More pain 20/20

By Bagpuss
January 15 2007

She's still there! As if the Ashes weren't enough, Bagpuss has gone to watch the 20/20 as well. Above and beyond the call!! But the story doesn't seem to have got much better in these 40 overs I'm afraid

AUSTRALIA v ENGLAND TWENTY 20 INTERNATIONAL
SYDNEY CRICKET GROUND JANUARY 2007

It is still daylight but the floodlights are on already as the players take the field. Reinstated England captain Michael Vaughan has lost the toss (ever has that feeling of déjà vu?) and Australia choose to bat first. I try to suppress the feeling that the writing is already on the wall and it ain’t too complimentary.

Flintoff, still here and determined to play despite the sore ankle, opens with a tidyish over. Anderson takes the new ball at the other end and immediately comes in for some punishment, going for 14 off the over. Just two runs of the third over but Hayden and Gilchrist aren’t too worried there are plenty of scoring opportunities at the other end. First ball of the 4th goes for 6 and Hayden tries a repeat next ball, just succeeding in skying it to Dalrymple at mid on. 28-1 Ponting joins Gilchrist and has already made 16 by the last ball of the next over. A high top edge goes to long on. Lewis would have had time to get his hair cut before the ball re-entered the upper atmosphere but unfortunately this was still not long enough for him to take the catch.

Gilchrist hits Anderson for three consecutive sixes at the beginning of the next over. Thank goodness the fielding restrictions are lifted – though I’m not sure this will help much as England would need to put a couple of fielders in the O’Reilly stand. Panesar replaces Flintoff in the 7th. Gilchrist mistimes but the ball falls safe. Lewis comes on for Anderson at the other end to try to slow the scoring here too. Gilchrist and Ponting have added 50 off just 29 balls and a breakthrough is needed. Panesar proves the worth of a spinner in this format when Gilchrist attempts to sweep and drags the ball on to his stumps. 48 off 29 and Australia are 97-2 in the 9th. Vaughan opts to try spin from both ends, changing Lewis after just one over for Dalrymple but this doesn’t work either, 12 runs come off the over. Panesar twirls away at the other end with some success, the first ball of his third over goes for 6 but Hussey charges and misses the second and he is stumped by Nixon. 126-3. Panesar is dragging England back into the match but unfortunately he has only one over left. Vaughan tries another tack at the other end bringing on Collingwood who finally gets a bit of control on the matter. But with Panesar finishing his spell an over later (4-0-40-2) Vaughan’ll need to find another bowler. Whilst he’s thinking about this Collingwood gets Ponting caught at deep backward square by a mightily relieved Lewis. Ponting has made 47 off 26 and Australia are 149-4 in the 14th. More good work by Collingwood in the next over as he runs out Clarke for just 5 – 155-5. Collingwood completes his four overs, 1-36. Flintoff bowls out his final over, wicketless for 36. Anderson gets the last over of the innings – already 46 off 3 overs but he gets the nod over Lewis.
The last over goes for 18, with Pietersen spilling a chance off White, on 29, off the third ball of the over. White adds another 11 to his total, bringing it to 40 not out off 20 balls. Australia finish their 20 overs with 221-5, a record in international twenty20 matches. The sixth wicket partnership between Symonds and White has put on 66 runs. The fourteen sixes in Australia’s innings is also a twenty20 international record. A more dubious honour goes to Jimmy Anderson whose 1-64 off 4 is the most expensive bowling in this embryonic international format. For his sake I hope this is a record which will not stand for long.

Chasing 222 to win at 11.1 runs per over England’s batters have no time to play themselves in before trying for the big shots. Joyce falls victim to the attempt to start the innings in a flurry of shots as he pulls Bracken to midwicket off the third ball of the innings. Hussey makes no mistake with the catch. 3-1. Opening the bowling at the other end is Shane Harwood, a Victorian, no spring chicken at 32. If Flintoff vaguely recognised him it is because he spent the (English) summer of 2005 on the Fylde coast, resident professional at St Anne’s Cricket Club. But before he had time to say ‘Hey, don’t I know you from somewhere?’ he’s on his way back to the pavilion, caught by White just inside the boundary. The experiment at number 3 ends with a second ball duck.

Pietersen joins Vaughan and for a brief while things are looking up for England. A short while. Then Pietersen calls Vaughan for a second, Harwood’s throw from the third man boundary scores a direct hit on the top of the stumps. Australia think they have their man and the third umpire, after an extraordinary long time presumably to extend the innings time end thus the bar takings, agrees. Pietersen joins Flintoff back in the pavilion and both of England’s big hitters are out before the end of the fifth over.

Hilfenhaus, flagged as a potential Test player of the future, comes on for Harwood in the 6th. Grateful for the chance to impress Australia’s selectors whilst still in his 20s he gets some extra bounce and is rewarded by a top edge from Vaughan which is taken at point. Pity about the no-ball Ben. Vaughan survives. It is the guile of Symonds, on in the 7th, that does for Vaughan. His decision to bowl the slower stuff pays off when Vaughan tries an unconvincing reverse sweep and is lbw. Vaughan looks unhappy though whether this is with himself or the umpire I’m not sure. 54-4. Collingwood joins Bell but has made only 5 when he falls to another catch in the deep by White this time off Hilfenhaus, who then gets his second wicket when he bowls Bell. 78-6.

England’s fortunes now rest with Nixon and Dalrymple (there’s something I never imagined I’d be writing in a tour report). Hardly a partnership to strike fear into even this Australia B attack but these two put on the best England partnership of the innings, 49 runs in 6 overs. Too little and much too late. Dalrymple goes lbw to Symonds for a top score of 32 (off 27). 127-7. I get slight personal palliation as Lewis (Gloucs) edges man-of-the-match White (Somerset) and Gilchrist takes the catch, removing the bails for a stumping too for good measure. 129-8 in the 19th. Nixon hits the first and only six of England’s innings in the final over and we see the required run rate on the scoreboard go up from 91 to 102. In the final moment Panesar is run out, desperately trying to take a bye to put Nixon on strike (the required run rate goes up to 474 with one ball left). Finally, with most of the England supporters already in the pub, England’s torture ends on 144-9.

Look in the bright side. Its more than they made in some of their Ashes test innings.