Steven Smith
Australia looked very shabby and in mess after a woeful day in Hobart. Yes, it was just a first-class match, but, the Aussies looked all shattered. Eight specialist batsmen in their Test Squad failed in three matches around the country. Steve Smith was the only one of the two men in the 17-man group for the Gabba who has done well with the willow, making 59 against the English bowling attack, but he is unlikely to make it to the team.
The Aussies kept losing wickets in quick succession. They lost Hughes on 4 in the third over. Khawaja also didn’t last long. He went on 41. Then, Ferguson, Cowan and White also went soon. And, Aus-A were trembling at 66-5. Finally, after a bit steadiness provided by Smith and O’Keefe Aussies were all out for 230 in 80 overs. England at the end of the day had lost one wicket of Strauss at 22 runs. And the night watchman Monty Panesar was standing at the wicket with A. Cook.
Coming back to the failures: Khawaja and Ferguson struggled on a green-top under overcast conditions. They both were named in the squad for the Gabba test. At the MCG, Michael Hussey was caught at slip for a 18-ball duck. Western Australia batsman Marcus North also departed cheaply for 17. Further, in Sydney, S. Katich, S. Watson and B. Haddin all failed to get past 10. And so New South Wales were demolished by Tasmania for a mere 97 in their first innings. When Tasmania replied, Ponting also managed just 7 runs. Michael Clarke was ruled out of the match due to his sore back. And, I feel he was lucky enough!
The Aussie Selectors wanted to use these warm-up games to settle on a starting line-up for the first test, just a week from now. England had sent their frontline bowlers to Brisbane early for the Test. The weakened attack was used for the first class warm up match. But, the weakened attack also didn’t face any problems to cause problems for the top order Aussie line-up. Chris Tremlett finished with 4 wickets for 54 runs and Ajmal Shahzad also bowled well for his 3 for 57.
The much awaited Ashes kicks off on 25th November at Brisbane. The Ashes is as usual going to be a 5 match test series. And, it will be followed by a 7 ODI series between the same two sides. It is going to be an interesting, testing and pretty long tour of England to Australia. All viewers are excited for the action to begin!!
Tags: Australia, Cricket, England, Hobart, Steve Smith, Steven Smith, Test Cricket, Test Series, The Ashes 2010
