It would have been easy for this England team to have whimpered out of this tournament, bereft of confidence and important players. However, the low point was reached against Australia, and we really couldn’t have got any lower. A battling loss against New Zealand gave a ray of hope, and two wins against Australia and New Zealand pushed us remarkably into the final. Here, without Captain Michael Vaughan and with Australia with something to play for, a comfortable Australian victory was surely expected. However, on Friday, England started their comeback with a 4 wicket victory, and yesterday, went into the match knowing that a victory would secure an astonishing CB victory.
So England arrived in Sydney, the venue where Australia clinched their 5-0 Ashes win. Freddy does seem to have one advantage over Vaughan- he appears to be a far better tosser, winning the toss and electing to bat first. England batted sensibly, seemingly anxious to bat all of the 50 overs. Mal Loye hit a career best 45, a score which surely would have been higher had it not have been for a concentration shattering break for rain. Once again, Paul Collingwood was the hero, hitting an unbeaten 70 before being caught behind by Gilchrist, after attempting a reverse sweep. This knock was vital, as he came in with England wobbling slightly on 3-86, but a 97 run partnership with Freddy Flintoff meant that Collingwood departed with the score 6-231. England only added 15 in the final 3 overs, but posted a competitive total of 246. Aside from 3 run-outs, Bell’s and Dalrymple’s were down to very poor decisions, England batted well.
However, if England batted well, they opened their bowling superbly. 3 Liam Plunkett wickets, plus one from Saj Mahmood reduced Australia to 4-40, and when Flintoff and Strauss combined to get Hussey out for a duck, Australia were languishing on 5-63. A 46 run partnership between Michael Clarke and Brad Hodge gave Australia hope, following a further rain break, both fell within 5 overs to reduce Australia to 8-139, and shatter any hopes Australia had of taking this to a 3rd game. Indeed, only 13 more runs were added before the heavens opened once more, and the umpires called it a day, England winning by 34 runs via the Duckworth-Lewis method.
This was a famous victory by England, winning a one-day series in Australia for the first time in 20 years, as it was the first time Australia had lost in a best of 3 final since 92/93 against a West Indies team featuring Brian Lara, Curtly Ambrose, Carl Hooper and Ian Bishop. All in all, the England team showed great backbone to bounce back from what had been looking to become the worst tour in living memory, and take something from it. England can now go into the World Cup with, fingers crossed, a fit Kevin Pietersen and Vaughan, and most importantly, renewed confidence and self belief. Roll on March 16th!!
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