Friday, July 08, 2005
England Beats Australia lead 1-0 in the Natwest Challenge
England beat the Australians comfortably in the first of the three cricket match Natwest challenge one day series at Headingley. Trescothick with the bat and Collingwood with the ball saw the hosts through comfortably to victory. England won the toss and put the Aussies into bat. The overcast cloudy weather in combination with some good bowling effort restricted the Aussies to a mere 219-7 in 50 overs. England replied with 221-1 in 46 overs only. Thus winning the cricket match by 9 wickets. This match also had for the first time the full substitutes and the power play overs. England went for Solanki, opting out Jones in the 31st over of the Australian innings. While Australians brought in Hogg (the only successful Aussie bowler) for Mat Hayden in the 22 over of the English innings. Both teams played the power play overs between 10-20 overs. Well, for fans looking for some excitement because of these new rules would certainly have been disappointed; since it did not change the cricket game in any dramatic way.
The Aussies sent into bat by the English captain Vaughan, went of to a good start (62-0) with Adam Gilchrist a quick 42 of 51 balls including 4 fours and 2 sixes. However all this changed with wickets tumbling quickly starting with Gilchrist then Hayden, Ponting, Symonds and Clarke falling cheaply. This put the English well in control of the match with Australia in trouble at 120-5. Australia could not recover from this middle order collapse, even though Hussey and Damien Martyn batted with lot of courage to bring Australia to a respectable total. Collingwood was the pick of the bowler ending up with 4/34 of 10 overs. Harmison, Jones and others bowled well to restrict the Aussies. To add insult to injury the Aussies dropped Strauss at only 1. Trescothick had a bit of luck his way having caught of a no ball of Lee. The rest is history as Trescothick (104 *) , Struass (41) and Vaughan (59) saw the English to the finish line beating Australia comfortably. England is now 1 up in the 3 match Natwest Challenge Series.
