Batsmen Make Merry As First Ashes Test Ends In A Draw




Alistair Cook

Alistair Cook

For the second consecutive day, the bowlers managed to take only one wicket as Alistair Cook and Jonathan Trott feasted upon some ordinary bowling on a pretty docile pitch. They put on an unbeaten stand of 319, the highest ever at the Gabba, overhauling the 307 put by Haddin and Hussey two days ago. It was also England’s best ever partnership against Australia and the first time the top three batsmen got to three figures in an Ashes series. England made 517/1 before declaring and giving Australia 41 overs to play out.

Resuming at the overnight score of 309/1, the pair of Cook and Trott scored runs at a decent pace. Cook regularly used his feet to attack Doherty while Trott played some exquisite drives down the ground. Cook notched up his first double hundred of 306 balls while Trott, who earned a reprieve when Clarke dropped a sitter at first slip, brought up his second century against Australia.

Australia’s bowling was far from threatening. Hilfenhaus was ineffective and Siddle couldn’t repeat his performance from the first innings. Xavier Doherty didn’t pose much of a concern and Watson was scored off at more than 4 per over. The spearhead of the bowling attack Mitchell Johnson continued his bad form and went wicketless for the first time in his career. A 19 ball duck while batting didn’t help his case and puts his selection for the second test in doubt.

Strauss declared with 41 overs left to go and Broad removed Katich of the sixth over of the innings. Ponting was struck on the helmet by Finn but the Aussie skipper was determined not to give away his wicket. He scored a quickfire half century of 40 balls as Australia raced to 107/1 in 26 overs.

At the start of the last hour, both the captains shook hands for a draw but after the Herculean batting effort of their top order, it will be England who will carry the momentum going into the second test at Adelaide – a venue where it doesn’t get any easier for the bowlers.

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Monish Menon

Author:

Hi, I am Monish Menon from Hyderabad and currently working at Franklin Templeton Investments as a Compliance Business Analyst. Sport has always been my passion since I was a kid and I invest all my non-existent free time by watching, playing, writing and analyzing various sporting events across the world. Apart from being a diehard Manchester United fan and a Ferrari supporter, I believe that Roger Federer is still the best tennis player and Sachin Tendulkar is God. I play club cricket and I also am a part of my organization’s cricket and football squad. Being such a sports fanatic, writing about it is something that came naturally to me and I am glad that I got an opportunity through thesportsmirror.com to share my thoughts with the rest of the world. For other articles written by me, you can visit my blog at www.monishmenon.wordpress.com

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