Cricket Australia
Australia wins the 7th ODI by 57 runs, fair and square and England could do nothing to save something from this series. However even though Australia won the battle they lost the war. The Ashes was retained by England and I for one am going to try to remember only that fact whenever anyone looks back on this tour.
It was overall an uninteresting match with no really spunk from either side. Australia won the toss and elected to bat first.
A relatively different Aussie side was tried, opener Tim Paine made 5 runs of 7 balls and was dismissed by Liam Plunkett alongside Brad Haddin made 27 runs of 58 balls and was dismissed by Michael Yardy.
Callum Ferguson made a random 15 runs of 23 balls and his wicket was claimed by James Anderson. Cameron White made 24 runs of 47 balls a relatively sad total but effective in the long run, his wicket was claimed by Michael Yardy.
David Hussey proved again why he is an asset to his side, made 60 runs of 60 balls helping steady their innings, his wicket was taken by Liam Plunkett as well.
Adam Voges made the most important contribution of all, without him the scoreboard would have been tilted to England’s side however it is foolish to assume that anything in this 7 match series has ever been titled in England’s favour. Voges made 80 runs of 72 balls and remained not out till the very end.
Mitchell Johnson made a reasonable total of 26 runs of 25 balls but was cracking with the ball; His wicket was taken by James Anderson as wall John Hastings who made only 6 runs of 4 deliveries. Jason Krejza also made 6 runs of 4 deliveries except he remained not out at the end of the innings.
Australia managed to make 279 runs with the loss of 7 wickets, this total could have been chased at 5.58 runs per over.
As England began they couldn’t have asked for a worse start, both openers Captain Andrew Strauss as well as Steve Davis got out on a duck (0). Strauss fell to Shaun Tait and Davis fell to Doug Bollinger.
Jonathan Trott could not bail his side out this time, he ended up making only 14runs of 22balls and his wicket was claimed by Mitchell Johnson.
Kevin Pietersen also fell to Mitchell Johnson and managed to make only 26 runs of 31 balls.
Ian Bell joined the eliminated soon enough again by Mitchell Johnson, he made only 8 runs of 16 deliveries. Matt Prior made a respectable but not enough 39 runs of 51 balls and his wicket was taken by Jason Krejza.
Michael Yardy was the only one who fought but his was a losing battle, he made 60 runs of 76 balls and remained not out.
Luke Wright made 24 runs of 19 balls and was dismissed by Jason Krejza and Liam Plunkett made 20 runs of 32 balls but was dismissed by Shaun Tait. All the tail Enders tried to do what the top and middle order failed at.
Steven Finn made 0 another one to join the ducks in the pond, his dismissal was by Shaun Tait and James Anderson made 4 runs of 7 balls, his wicked was claimed by John Hastings.
England was all out in 44 overs managing to make only 222 runs.
The Man of the match award went to Voges and the Man of the series went to Shane Watson.
So Australia goes into the World Cup with high spirits as well as confidence and England goes back with a test match victory, in the words of Ann from ‘the weakest link’ (a popular show in England) “You are the weakest link… Goodbye”.
Tags: 7th ODI, Australia, Cricket, England, Man Of The Match, Man Of The Series, ODI Series, Shane Watson
