Cricket - The Fifth Ashes Test

Australia vs England - Fifth and Final test in the current series.
Australia leading 4 - 0 after 4 matches
Played at the Sydney Cricket Ground, Sydney Australia, starting 2nd January 2007

England won the toss, chose to bat first
England first Innings 234 Runs for the loss of 4 wickets, will resume tomorrow.

A solid, somewhat dour start by England, scoring was a little slow but at least the Poms have made a reasonable start, hopefully will do enough tomorrow to make it an interesting match. England are unfortunately missing Mathew Hoggard who has been the best of their bowlers in the series so far, so it will be interesting to see how what remains of their attack performs.

Full Scorecard http://content-aus.cricinfo.com/australia/engine/match/249226.html

Regards
Bob

 

Fifth Test, Day Two

An interesting day, England put up a reasonable but not spectacular score, Australia had a good start, stumbled a little, then recovered to make it a slight advantage to Aus at the end of the second day. Some good performances by various members of both teams. If the English ever get their stuff together they could be a good team.

England First Innings 291 runs all out
Australia First Innings 188 runs for 4 wickets, will continue tomorrow

If England can take a couple of wickets early in tomorrow's play we could have a real match.. Lost some play time today beacause of rain, maybe the Poms will be saved by the weather again?


http://content-aus.cricinfo.com/australia/engine/match/249226.html for full scorecard.

Regards
Bob

 

Fifth Test - Day Three

Is almost all over, England stumbled again, failing to take the late Australian wickets at reasonable cost, then failing to make a decent score with any of their batsmen in their second innings, marginallyahead, but having lost 5 wickets they are doomed to lose again. This will give Australia a 5 - 0 series win, from memory only the second time its happened in over 100 years

England First Innings 291 all out
Australia First Innings 393 all out, a lead of 102 runs
England Second innings 114 runs for 5 wickets, will continue tomorrow, a lead of just 12 runs.


Full Scorecard http://content-aus.cricinfo.com/australia/engine/match/249226.html

Regards
Bob

 

Fifth Test - Day Four

Well., its over - Australia won, no surprise there, but sooooo easy..... England just capitualted, fell apart and looked distinctly second rate. Rathe sad, it could have been a good series if the Poms had worked to near their potential. In the end they gave the impression of being a couple of good batsmen short, and a bowling attack that lacked enough aggression, skill and commitment to be really effective. Of all the players in the English side, maybe Flintoff if he were to immegrate to Australia and change his accent could gain a place in the Australian side. We are still looking for a good allrounder. Apart from that , maybe some could look to Bangladesh for some international cricket at their level.

England First Innings 291 all out
Australia first innings 393 all out
England Second Innings 147 all out
Australia Second Innings 46 without the loss of any wickets
Australia win the match by 10 wickets
Australia win the series 5 - 0, the first whitewash like this in over 80 years.

Full Scorecard http://content-aus.cricinfo.com/australia/engine/match/249226.html

Regards
Bob