Image Credit- The Times of India.
Venue- Melbourne Cricket Ground, Melbourne [December 2021].
In the Australian Summer of 2021-22, English Cricket Team toured Australia for the Ashes. The Aussies won the first two test comfortably at Brisbane and Adelaide and all eyes were now set in the massive MCG. It was a must win game for the visitors to remain alive in this series. For hosts a win in this game would have meant a series win.
Post the second test both the teams made a lot of changes in their squad. Jonny Bairstow, Zak Crawley, Jack Leach, and Mark Wood replaced Stuart Broad, Rory Burns, Ollie Pope, and Chris Woakes in the English team. The Australian team also underwent some changes, with Jhye Richardson and Michael Neser being replaced by debutant Scott Boland, a local lad who became only the fourth Indigenous Australian cricketer to play at the Test level, and Pat Cummins, who was back as captain.
On a bowling friendly wicket, Aussie Captain Pat Cummins won the toss and elected to field first. Rain caused a delay in the start of the game, and even it began, England's batting difficulties at the top of the order persisted after Cummins bowled openers Hameed and Crawley with only 13 runs scored. Malan and Root once again had to save the innings, and they did it by putting up 48 runs before Malan was out on the final ball before lunch, caught by Warner off of Cummins for 14. Post lunch the visitors kept on losing wickets at regular intervals and were eventually bowled out for 185 runs in their first innings.
Warner and Harris gave Australia its best start of the series, putting on a 57-run opening stand in 14 overs until Warner was dismissed for a quick 38 from 42 when a thick edge off Anderson was collected by Crawley at gully. Australia finished the day's play with 61 for one, as Lyon was sent in to serve as the nightwatchman for the final two overs. The discovery that four non-playing members of the England squad, including two family members and two members of the support staff, had tested positive for COVID-19 caused the start of the second day to be postponed by 30 minutes. Before getting bowled out in their first innings, Australia boosted their run total to 267. Three more wickets were taken by Anderson, bringing him first-inning total of 4/33.
Early in the second innings, England ran into problems once more. In the fifth over, Mitchell Starc dismissed both Zak Crawley and Dawid Malan. Haseeb Hameed and Jack Leach were both dismissed in the eleventh over thanks to Scott Boland. At the end of day two, England was 4/31 and was 51 runs behind Australia.
Ben Stokes was dismissed by Starc in the fifth over of the third day with England at 5/46. With ducks from Wood and Robinson, Boland dismissed the following four batters (Jonny Bairstow, Joe Root, Mark Wood, and Ollie Robinson) in quick time. It seemed Boland was on a mission to win the Ashes for his country. He bowled with such precision that English Batsmen had no answer to him. It was indeed an Ashes winning spell from the debutant. His impact in the game can be summarized with the following words of the Commentator, "Build the man a statue".
James Anderson was knocked out by Cameron Green to close the Test, which Australia won by an innings and 14 runs. The 68 runs total of the English were their lowest total on Australian soil since 1904. The Aussies won the Ashes again and Scott Boland won the Mullagh Medal for his spell of six wickets for seven runs.
To watch the spell of Scott Boland. Click Here.
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