Adelaide: Day 3: Close and far
Day 2 could easily have gone one of two ways, in fact I expected it. Possibility 1: Australia would bat like demons, score 600 before tea and reduce England to 25/4 by the close of play. Possibility 2: Australia would buckle under the pressure, get bowled out for a hundred and be forced to follow on. By the close of play, neither scenario had played out, and we were left with something rather in the middle. Hayden fell earlier, and was soon followed by Damien Martyn, but pain-in-the-arse Ponting and the irrepresisble Hussey started to build an innings for the Aussies. Hussey made a useful 90, but it was Ponting, with yet another century (which incidentally overtook Waugh’s record of most test tons by an Australian) who yet again did the damage for Australia. But the innings was not the same as we experienced at Brisbane - Australia seemed to struggle as much as England had in their innings and were forced to bat slowly and cautiously.
Indeed, England struggled with the pitch in the same way the Australian bowlers had toiled. Hoggard was the pick, but Harmison looked considerably better than at Brisbane. Flintoff was perhaps below his best, and you can’t help wondering why he’s bowling so many overs. Yes, he’s our best bowler, but I still believe he needs to spread himself a little more thinly if he wants to be around at the end of the series. Anderson, Harmison and Giles should be made to do the work. Giles, in particular, looked out of sorts, and was responsible for dropping Ponting before he’d really got going. To only bowl 16 overs out of a days play wasn’t enough.
England will be very happy with the days play. Despite Australia moving close to the target required to avoid the follow on, to have them 5 down by the end of the day with the last 2 recognised batsmen at the crease (out-of-form Gilchrist and something-to-prove Clarke) and so if England can grab early wickets tomorrow morning, England would definitely be in with a shout of winning this match. Should Australia still be batting in to session 3, then a draw is the most likely result.
Tags: Australia, century, England, ricky-ponting, test, The-AshesRelated Stories
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1 opinion for Adelaide: Day 3: Close and far
SixandOut.net - The International Cricket blog » Adelaide: Day 4: Hoggy hoggy hoggy….
Dec 5, 2006 at 11:08 am
[…] Australia didn’t buckle under the pressure - Gilchrist found some form and Clarke proved his point. And even when they fell, the Australian tail chipped in leaving them on 513, just 40 runs short of England’s first innings total. Matthew Hoggard was star for England with 7 hard-earned wickets as he carried the other bowlers, with Flintoff off the pitch for most of the day with a sore ankle. […]
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