SRI'S Blog

“ Let us dream BIG. We win 5- 0 , I take 50 wickets. I get knighted and five years down the lane, I become PM—This was said by Graeme Swann ,the English Off spinner before start of the Ashes test series. Looks like this is going to be true the way the Aussie’s crumbled in the second test. England did not make big runs to put pressure on the Aussies. After being reduced to 3 for 28 , England recovered through Trott, Bell and Bairstow and could have ended up scoring less than 300 but the Aussies allowed them to get to 361. The Aussie reply was disastrous. One could call it “Spineless” batting. Second day of the match England was batting again ( they were all out in the first session, Aussies got out in the next two sessions and there was time for England to bat second time the same day ) !. Aussies crumbled to 128 and England wanted to out bat the Aussies out of the test which was the right thing to do and did not enforce the follow on. England was largely helped by their rising star

An Ashes test series between traditional rivals England and Australia is always interesting . And when conditions favour the bowlers ( which happens more in the English Counties ) , watching the batsmen struggle can be great viewing pleasure. The First test between the two teams brought out all ingredients that the Test Cricket needs-Intensity of the battle , surprises , Technology controversies , skillful bowling , odd bits of extraordinary batting and every session swinging from one team gaining to other losing control. On day 1 , as I exchanged views with few people , I concluded that the match will be over in two days’ time. I made this assessment based on the playing conditions. Day 1 England had lost all their wickets and Aussies in reply lost four and by lunch time on Day 2 , the Aussies had lost five more. The bowlers had a whale of time. The ball as they say was doing the” talking”. It was swinging , seaming , moving both ways and sideways, bouncing and when the ball beat