The Ashes
Australia had 3 days to build an
innings, and then a lead could they find
the character to do so? Well, it looked
like they’d make a good fist of things with
several batsmen capable of making runs
the task wasn’t impossible.
Both openers scored well with Chris
Rogers making 52 before being caught by
Joe Root from the bowling of Ben Stokes
and Warner 64 to a Stuart Broad catch again Stokes was the bowler. To a degree
I’d say the crowd had been holding their
breath until that point as Australia were
building a decent total. Those 2 quick
wickets followed by both Steve Smith out
for 5 and Shaun Marsh for 2 saw them go
from 112 for no wicket to 136 for 4. Stokes
turned catcher for Smith returning the
favour for Broad, then bowled the ball
caught by Joe Root to take the wicket of
Marsh.
In each of the 4 innings for the
Australians since the Lords debacle
a different bowler has stepped up to
destroy the visitors. Jimmy Anderson and
Steven Finn at Edgbaston - Stuart Broad in
the first innings at Trent Bridge followed
by Ben Stokes in the second - he ended the
innings with a pretty amazing 6 for 36 a man of the match performance without
the incredible Broad figures!
Once the openers had gone Adam
Voges was really the only man to
make a stand; he remained Not
Out as the game was dragged into Day
3. I was driving to Cardiff at the moment
England regained the Ashes, Mark Wood
took his 3rd wicket bowling Nathan
Lyons out. Australia were all out for
253 and England had won the test by an
innings and 78 runs. The Ashes have been
regained and in some style!
A footnote to look at my current
obsession - 29 wickets were taken - only
5 of them saw the batsman bowled. I’m
going to be doing at tally at the end of the
series - but that’s probably obvious. =