 to Hazlewood, however, Mo came in and embraced his role (for which he was requested out of retirement). Decent scoring rate meant that England were 157-6 at 30 overs mark with 98 needed for victory and 30 overs still left to go in the day. England then steadily got to 200 at which point Mo got caught off Starc with still 57 required for victory. Straight afterwards, Ollie got out as well and England were in deep trouble at 203-8. However, Duckett and Potts took it upon themselves to get these remaining 52 runs and eventually after a few play and miss scares in the final few overs were able to chase the target down.
Result: England won by 2 Wickets
MoM: Marnus Labuschagne
Attached Files