England won The Ashes last night with a 197-run victory in the final Test at The Oval. I was listening to the match via Internet BBC radio, and it was truly nail-biting stuff.
England had dominated the crease during their at-bats, and put Australia to the sword with a huge 546 run target to win. Never before had any Test team been able to win a match with that number of runs.
In typically English fashion, they really made their supporters sweat by having a torrid time trying to bowl Australia out. At one point, doubts began creeping in if England would actually be able to do it. Then, Andrew Flintoff broke the Aussie resistance with a truly awesome 25-yard run out on the skipper (who was putting up solid resistance), Ricky Ponting. It all went downhill from there for the Australian side, as the remaining 7 wickets fell by 5.49pm the same day.
Superb cricket, a testimony to the greatness that Test cricket can achieve.
England had dominated the crease during their at-bats, and put Australia to the sword with a huge 546 run target to win. Never before had any Test team been able to win a match with that number of runs.
In typically English fashion, they really made their supporters sweat by having a torrid time trying to bowl Australia out. At one point, doubts began creeping in if England would actually be able to do it. Then, Andrew Flintoff broke the Aussie resistance with a truly awesome 25-yard run out on the skipper (who was putting up solid resistance), Ricky Ponting. It all went downhill from there for the Australian side, as the remaining 7 wickets fell by 5.49pm the same day.
Superb cricket, a testimony to the greatness that Test cricket can achieve.
