NATWEST ODI SERIES : ENGLAND SEAL SERIES WIN

It was a match that had all the ingredients of a thriller, one that salvaged some national pride which was down in the drain two hours before. The English saw their country’s pride taking a beating at the hands of the Germans at Bloemfontein in the football World Cup. At the same time, at Manchester’s Old Trafford stadium, the spectators looked to Andrew Strauss and his men to achieve what the likes of Wayne Rooney, Steven Gerrard and Ashley Cole could not – win a game for England.

With 10 runs required from two overs and Tait and Bollinger done with their spells, Bresnan took on Harris in the 49th over, sneaking a double, a boundary and a single off the last ball. Ponting did not spend too much time deciding on the bowler for the last over, giving James Hopes the ball. Expecting runs on the legside, fielders behind the wicket were brought in. Hopes ran in and delivered a wider one just outside the offstump and Bresnan edged it finely to the vacant third-man boundary to seal the series win for his team.

Bresnan: took England over the finishing line

Strauss , Collingwood and Morgan repaired early damage after England’s innings had begun disastrously as Craig Kieswetter was yorked for a golden duck by Shaun Tait who had joined the Australian squad, keen to prove a point. Birthday boy Kevin Pietersen and skipper Strauss adopted a steady approach against reverse swingers from Doug Bollinger and Shaun Tait. It was Ryan Harris and James Hopes against whose bowling a good number of boundaries resulted. Tait was brought back in the 13th over and he accounted for Pietersen with a sharp return catch. Strauss brought up his 50 in the company of Paul Collingwood and a 76-run partnership took England to 128 when the latter failed to connect to a Bollinger delivery, that crashed into the stumps. A 57-run partnership between Strauss and Eoin Morgan took England closer to the target when Morgan fell, trying to sweep Steven Smith over midwicket. Five balls later, Strauss fell to Tait’s pace and the tail stood exposed. Luke Wright holed out to long off off Steven Smith while Yardy snatched a useful boundary off Tait. But the scorching pace was too much for him as he edged one to Paine. All that was required was to give much of the strike to Tim Bresnan but Stuart Broad and Graeme Swann had no answer to Doug Bollinger’s pace, swing, line and length as they fell within a space of four balls.

It seemed Australia would do the impossible, but at 203 for 9, Bresnan had other ideas.

Earlier, Australian innings in the first innings never really took off after England put them to bat. Openers Shane Watson and Tim Paine started on a sedate note, struggling to cope with James Anderson’s lengths. Paine cut loose in the eighth over striking 18 runs off Tim Bresnan. The two put on 75 runs for the first wicket before Paine was trapped in front by Michael Yardy. Ricky Ponting‘s woes against spin continued as he struggled against Yardy and Swann before falling to the latter, coming down the track. A 37 run partnership between Michael Clarke and Shane Watson saw the latter reach his half century. In the 27th over, Watson fell trying to guide a Swann delivery to fine-leg only to get a leading edge to Strauss at square-leg. Cameron White did not last long either as he tried to slog-sweep Swann to find Strauss at square-leg. While a big partnership was expected from the Michaels, Clarke and Hussey, the former holed out to substitute fielder Ian Bell at long off to give Swann his fourth wicket. No productive partnerships resulted and Australia was dismissed for 212.

After the first innings, the Cricinfo headline read “Swann scuppers Australia’s hopes”. Bresnan scuppered not only Hopes the bowler but also the hopes of the Australians. The series win proves to be a fitting revenge for the 6-1 debacle that England went through, last year. But more than everything else, it has given the English people something to smile about after the virtual “World War” defeat at South Africa just a couple of hours ago.

For Australia, the match once again exposed the vacuity of its spin bowling stocks. All of a sudden, Nathan Hauritz’s absence is felt. There is little that Steven Smith, the upcoming spinner who is still taking spin lessons from Shane Warne, can do. For cricket fans, both teams provided a rare display of raw pace bowling combined with reverse swing from Tait who consistently bowled above 90 mph. Even Harris managed one at 93 mph while Bollinger touched 89 while for England James Anderson and Stuart Broad managed a few 89 mph ones. But the spinner’s slot is suddenly looking like a dark hole and Ricky Ponting would do well to address that in the next two ODIs before the Tests against Pakistan begin.