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The Greatest Test Ever
The second test of the Ashes series of 2005 between England and Australia which took place between 4th-7th August will go down as one of the greatest games of cricket there has ever been. Those who witnessed it will never forget it. Australia won the first test at Lords by a crushing margin on 239 runs and English optimism fell apart. However luck was not on the sides of the Aussies when in the moments before the game, Aussie fast bowler Glenn McGrath trod on a cricket ball, went over on his ankle and was immediately ruled out. This was a big blow for Australia as McGrath is seen as one of the greatest fast bowlers of all time. However, even more bizarre was captain Ricky Ponting's decision to field first when he won the toss. This handed the initiative back to England who made a massive 407 on the first day with Marcus Trescothick, Kevin Pietersen and Andrew 'Freddie' Flintoff all making big scores. On day two, England bowled brilliantly to establish a healthy lead of 99 with all the bowlers doing their bit. However the day finished with a beauty of a ball from Shane Warne that bowled a bemused Andrew Strauss. It didn't get better at the start of the 3rd day with England losing wickets quickly and slumping to 31-4. Step forward Flintoff who was outstanding and helped make the score a bit more respectable including a magnificent shot that went right out of the ground. He made a last wicket stand of 51 with Simon Jones which left Australia 282 to win with Warne taking 10 wickets in the match. They made a good start until Flintoff came on and in his first over dismissed both Justin Langer AND Ricky Ponting in one of the great overs. Australia were beginning to stabilise until more wickets fell and it looked like it was going to be a collapse. More runs were accumulated until with the last ball of the day, Steve Harmison bowled a wonderful slow ball yorker to get rid of the dangerous Michael Clarke which left Australia over 100 runs to win with only 2 wickets to spare. The next morning saw the dangerous Shane Warne get more runs until he fell for 42 by treading on his stumps. Australia still needed over 50 runs to win and with just one wicket left it looked unlikely. However Brett Lee and Michael Kasprowicz had other ideas and they were getting very close to their target that it looked like they would win after all. And with just 3 runs required for victory it looked all over for England until Kasprowicz gloved a ball to Geraint Jones who stooped to catch and England had won one of the best games of cricket ever by the incredibly narrow margin of just 2 runs! It levelled the series at 1-1 and set England up for the next 3 matches which eventually ended up with the Ashes being regained for the first time in 16 years. The test had everything and will be talked about for a very long time to come.
- A-M-Chalker
- Apr 9, 2006
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- Runtime1 hour 40 minutes
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