England salvage some pride
England managed to end the Ashes tour on a high by somehow winning the Commonwealth Bank Trophy series. After a staggering 8 “group” matches, Australia entered the finals with 31 points having lost only one game, and England entered on a lowly 13 points having lost 5 games, just one better than New Zealand. The fact that one game basically decided the members of the final is to me laughable. Nevertheless, the Australians would still have targeted a win and their abject performances in the finals were quite mystifying. There’s no doubt that England improved their game substantially in the final few games, a change that was only too welcome, but Australia were certainly not on top form.
Paul Collingwood found a welcome return to form, following up his century against New Zealand with 120* not out and 70. Collingwood doubters should now be feeling very silly about themselves. Aside from his double hundred at Adelaide, Collingwood has had a poor series, and his recent scores rightly earned him man of the finals (!) but he arguably had no worse a series than any of the other players. He managed to do what neither Bell nor Strauss managed and at the right time as well. England’s bowlers also managed to come through, with Liam Plunkett the most promising, picking up some key wickets at key times. There are still many things to look at, such as England’s running between the wickets which has been horrific, the opening batsmen situation and the wicket keeper situation, but the boys at least have some confidence back and there’s something to improve upon. It also shows that England don’t rely on any single member, such as Kevin Pietersen, to win the game. And even more promising is that if more than one player could find some form at the same time, then England can be even better.
Beating Australia in Australia at any time is always an achievement and one that shouldn’t be too undervalued. Leaving Australia with some silverware was certainly unexpected, and I admit I didn’t think there a was hope of it happening after the Ashes whitewash. The CB trophy was always going to take second place behind the Test matches, but it’s great that England managed to turn things around and rescue something from what was otherwise a terrible series. Ahead of the World Cup, this was about the best thing that could happen.
Tags: Australia, Commonwealth-Bank-Trophy, England, Notice-Board, One-Day-cricket, Quick-SinglesRelated Stories
POSTED IN: Cricket
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