Life is a Rollercoaster - England Story

[Chasjs]

Second ODI

Patel comes into the side in place of Woakes

Australia win the toss and bat.
England remove both openers cheaply but Australia fight back with half centuries from Hills, White and Ponting. Australia take advantage of the batting poweplay and the death overs as Watson hits an unbeaten 75 from 57 to take his side to an imposing 298.

England's top three all get starts but then they collapse from 125/1 to 125/5. Cale and Skelton rebuild, adding 87 before losing Skelton for 35. But with Cale playing well at the other end England still have a small chance but they continue to lose wickets at the other end. Swann hits 20 off 14 but when he's the ninth wicket to fall England are still 15 runs short with 8 balls left. Anderson gets a single and Cale hits the last ball for four. England need 10 off the last over but Anderson is on strike. He gets a single first ball. Cale hits the next to the boundary to bring up his first ODI century. But he still has work to do. He plays and misses at the next but hits the next for four to tie the scores. Watson sends the game to the last ball with a dot ball but Cale scampers through for a single to take England to a 2-0 series lead.

England win by 1 wicket
Man of the Match - Cale
England Man of the Match - Cale, fantastic innings, a well deserved century to see his side home.
Other Notable Mentions - Bopara
Poor Game - Gould, Broad

[Phylos Fett]

Damn! They don't come much closer than that!

[Chasjs]

Third ODI

England stick with the same side for the third match of the series.

Australia win the toss and put England in on what looks to be a perfect batting wicket.
Bopara again gets England off to a good start with a quick half century. He makes 60 off 55 balls with 6 fours and 3 maximums with an inngins which dominates the opening partnership. With both openers gone Pietersen and Gould carry on the good work adding 113 to take England from 83 to 196 before losing Gould for 52 off 50 in the 33rd over. Pietersen carries on the good work but falls 3 runs short of a ton. 28 from Patel and 26 from Skelton takes England to an imposing total of 319.

Australia need a good start and they get that with Hughes who looks in fine form, hitting boundary after boundary as England's pace attack struggle to contain him. With the Aussie openers playing so well England delay taking the bowling powerplay. Instead Swan and Patel come on and the scoring rate begins to ease. Swann gets the breakthrough, trapping Jaques lbw. Hills becomes his second wicket and Patel picks up White for a duck. But Hughes is still going strong at the other end, moving into three figures. Englands spinners bowl out before Broad returns and the powerplay is finally taken. The gamble comes off almost immediately with Broad bowling Hughes with his thrid ball. That blow slows Australia's progress but a bigger one is to come in the final over of the powerplay. Broad picks up another wicket, Watson, with his second ball of the over. Haddin is bowled the next ball. Johnson comes in to face the hat-trick ball but he can only fend it to the hands of Flintoff who makes no mistake. Broad then adds insult to injury as he picks up his fifth of the match, Butterworth off the last ball of the over to send Australia eight down. McKay is then run out in Broads next over before Flintoff seals the win, picking up the final wicket in his next over as England take an unassailable 3-0 series lead with Ponting stranded on 38 stunned by the carnage at the other end with Australia collapsing from 197/3 to 236 all out in the space of 46 balls.

England win by 83 runs
Man of the Match - Hughes
England Man of the Match - Broad, he had a pair of expensive overs early on but returned to great effect, killing off all hopes Australia had of chasing down England's total.
Other Notable Mentions - Bopara, Pietersen, Gould
Poor Game - Anderson, Cook

[Chasjs]

Damn! They don't come much closer than that!

No, they don't do they . Been a good series so far, some good cricket. Can't believe I'm 3-0, Australia haven't been that bad.

That third game when I scored 319 I was thinking 'this might not be enough you know...' then after 10 overs I was in panic, it defiantly wasn't enough. But I changed the plan and (with a bit of luck) it came off. It had to really, Hughes was on course for a double ton!!!

[Phylos Fett]

No, they don't do they . Been a good series so far, some good cricket. Can't believe I'm 3-0, Australia haven't been that bad.

That third game when I scored 319 I was thinking 'this might not be enough you know...' then after 10 overs I was in panic, it defiantly wasn't enough. But I changed the plan and (with a bit of luck) it came off. It had to really, Hughes was on course for a double ton!!!

That hat-trick must have really settled the nerves! Do you set any special field placings for hat-tricks, or just treat it as business as usual?

[Chasjs]

That hat-trick must have really settled the nerves! Do you set any special field placings for hat-tricks, or just treat it as business as usual?

Yup, it was probably needed. They were well on course before Hughes got out and Ponting looked like he was playing well aswell.

I use default fields all the time. Sometimes for hat-trick balls I bring the field in a bit more and even when I'm defending a total in one day games I'll be a bit more aggressive if a couple of wickets fall quickly.

This time, however, I didn't. The pitch was perfect and I knew that Johnson can score quickly and with Ponting still at the other end it wasn't over just yet.

[Chasjs]

Fourth ODI

With the series victory secure England go in search of a whitewast, picking the same side as in the last game.

Australia win the toss and bat.
England's bowlers do a good job of keeping the Australian batsmen in check, taking wickets regularly. Swann and Patel again prove effective going for a combined 2-50 off 20 overs. A 77 from Ponting provides the backbone to the innings but falls to Anderson late in the innings. England will be disappointed with their death bowling as Australia score 74 in the last 8 overs despite bing bowled out for 229 with the penultimate ball of the innings.

England look to be in trouble at 50/3 but a run a ball innings from Gould, supported for a time by Cale, sees England to a comfortable victory, despite losing wickets late on.

England win by 2 wickets
Man of the Match - Anderson
England Man of the Match - Gould
Other Notable Mentions - Swann, Patel, Cale
Poor Game - Pietersen, Skelton, Bopara

[Chasjs]

Fifth ODI

England bring in Woakes and Rashid for Flintoff and Swann.

Australia win the toss and bowl.
For the fourth time in this five match series Bopara makes a quick fifty, this time making 63. He combines with Cook in an opening stand of 53. Pietersen akes just 10 before Gould and Bopara combine for another fifty partnership. Gould plays a more patient innings than his last few knocks, sharing stands of 44 and 52 with Cale and Patel respectively. England look to be on course for a decent total but lose Skelton for 10 to leave them 235/6 in the 39th over. But England score nearly 90 off the next ten overs with Rashid's 53 from 33 doing most of the damage. England are bowled out in the final over but still manage to set a daunting target of 326 for Australia to chase to avoid a whitewash.

England's opening bowlers prove expensive and Australia look to have a chance with Jaques and White both striking the ball well. But a pair of wickets in Rashid's first over puts England firmly in the driving seat. England rotate their bowlers with Gould getting his first bowl in international cricket. Despite being expensive he rips through the tail, taking 4-26 to seal an 87 run victory.

England win by 87 runs
Man of the Match - Gould
England Man of the Match - Gould, batted well and anchored the innings then took four wickets to bowl the Australia out.
Other Notable Mentions - Bopara, Rashid
Poor Game - Pietersen, Woakes, Skelton

[Chasjs]

Series Reaction
England win Test series 2-1
England win ODI series 5-0

The Ashes have been retained. It wasn't looking too good after the first two games, one down with three to play but to come back and win two of those to win the series was a great effort. Pietersen was unbeleievable. Cobb also piled on the runs and showed he is a proper Test batsman. Anderson led the bowling in fine style and was supported well with the new ball by Woakes. Australia are still the number one side in the world so beating them is a major triumph. Even so, there are still bigger tests to come. There are improvements that need to be made if this side is to beat Australia in Australia and the target is still to become number one in the world.

Golden Bat
Pietersen - 765
Cobb - 537
White - 443
Hughes - 389
Gould - 381

Golden Ball
Siddle - 29
Anderson - 21
Woakes - 19
Johnson - 16
Watson - 16

Whitewashing the Aussies in One day cricket. Unbelievable! Four years ago winning this series was a bit of a fluke but this time it was emphatic. That makes eight wins out of eight in ODI cricket this summer and the third whitewash in a row, twelth consecutive ODI victory and seventh consecutive series victory. With Bopara getting the batting off to a good side and Pietersen and Gould scoring the bulk of the runs the side is finally reaching big totals. Things are slowly coming together but the side should be ready for the World Cup in only a copuple of years time and could enter the competition as dark horses.

Man of the Test Series - Pietersen. 765 runs in the series. Six centuries, at least one in each game. 100% 50-100 converiosn rate. Two Man of the Match awards. The stats don't lie. KP had an unbeleiveable series and played a huge part in England's regaining of the urn.

Man of the ODI Series - Gould. Four fifties in five matches is a great return, a feat also matched by Bopara. Gould, however, went on to make bigger scores and also took four wickets in the final game.

[Chasjs]

Interestingly Australia have dropped Haddin for their tour of Bangladesh in favour of Matthew Wade. He looks decent.

[Chasjs]

The ECB Selection Committee has announced the 18 man Test squad to tour Sri Lanka:

ECB Selection Committee
A Strauss*
J Anderson
R Bopara
T Bresnan
S Broad
I Cale
J Cobb
A Cook
S Davies
K Gould
G Onions
S Patel
K Pietersen
A Rashid
I Skelton
G Swann
D Wainwright
C Woakes

Cale makes his first appearance in the Test squad after his century in the ODI series against Australia. As does Wainwight to offer another spin option along with Swann and Rashid. Davies is selected ahead of Prior, Ambrose and several others as the back-up keeper. Bresnan and Onions are also in the side but both remain behind the established pace attack of Anderson, Woakes, who will miss the at least the first warm-up game through injury, and Broad.

Before the Test series vs Sri Lanka England play a warm-up match against Sinhalese.

England Team to play Sinhalese
Strauss*, Cook, Bopara, Pietersen, Cobb, Gould, Skelton^, Broad, Swann, Onions, Anderson

Sinhalese - Bat

Sinhalese - 184(Anderson 2/63, Onions 4/35, Broad 1/49, Swann 3/28)
England - 357/6(Strauss 64, Cook 10, Bopara 44, Pietersen 61, Cobb 0, Gould 44, Skelton 102*, Broad 24*)
Sinhalese - 186(Anderson 3/78, Onions 1/42, Broad 4/41, Swann 1/3, Strauss 0/16, Cook 1/6)
England - 16/0(Cook 9*, Cobb 7*)

Man of the Match - Skelton

[Chasjs]

Reasonably pleased with that as a warm-up. Bowlers just steamrollered them. Skelton only faced 90 balls for his 102. Won with a session and a bit to spare. I tried to help them up to 250-300 with some 'joke' bowling from Cook and Strauss but disappointingly Cook took the last wicket.

[Chasjs]

Done the first Test... it was a thriller... however, while writing it up my laptop crashed. So I've got to do it again. Think I'll keep it brief.

[Chasjs]

First Test

England bring in Woakes and Rashid for Flintoff and Swann.

England win the toss and bat.
Strauss(93) and Cobb(76) form the backbone of Englands innings with Cook and Bopara failing to convert good starts into decent scores. Skelton holds the tail together with a patient innings of 41 to help England to 323.
Sri Lanka bat well with Matthews excelling. Swann removes him for 98. Perera then bats aggressively and makes his maiden Test century. He is the last man out when he is bowled by Woakes for 157.
Englands openers recover the first innings deficit of 60 runs for no loss. They are both out in the fifties. Bopara and Pietersen both get starts but are both out in the twenties and England collapse to 173/5. But Skelton bats well making 92 to take England to a decent total. He shares partnerships of 68 with Gould and 72 with Broad but after he departs England collapse to 344 all out on the evening of day four. A lead of just 284.
Anderson strikes early but Sangakkara and Matthews put Sri Lanka firmly in the driving seat with a partnership of 144. But Woakes fights back trapping Sangakkara lbw. He follows that up by bowling Jayawardene next ball. He then swings the match back Englands way when he snares Matthews in his next over. Swann and Broad join keep up the pressure with 2 wickets each but a Perera 50 takes Sri Lanka close to victory with a 49 run partnership with Kulasekara and put Sri Lanka 21 runs from victory. Woakes returns to break the partnership but it's Swann who takes the key wicket of Perera with the first ball of the next over. Fernando and Mendis try to hold on but can't keep out Woakes forever who takes his fifth wicket as England win by 8 runs.

England Man of the Match - Woakes, the games was slipping away with Sangakkara and Matthews at the crease. He got them both.
Other Notable Mentions - Strauss, Skelton, Swann
Poor Game - Pietersen, Gould, Anderson

[Chasjs]

Meh, so much for being brief...