Jaded England return home

At least the sun was shining, because there wasn’t much else to be cheerful about as England’s cricketers arrived back at Heathrow Airport, more than 100 days after their departure for Australia back in late October. In between their journeys through customs, the team found a perfect pitch around the 60-day mark of their tour, as the Ashes were sealed with a pair of thumping victories at Melbourne and Sydney, but thereafter it descended into tedium and acrimony, with Eoin Morgan‘s World Cup fate providing the perfect bum note on which to end a peculiar odyssey.

When Allan Border‘s men regained the Ashes after a four-year hiatus in 1989, they were treated to a tickertape parade through the streets of Sydney, and as for England’s own exploits, the events of 2005 remain engrained on the retinas of fans of a certain age, with open-top buses and packed receptions in Trafalgar Square marking the end of a remarkable summer’s contest.

Full story: ESPNcricinfo

 

Trott heroics keep England alive

Jonathan Trott’s calculating century ensured England stayed in the series with a 21-run victory that upset Australia’s national holiday in Adelaide. The tourists began the game needing to win and the scenario won’t change when they head to Brisbane for Sunday’s fifth ODI, but they have been boosted by an end to four consecutive limited-overs losses.

Trott’s perfectly timed 102 off 126 balls stood tall on a day that was meant to be a celebration of all things Australia, but the home supporters left unhappy as the series score-line in the seven-game contest settled at 3-1. Trott, bowling his steady medium pace, even managed the valuable breakthroughs of Cameron White (44) and David Hussey (28) to end the pair’s rescue act.

Full story: ESPNcricinfo

 

Tremlett awarded incremental contract

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Chris Tremlett has been rewarded for his role in England’s victorious Ashes campaign, with the ECB offering him an incremental contract for the remainder of the 2011 season.

Though Tremlett missed out on selection for the forthcoming World Cup, he has played in each of England’s first three ODIs in Australia, having starred with the ball in the final three Tests of the Ashes at Perth, Melbourne and Sydney.

He claimed 17 wickets at 23.35 in those matches having come into the team as a replacement for Stuart Broad, and after announcing himself with 5 for 87 in the first innings at Perth, it was he who claimed the honour of the series-sealing wicket, when he bowled Michael Beer off the inside-edge at Sydney.

Full story: ESPNcricinfo

 

Injured Graeme Swann to miss England ODIs in Australia

Graeme Swann is out of the one-day series with Australia with a back injury but is expected to be fit for the start of the World Cup next month.

Swann will fly home from the Australia tour on Wednesday because of a lower back strain.

England, who trail 3-0 in the series, had already been forced to cope without Swann for two matches after the 31-year-old suffered a bruised kneecap.

“It’s frustrating but the priority for me now is the World Cup,” said Swann.

Full story: BBC Sport

 

England were a seamer short against Australia, says Andrew Strauss

The England captain, Andrew Strauss, said his team were a seam bowler short as they slipped to a second one-day international defeat to Australia in Hobart.

Shaun Marsh kept Australia’s innings together after they threatened to fall apart at various points, hitting 110 in a total of 230, to which the tail-ender Doug Bollinger contributed an excellent run-a-ball 30. Bollinger then took the wickets of Strauss and Kevin Pietersen as part of a four-wicket haul as Australia sealed a 46-run victory, which leaves the hosts 2-0 up in the seven-match series heading into Sunday’s third match, in Sydney.

England lined up with the spinners Michael Yardy and James Tredwell in their attack with a view to giving them match practice ahead of the World Cup in the subcontinent, but Strauss accepted in hindsight that had probably been an error.

Full story: The Guardian