Life is a Rollercoaster - England Story

[Chasjs]

Nah, England have some good players. There's alot of promising youngsters aswell. That poor batting performance can be put down to the weather though. Even the Aussies found batting hard until it lightened up, there was a moment when I thought we could win it.

[Chasjs]

Forth ODI

Bopara came back into the team for this game, in place of Shah. He was put back into his old position at 3.

England lost the toss and the Aussies decided to have a bat.
England bowled really well. The bowlers took wickets pretty regularly. Only Hussey, Waston and Haddin made a sizable contribution with Ponting out first ball off Flintoff a particular lighlight.

The fielding was quite poor aswell, with 3 cathes dropped in the slips. It was only in the last 5 overs where the wickets started to fall. Harmison took the last three wickets with the first four balls of the penulitimate over, restricting the Aussies to under 200. The score is definatly below par but it's important to get off to a good start as it becomes slightly overcast towards the evening.

England got off to a good start with Strauss and Vaughan putting on 137 by the 36th over. Vaughan was then out caught off Siddle for 65. Bopara immiditaly delt a blow to the run rate by hitting 9 off the remainder of the over. Strauss was out two overs later for 70. Wickets started tumbling as England got nearer the target. By the time Rashid walked out England were only 9 behind. He finished the job quickly. England win to level the series for the second time.

England win by 5 wickets
Man of the Match - Strauss
England Man of the Match - Strauss. His 70 off 101 balls and 137 opening partnership with Vaughan gave England a good start to their chase.
Other Notable Mentions:
Vaughan, Flintoff, Harmison, Broad, Anderson, Swann
Poor Game:
Bopara, Pietersen, Prior, Rashid

[Chasjs]

Fifth ODI

The team used was unchanged from the last game. Bopara, Broad and Anderson all could've been dropped but I decided to stick with them, for this game at least.

England won the toss and chose to bat.
Strauss hit a six off the first ball to get the innings off to a good start. He was out a few overs later bringing Bopara in. Again Bopara disappointed, out first ball. Pietersen replaced him and went on to hit 74 off 90. Vaughan went for 35 bringing Flintoff in. Flintoff and Pietersen put on 84 runs together before Pietersen was caught and bowled by Watson. Flintoff carried on without him forming useful partnerships with Prior and then Rashid. Flintoff and Rashid hit 50 off the last five over. Flintoff went on the match Pietersen's getting his 74 in 92 balls. England reached 242, a decent total and pretty good compared to the other scores in the series so far.

Australia got off to a good start but Broad hit back in the 11th over catching Hughes off his own bowling. Katich went next over, Ponting wasn't far behind. Neither was Clarke who followed next over off Broad.

England carried on the amazing bowling display with Watson caught in the slips, as did Haddin leaving Australia 86/6 in the 23rd over. It was looking to be Englands day united Hussey and McDonald put on 102 together. They lasted till the 42nd over and with Australia now on 188 they had a chance. But spin would be their undoing with Rashid and Swann mopping up the tail with 16 runs to spare to put England in the lead of the series for the first time.

England win by 16 runs
Man of the Match - Hussey
England Man of the Match - Broad for his 3-31 in 10 overs
Other Notable Mentions:
Swann, Flintoff, Pietersen
Poor Game:
Harmison, Bopara, Prior, Strauss

[Chasjs]

Sixth ODI

Right, win this game win the Series. Bopara loses his place to Wright. Pietersen moves up to 3. Prior moves to 4. Rashid moves to 6 leaving Wright at 7. It's a very cloudy day thoughout so I think bowling options might be a good idea. It's also as much as a bowlers pitch as you ever see in ODIs in England. I'm really not sure what a good score is here, 150 could be very defendable, so really I want to be chasing.

Australia win the toss and decide to bat. I think it's a good toss to lose. We'll see.
It wasn't, Katich goes 3rd ball off Flintoff, Ponting is caught behind off the next. Flintoff on a hat-trick, but it's blocked, Australia 2/2 after 1 over. After 7 overs their 18/4. Wastson and Hughes put on some runs . Wright bowls Wastson. Haddin follows later before McDonald give Hughes another stable partner for a while. Hughes is eventually runnot for 60 and Broad bowls McDonald. Australia make 170 before the last wicket falls. I said 150 might be a good score.

England get off to a good start with Strauss and Vaughan putting on 83 in 24 overs before Strauss is bowled on 44. Vaughan lasts 9 mores overs getting to 53 before he's bowled. England now have 16 overs to get 55 with 8 wickets remaining. Englands batting collapses losing 4 wickets. The run rate climbs. 10 needed off the. The first ball is a wide. 9 off 6. Dot ball, single, two runs. 6 runs needed off 3 balls. Rashid is bowled.

Broad plays and misses. 6 off 1 ball. Broad hits a single. Australia win to send the series into a decider by the narrowest of margins.

Australia win by 4 runs
Man of the Match - Hughes
England Man of the Match - Flintoff
Other Notable Mentions:
Strauss, Vaughan, Wright
Poor Game:
Pietersen, Prior

[Chasjs]

Seventh ODI

So it goes down to a decider. Keeping the faith I stuck with the same team. The pitch is better for batting than last time but the weather is similar, only it brightens up for the afternoon.

England lost the toss and were put in to bat.
Again England got off to a good start with another solid opening partnership. This time putting on 91 runs before Vaughan fell in the 27th over for 42. Pietersen added just 15 before being caught in the slips off Watson. Strauss and Prior were devestating through the powerplay before Prior was caught out. Strauss reached his century in the last couple of overs.

England finished on 211/3. Australia have 50 overs to get 212 at 4.2 RPO. Do that they win the Series. If England can stop them they win the Series.

Australia also start well but lose the wicket of Katich towards the end of the bowling powerplay. Huhges and Ponitng bat well an look to be going along nicely. With things not going so well England bring on the spinners Swann and Rashid. The plan works nicely. Hughes, Hussey, Ponting, Clarke, Watson and Haddin all fall to the spinners. Australia go forom 72/1 after 21 overs to 137/7 aster 41. Australia needing 75 off 9 overs to win with only 3 wickets remaining. England look like big favourites now. But McDonald and Johnson appear to not have read the script putting on 30 together but the run rate keeps climbing. Harmison gets Johnson in the 45th over. Clark and McDonald continue to hit a few boundaies to keep the Aussies in with a chance. Flintoff runs up to bowl the 48th over. He gets McDonald with his first ball. Second ball, Flintoff runs in to Siddile, it hits him on his pads. Huge appeal. The umpire rasies his finger. Siddle is out. England win the game. England win the Series. In the end England won convincingly but their was a point, just as the spinners came on where you though the Aussies would walk away with it. Then Rashid got Hughes. Hussey followed next over off Swann and the game had changed.

England win by 39 runs
Man of the Match - Strauss
England Man of the Match - Rashid. Strauss set the total but England proably would've lost had it not been for Rashid's 10 over spell of 4-35. Game changing. Series changing maybe.
Other Notable Mentions:
Strauss, Vaughan, Prior, Flintoff, Harmison, Swann
Poor Game:
Pietersen

[GrahamB]

So you've sneaked home in both the test series and the ODI series.

[Chasjs]

Yes... sneaked is the right word to use.

On a plus point I did bowl them out 6 times out of 7, taking a total of 65 wickets!!!

[GrahamB]

Yes... sneaked is the right word to use.

On a plus point I did bowl them out 6 times out of 7, taking a total of 65 wickets!!!

Yes - that's impressive.

[Chasjs]

Yeah, it's nice to see I can actually take wickets against them, even with Broad and Anderson going almost the whole series with less than half a star of form.

Should've won a few more of them though, Vaughan and Strauss were amazing up top, it's just everything below it was crap most of the time with Flintoff and Pietersen occasionally chipping in. Need to look at that for the ODI's vs South Africa.

[Chasjs]

Series Reaction

England win the ODI Series 4-3


It was a very tight Series, not much between the sides. One of the biggest plusses was the bowling attack. At times it was a little expensive but it only failed to bowle the Aussies out once. The batting was a bit more shakey. After the opening pair, who were amazing, their was never really that much left. Vaughan did really well, he now averages 40 this year in ODIs but Strauss was the the real highlight.

England Man of the Series - Strauss for his three 50s and one 100

[Chasjs]

Series Highlights

4 - Strauss and Vaughan's onpening partnership in the first game. There were many of them thoughout the Series but this one gave the team a good start in the run chase. It's a shame really the lower order failed to chase it down.


3 - Rashid taking 5 wickets on his ODI debut.


2 - Strauss' century in the last game. Again, just when someone needs to get a big score, the captain pops up.


1 - Flintoff getting Siddle lbw. This was the moment the Series was won.

[Chasjs]

The ECB Selection Committee announced the 15 man squad for the ODI series of the tour of South Africa:

ECB Selection Committee
M Vaughan*
J Anderson
I Bell
R Bopara
S Broad
J Clare
P Collingwood
A Cook
A Flintoff
S Harmison
K Pietersen
M Prior^
A Rashid
G Swann
L Wright

A broken finger means the captain Strauss will be out of contention until the last ODI game. While this means he'll be fit to make the Test squad he has been left out of the ODI squad. Cook was brough up into the one day side for the first time this year as a direct replacement. Davies was going to be brought into the squad as part of the search to find Englands long term keeper, but he to fell to injury. A knee inury means he'll be out for the first couple of ODIs. This mean Prior kept his place in the squad.

As for other changes to the squad Collingwood, Bell and Clare have replaced Morgan, Malan and Shah. Clare has been in great form and finished the season with some very good averages. He is certainly one to watch. While Bell and Collingwood have not had the improvement of form I hoped they would have they have come into the side with the hope they can find some form in the ODIs so they are ready to go into the Test team. The decision on who to captain the side was a hard one with so many candidates to choose from. Former captains Vaughan and Pietersen were in contention, as was the former one day squad captain Collingwood. Flintoff was the favourite with him being the current T20 captain. The dark horse for the role was Cook. Cook has been touted as a possible future captian and maybe even the successor to Strauss. In the end Vaughan was made the stand-in captain, partly thanks to his good form in the last Seires. Vaughan is unlikely to feature in the T20s so Flintoff resumes his role as T20 captain.

[Chasjs]

First T20

With the absense of Morgan, Bopara opened with Wright. Pietersen moves up to first change. Collingwood is followed by Flintoff and Prior. Rashid and Swann were both chosen to add some variety to the bowling attack should it be needed. Clare gets his debut ahead of Harmison and Bell.

England lose the toss and South Africa decide to bat.
Flintoff was a tight as ever in the power play while runs were leaked at the other end. First by Broad, then by Anderson.

Clare and Wright were brough on and bowled quite well. Swann only bowled a couple of overs leaving Rashid the last four overs. Flintoff came back on for Swann for the last two overs at the other end and again bowled really tight picking up the wicket of Amla. All in all a good bowling display restricting South Africa to a fairly average score.

Wright was out caught in the second over. Pietersen didn't last much longer. Collingwood regained some form by putting together a good partnership with Bopara but it was too slow. The run rate climbed and they couldn't keep up. It was only in the last over where Collingwood got out but by then it was impossible for Flintoff to salvage the situation.

South Africa win by 35 runs
Man of the Match - Amla
England Man of the Match - Flintoff for restricting South Africa to 3.5 RPO.
Other Notable Mentions - Bopara, Collingwood
Poor Game - Pietersen, Wright

[Chasjs]

Second T20

Bell comes into the team for Anderson to give the side more batting depth. Anderson isn't really needed because of the number of bowlers in the side already. It could've been Broad, but Broad keeps his place mainly because of his batting ability.

England lose the toss and South Africa decide to bat again.
Flintoff was uncharacteristically expensive in his first two overs. Business was resumes in his second spell though and he pulled his RPO down. Broad managed to ally his wicket taking ability with economy and bowled really well. Clare, Wright and Rashid were the other bowlers used and they also bowled really well. After 20 overs South Africa only managed 122/3.

England started off really well. Wright and Bopara were great. They were just keeping up with the run rate going at around a run ball.

They lasted for the majority of the innings before they both got out pretty quickly. Collingwood wasn't too far behind them. Flintoff and Pietersen got to work and hauled the run rate down. With 6 required off the last over things were looking good. Only two singles were scored off the last four balls. Cue Flintoff who stepped up and whacked one straight over the bowlers head for 6.

England win by 7 wickets
Man of the Match - Bopara
England Man of the Match - Broad. 2-15 in 4 overs in a T20. You can't agrue with that. Is Broad about to show his true potential as a world class international bowler.
Other Notable Mentions - Wright, Bopara, Clare, Wright, Rashid
Poor Game - Flintoff, Collingwood

[stanley_1994]

Second T20

Bell comes into the team for Anderson to give the side more batting depth. Anderson isn't really needed because of the number of bowlers in the side already. It could've been Broad, but Broad keeps his place mainly because of his batting ability.

England lose the toss and South Africa decide to bat again.
Flintoff was uncharacteristically expensive in his first two overs. Business was resumes in his second spell though and he pulled his RPO down. Broad managed to ally his wicket taking ability with economy and bowled really well. Clare, Wright and Rashid were the other bowlers used and they also bowled really well. After 20 overs South Africa only managed 122/3.

England started off really well. Wright and Bopara were great. They were just keeping up with the run rate going at around a run ball.

They lasted for the majority of the innings before they both got out pretty quickly. Collingwood wasn't too far behind them. Flintoff and Pietersen got to work and hauled the run rate down. With 6 required off the last over things were looking good. Only two singles were scored off the last four balls. Cue Flintoff who stepped up and whacked one straight over the bowlers head for 6.

England win by 7 wickets
Man of the Match - Bopara
England Man of the Match - Broad. 2-15 in 4 overs in a T20. You can't agrue with that. Is Broad about to show his true potential as a world class international bowler.
Other Notable Mentions - Wright, Bopara, Clare, Wright, Rashid
Poor Game - Flintoff, Collingwood

Gud Game.I think bopara is pretty good bowler too so all should give him a spell or two.