England Strike First Blood

England struck first blood in the Ashes series after a nail-biting 14 run victory over Australia at Trent bridge. It was a team effort but credit must be given to Jimmy Anderson who took all 4 wickets on day 5.

It wasn’t always England who looked the likely winners as just after lunch on day one England were bowled out for 215. No player hit a half century with John Trott top scoring with 48. High scorers Alistair Cook and Kevin Pietersen were bowled out for 13 and 14 respectively. However, England hit back when they took 4 wickets for just 53 with Australia finishing on 98-4. And England sensed the initiative when they took 5 more wickets at the start of day 2 with Australia looking down and out on 117 – 9. However, Ashton Agar and Phillip Hughes scored a 163 wicket stand before Agar was caught on 98. Agar was just 2 off his first professional century but did hit the record books becoming the highest scoring eleventh man in an Ashes test match.

On day 3 England wanted bigger scores to set Australia an unreachable target when they batted. After 2 early wickets were lost England started to get what they wanted. Over half centuries from Trott, Cook and Pietersen followed by a century for Ian bell meant England were bowled for 375 – setting the target for Australia as 310.

It started well enough for Australia as they lost the first 3 wickets for a respectable score of 124. They were over half way through their target when they lost 3 wickets for just 3 runs when they went from 161 – 3 to 164 -6. They closed for lunch on 197 for the 6 wickets. Cometh the hour cometh the man was certainly what Jimmy Anderson felt when coming out for the final session when he took the final 4 wickets as Australia were bowled out for 296. Superstar Ashton Agar who was moved up the order to eighth couldn’t rekindle his 98 as he was bowled out for the mere score of 14.

The second test starts on Thursday at Lords cricket ground.  Let’s hope England continue their success!

Ryan Robinson