| England vs Austrailia, 5th Ashes Test, The Oval 23-27th August 2001, Day 1 |
| The final teams for the series: England: Austrailia: M. Atherton M. Hayden M. Trescothick J. Langer M. Butcher R. Ponting N. Hussain M. Waugh M. Ramprakash S. Waugh U. Afzaal D. Martyn A. Stewart A. Gilchrist J. Ormond S. Warne A. Caddick B. Lee D. Gough J. Gillespie P. Tufnell G. McGrath As soon as I looked at the pitch, I knew that Austrailia were going to win. Why? Because on the pitch was a collection of 11 English players. You will notice that Tufnell was included in the English team, meaning that England were obviously sticking to their policy of looking to the future, the bleak dreary future. Steve Waugh was returning despite having a torn calf muscle, showing what a challenge he believed this England side was. He went outside and was officially told what everyone knew already, that he had won the toss. On one of the flattest batting wickets I've ever seen, and without England having a proper spinner, he decided to bat. From the start England looked desperately short of a bowling attack, and despite keeping things unusually tight (Only about 3.5 an over until lunch!) Austrailia were having no problems. Hayden and the reinstated Langer ploughed on. Eventually, after lunch, Hayden was dismissed for 68 trying to smash Tufnell, reducing Austrailia to 158-1. Ponting came in and continued the destruction, taking Austrailia to 324 before he was dismissed by the debutant Ormond, probably the pick of the English bowlers, for 62. Soon after, Langer retired hurt after Caddick mistook his head for the stumps, being unable to bat again to continue from his 102*, so the Waugh brothers were together again. Day 2 Well any hopes of this day going any better were soon dashed by the wounded Steve Waugh, and the in-form Mark Waugh. Steve was unable to run more than singles, so made sure that most of his runs came in multiples of 4 and 6. Of course Mark was affected by this too, and he therefore did the same. Soon after lunch Mark reached his 100, and then went wild, finally being bowled by Gough after giving himself space outside leg stump for 120, and Austrailia were looking shaky on 489-3. Steve Waugh was playing in similar fashion and looking invincible, and Gilchrist came in and scored a quickfire 25 before blasting a wide Afzaal full toss to silly mid-on. Martyn came in and scored a quickfire 64*, supporting Steve Waugh to 157*, before Austrailia declared on 641-4. England, however, couldn't accept the pitch being in such good condition, and Atherton decided he wanted to make things a challenge, and got out early for 13 to a beautiful ball by Warne, leaving England on 58-1. Trescothick raced onto 55, and Butcher got to 17 by the close of play. Day 3 Trescothick became the second person to get cleaned up by Warne in the innings, exposing his leg stump and missing the ball, failing to add to his overnight score. Butcher soon bat-padded a ball to Langer from Warne's bowling, following Trescothick's footsteps back to the pavilion for 25. Hussain looked in nice touch, and quickly moved on to 52 before a ball from ball from Mark Waugh rolled back with spin onto his stumps, and England, on a good batting pitch, were 166-4, almost 300 short of the follow-on mark. An 89 partnership between Ramprakash and Afzaal gave some hope, before Afzaal gave his wicket away trying to pull McGrath for 54. Stewart was looking on form, but edged Warne for 29 (not that he was happy with the decision, and was later fined 20% of his match fee for being a crap batsman, and also descent to a certain degree). Caddick was out lbw next ball, and at 313-7 England were having one of their better batting days. Ormond and Ramprakash took the score to 350 before Warne dismantled the bails and stumps of Ormond. Gough and Ramprakash took the score to 362-8 overnight, still short of the follow-on mark. Go to Days 4 and 5 |