England beat Australia A
November 20th 2010 11:20
Link: twitter.com/mattsaltmer
In the early hours of this morning (British time), England wrapped up victory in their final warm up match, before the Ashes first test begins in just five days time. It was a convincing ten wicket win, with the only disappointment being that Strauss and Cook had to come back out to bat, needing 11 runs for victory. With the tourist's first choice bowling attack rested, the three bowlers brought on tour as back up all impressed on the final day.
In the first innings, Australia A were bowled out for a disappointing 230. Tall seamer Chris Tremlett took four wickets, with three for Shahzad, two for Bresnan, and one for part time medium pacer Paul Collingwood.
Strauss and Pietersen both failed with the bat, making 10 and 13 respectively. But there were some very impressive innings from other players. 60 from Cook and 41 from Trott at the top of the order, stabilised the innings. Both players will have wanted to go on to bigger scorers after getting starts, and Trott is still searching for a half century on tour.
But after slipping to 137-5, Paul Collingwood and Ian Bell showed their class down the order. Collingwood hit a typically solid 89, falling just short of a ton. But Ian Bell didn't fall short, batting fantastically well and scoring 192. This, along with a tail wagging, with Prior, Bresnan, Shahzad and Tremlett scoring 97 runs between them, saw England to 523 all out.
Bresnan did the early damage in Australia A's second innings, taking three wickets to reduce them to 84-3. Phil Hughes and Cameron White then launched a great recovery for the home side, Hughes eventually out for 81 breaking the partnership. Tremlett then took over, his three wickets bringing the hosts to 191-6.
Australia one-day specialist White, was finally out for 111, as Monty Panesar took three quick wickets, before Bresnan's fourth of the innings wrapped up the innings, 301 all out.
This left Strauss and Cook to get 11 runs to finish the match off, something which was achieved with minimal fuss. This win will see England head to Brisbane full of confidence. With their first choice bowling line-up rested, and four of their six batsmen coming off the back of good knocks, I fancy England to win the first test. While I feel the Ashes series overall is hard to call, England do have the better momentum going into that first test at Brisbane, starting on Thursday.
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