Tag: England

ADELAIDE - Chris Woakes struck the winning runs off the last ball to lift England to a dramatic one-wicket victory over Australia in a Twenty20 international on Wednesday.
With the scores level at 157 runs each, Woakes smacked the ball over mid-wicket to extend the world champions' winning run in the shortest form for the game to a record eight matches. "Eight wins in this form of the game is very special," England captain Paul Collingwood told reporters.
"It was a great

CANBERRA - Ian Bell's sparkling tour Down Under continued on Monday as he scored an unbeaten century to guide England to a seven-wicket win over the Australian Prime Minister's XI in a one-day match. Chasing 223 to win in the rain-affected match, Bell blasted 13 fours and a towering six as he reached 124 from just 102 balls.
He also scored a century in the final Ashes Test last week, which England won to beat Australia 3-1. The PM's XI traditionally gives fringe Australian

SYDNEY - Dominant England claimed their first Ashes series in Australia for 24 years with their third innings victory over the home team in the final Sydney Test on Friday. England wrapped up an innings and 83-run victory early on the last day after victory was assured when they had Australia seven wickets down on Thursday's close.
It was England's first series victory Down Under since Mike Gatting's team beat Australia 2-1 in 1986-87. The tourists posted their highest-ever score

SYDNEY - Retiring Paul Collingwood has been a great servant for English cricket and epitomises the tight-knit nature of the team, Ashes-winning skipper Andrew Strauss said on Friday. Collingwood, 34, said on Thursday it was time to move on and give younger players an opportunity in announcing his retirement from Test cricket. England's raucous Barmy Army supporters gave Collingwood an emotional farewell on the final day of the fifth Sydney Test as England wrapped up an emphatic 3-1

SYDNEY - England stood on the brink of a first Ashes series triumph in Australia for 24 years after dominating the fourth day of the fifth test with both bat and ball on Thursday.
The tourists racked up a record 644 for a first-innings lead of 364 before James Anderson, Tim Bresnan and Chris Tremlett wreaked havoc among the shell-shocked Australians and reduced them to 213 for seven in their second innings.
Australia, batting in what now looks a forlorn attempt to save

SYDNEY - A dominant Alastair Cook scored 189 and Ian Bell his first century against Australia as England took a commanding first innings lead of 208 at the close of play on the third day of the fifth Ashes test on Wednesday. England, who just need to draw the match to secure a first series win in Australia for 24 years having already retained the Ashes, were on 488-7 with Matt Prior (54) and Tim Bresnan (0) at the crease when bad light stopped play. Cook put on another dazzling

SYDNEY - England rode their luck through a rocky afternoon spell to reach 167-3 in their first innings at the close of play on the second day of a well-balanced fifth Ashes test on Tuesday after dismissing Australia for 280.
Alastair Cook, who was saved from dismissal by a no-ball review, had made 61 with nightwatchman James Anderson alongside him on one after a triple blow from the Australian bowlers had disrupted England's comfortable post-lunch progress.
England have

SPORT THIS WEEK - It was humbling to see a cricketer of the stature of Ricky Ponting reduced to a shadow of his former self. Gone was watertight technique, the casual arrogance and the ceaseless flow of runs. The gap between bat and pad was wide enough to drive a truck through.
The decision making was fraught with nerves. This is how competitive sport can transform even as great a cricketer as Ponting. There was a man who used to say that he could learn everything about a man's

SYDNEY
Strike bowler James Anderson insisted Friday that England could nullify the threat of Australian Test debutant Usman Khawaja as they seek to wrap up a series win in Sydney.
Pakistan-born Khawaja, 24, is set to make his Test bow for his adopted country as injured skipper Ricky Ponting's replacement in the Sydney Test, starting on Monday. Anderson, England's leading wicket-taker with 17 scalps, believes that with a little extra information, the tourists' attack will be

SYDNEY - Buoyant England will go into the final Ashes Test at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Monday intent on wrapping up their first series triumph in Australia for nearly quarter of a century.
As holders, Andrew Strauss's team are already guaranteed to keep hold of the Ashes after thumping Australia by an innings and 157 runs in the fourth Melbourne Test to take a 2-1 series lead with just one match to play.
But despite England's dominance throughout most of the series, the

MELBOURNE - England stormed to an imperious innings and 157-run victory in the fourth test to retain the Ashes on Wednesday and plunge a declining Australia side into a painful period of introspection.
The victory, completed before lunch on the fourth day, gave holders England an unassailable 2-1 lead in the five-test series and made Andrew Strauss's team the first to take the Ashes home since the Mike Gatting-led triumph of 1986/87.
Then, as now, the venue of the decisive

MELBOURNE - England's bowling attack continued to maintain a stranglehold on Australia's batsmen in the fourth test on Tuesday, putting the visitors on the brink of a first successful Ashes tour triumph in 24 years.
Needing 415 runs just to make England bat again, Australia's brittle top order disintegrated under pressure once more, limping to 169-6 at stumps in front of a despondent crowd of more than 68,000 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
Australia, who were bundled out

MELBOURNE: England still have the upper hand going into the final two Tests of an enthralling Ashes series, needing only one more victory to retain the coveted urn against Australia.
Australia go into Sunday's fourth Melbourne Test fuelled by the momentum from their emphatic 267-run victory in Perth, which levelled the series at 1-1. But they cannot afford a slip-up in the last two matches.
"We always talk about the last two Tests in a series being where things are won and

PERTH: England coach Andy Flower admitted Monday he was considering promoting in-form Ian Bell up the batting order in the crunch fourth Ashes Test in Melbourne. The diminutive right-hander has batted at six in the series and looked in excellent touch, even in the 267-run defeat in the third Test at the WACA Ground, with 213 runs at 71. Bell was sidelined by a foot injury prior to the Ashes and has bided his time at six since returning, but he said during the third Test he would love

PERTH: Australia face an uphill battle to regain the Ashes after another top order collapse on the first day of the crucial third Test at the WACA in Perth on Thursday.
England, who will retain the Ashes with victory in the match, won an important toss and reduced the hosts to 69-5 after sending them in to bat on a greenish pitch, before Australia's tail wagged to take them to a modestly competitive total of 268.
In reply, England edged safely to 29-0 at stumps, with

PERTH: Towering England seamer Chris Tremlett was pleased to belie his 'gentle giant' reputation with a fiery three-wicket haul that took the wind out of Australian sails on day one of the third Ashes test on Thursday.
Previously dismissed as timid, branded "a bit soft" by his former Hampshire captain Shane Warne and ignored by selectors for more than three years, the 6 foot 7 inch Tremlett was recalled to the side following an injury to Stuart Broad.
He seized the

PERTH: Having sent Australia crashing to the canvas in Adelaide, England will hope to land a knockout blow to their punch-drunk former tormentors when the third Ashes test gets underway in Perth on Thursday.
Victory at the WACA ground would see Andrew Strauss's team bring the Ashes home for the first time since the Mike Gatting-led triumph in 1986/87, while condemning Ricky Ponting to becoming the first Australian captain in 120 years to lose three Ashes series. Ponting said