DATE : 02.07.2005
VENUE : Lord’s, London
MATCH : NatWest Tri Series 2005 Final
Writer : Karthik Narayan
Welcome to yet another edition of AND IT’S A TIE! Today’s match was the last match of a rather strange series for the Awesome Aussies, who were looking rather dull, completely out of sorts. Having lost to minnows Bangladesh in one of the league matches, things didn’t look so bright for the baggy green-capped crusaders, who normally run through their opposition like a knife through butter.
England won the all-important toss and elected to field first. Rather surprising news, but going by the Australians’ batting trend in this series, it seemed the right decision.
The Australian Target:
Australia started off pretty well. The 50 came up in just the 7th over, and it seemed that Michael Vaughan might have to repent his decision at the toss. But the oldie goldie, Darren Gough produced the wicket of Hayden, and then Gilchrist after playing a typical brisk innings, fell to the husky Flintoff. Ponting didn’t last long, and Martyn merely did a following act. Young rookie Clarke didn’t make enough runs to help his team’s cause and the team was tottering at 93/5 at the end of 19 overs.
Andrew Symonds was already in the news for the wrong reasons during this series and that showed in his unusual innings of 29 off 71 balls. However, it was his longer stay than his predecessors that gave Mike Hussey a chance to build the innings and give it some respectability.
The tail didn’t really wag as much as it should have, and soon Australia were bowled out for 196, 7 balls before their quota of 50 overs would have ended. Flintoff and Steve Harmison were the wreckers in chief for England.
The England Chase:
Chasing 196 is not very difficult, but when one has to contend with the mighty Aussie pacemen, it becomes quite an arduous task. The Englishmen soon were reminded why the Aussie are the best bowlers in the world, as Brett Lee and McGrath caused ripples in the English camp with a breathtaking barrage of fast bowling – 19/4 in the 7th over meant that 197 seemed far off from being easy. They were further rocked when Flintoff was sent packing back by King Midas, McGrath.
But the hero of this series, Paul Collingwood and the England keeper, Geriant Jones came together to rebuild the wreckage. Their resistance went past McGrath and Lee, into the bowling of Gillespie, a mean machine himself. Symonds made up for his poor show with the bat to bowl tidily to end with figures of 10-2-23-0.
Brad Hogg and Mike Hussey did the role of the 5th bowler, and it was during this stage that England ran away with the match. Australia was definitely short of a good spinner, and the fifth bowler quota. Paul Collingwood completed a fine half century, and likewise did his partner.
Eventually, they both got out by the 44th and 45th overs, but together, they had drawn the game towards their end. Now it was for England to keep their cool and go on from here. When Jones was dismissed by Mike Hussey, the part time medium pacer, things were really hot – 34 runs off 29 balls with just 2 wickets in hand.
Ashley Giles can bat quite a bit and he proved his worth by chipping in with a good knock, a cameo that brought England valuable runs at this stage. Darren Gough, the old warhorse never gives up and it seemed true today as well. His last ditch efforts were ruined when McGrath ran him out. At 194/9, a ball to go and 3 runs for a win, it was anybody’s game.
Actually to be fair, it should have been Australia’s game, but times have changed. The Aussie juggernaut has slowed down, and that showed – the last man Steven Harmison didn’t have to face the last ball. Which was a great sigh of relief for all the England fans!
It was Ashley Giles on strike, and he managed to stroke the ball somehow and scramble two runs! This historic match thus became a TIE! What a wonderful result for the battle between these two archrivals!
Geriant Jones had a very memorable all round wonderful day, and was rightly adjudged man of the match. He scalped 5 victims (all catches) from behind the stumps and almost stole the thunder from under the Aussie noses with his brilliant 71 under pressure.
The trophy was shared by both captains, and this set the ball rolling ahead of the Ashes. What a way to sound their arrival by the Englishmen!