Cricket Update: Fight back from England against Australia in the 4th ODI keeps the series alive.
Winning the test series convincingly, forcing a worst ever defeat upon the Australians in Ashes test tournament, England lost their momentum in the first three one day internationals against the Kangaroos. The speculators and critics thought Australia had
turned the tables and are taking a revenge for their test defeat but like always, the Englishmen have come back strong in the 4th ODI to defeat Australia by 21 runs in order to keep the 7 match series alive 3-1.
England won the toss and chose to bat first. It lost its first wicket on a total of 23 runs when Andrew Strauss edged one to the keeper on the bowling of Brett Lee after scoring 8 runs. The first wicket partnership for England between Matt Prior and Jonathan
Trott was the one that set the tone for the English innings. The duo together added 113 runs. Both timed the ball nicely and placed it in gaps to pick up runs while hitting quite a few along the park to get boundaries.
Prior was sent back to the dressing room after scoring 67 runs on the bowling of Steven Smith. Trott remained stable at one end while he kept on losing partners at the other end. Smith, with his outstanding bowling rattled Kevin Pietersen and Ian Bell to
leave England at 158 for 4 in 26.5 overs.
After scoring a dazzling century to anchor the English innings, Trott departed back to the English dugout. He made a total of 102 runs on 126 balls and was give out bowled by Hussey.
Elegant knocks by Eoin Morgan, Paul Collingwood and an unbeaten one Michael Yardy helped England reach a great total of 299 runs for 8 wickets in their 50 overs. Morgan and Collingwood got out in their 20’s while Yardy played an ecstatic unbeaten knock of
39 runs.
Steven Smith closed his figures with 3 wickets, while David Hussey turned out to be the pick of the bowler for Australia for his 4 wickets.
In reply, Australia lost it first batsman at 32 runs. It was Brad Haddin who was looking good for his 20 runs until he got caught by Strauss on a delivery from Chris Tremlett. Just after another run was added to the Australian score board, another blow came
for them as they lost the wicket of Shaun Marsh who departed only after contributing 1 run on the score board caught and bowled by James Anderson.
Michael Clarke once again could not be able to put some runs under his belt and left the crease after scoring 15 runs. He was out bowled by Collinwood. Shane Watson, kept on playing sensible cricket from one end to bring Australia closer to the total but
after completing his half century was sent back to the pavilion for his 64 runs by Ajmal Shahzad.
Cameron White alongside David Hussey resisted submitting before the English bombardment but Hussey finally gave it away after scoring 28 runs from 34 balls on the bowling of Trott. It seemed Trott’s day completely as he gave Australia another blow by taking
the crucial wicket of White who was batting on 44 runs to leave Australia in shambles at 199 for 6. The final wicket to fall for the Kangaroos was of John Hastings who departed only after scoring a single run.
Steven Smith and Brett Lee resisted well till the end but could not bring Australia home with a victory as the books for Australia closed at 278 runs in 50 overs with Lee batting on 39 whereas Smith unbeaten for his 46 runs.
Trott was declared the man of the match for his exuberant performance with bat and ball. Now that James Anderson is back in the English attack, it seems a lot more stable and dangerous for the opposition. Has England fought back at the right time or will
this loss mean nothing for the Australian? Who will win the next game? For all we know, it can go either way. Is not that, which makes the sport of cricket so much interesting?