Final Day Drama Captures Ashes Spirit!

What an advert for test cricket! With the recent surge of Twenty/20 cricket, people were beginning to question how exciting test cricket is in comparison, however, the fifth day at Cardiff proved how nail-biting test cricket is, and how special the Ashes truly are!



At the start of the day England had a decent chance of saving the test match and keeping the series level at nil-nil. All they needed to do was to bat the day out, and with captain Andrew Strauss and Kevin Pieterson at the crease it seemed like a relatively simple job. However, the criticism of Pieterson's first innings dismissal obviously got to the ex-captain as he left a straight one on off-stump and was bowled by Ben Hilfenhaus, dramatically reducing any chances of avoiding defeat. The skipper soon followed as his attempted cut-shot edged behind to Brad Haddin off of Nathan Hauritz's bowling. It seemed like this would belong to Australia.

England's late middle order put up a fight against the Aussie's attack, with Paul Collingwood top scoring with 74 off of an astonishing 344 deliveries. In spite of this strong display from Collingwood, wickets continued to fall around him. Prior displayed a moment of truly terrible batting when he edged one to first slip. Hauritz's second wicket of the innings. Flintoff gave a bit of stability to the batting line-up, lasting 89 balls but went feeling for a ball, wide of off-stump and edging it behind.

With the wickets of Swann and Broad falling, England found themselves in a situation where they were relying on James Anderson and Monty Panesar to see the side home, with a new ball just around the corner. The pace of Siddle was not enough to break through Monty's defence and the introduction of spin gave Anderson a chance to take the lead and knock 10 minutes off of the remaining playing time. This meant that if England could last until 6.40 pm, then defeat would be avoided.

Australia went for spin at both ends in the form of Nathan Hauritz and Marcus North, with the intention of fitting more overs into the remaining minutes. With 5 minutes left and the crowd cheering every dot ball as if it was a six. England's twelfth-man came sprinting onto the pitch with a change of gloves for Anderson. Ponting's face was a portrait of anger and frustration with the blatant attempts of time wasting and the twelfth-man soon left the pitch. A few overs later and the twelfth-man was back on with yet another change of gloves for Anderson, however this time he was being followed by the England physio who walked out, spoke to Panesar and walked off the pitch again. A much needed exchanging of words no doubt!

All this drama and tension set a perfect atmosphere for the final moments of this first test. The clock struck 6.40 pm and after some discussion between the batsmen, Ricky Ponting and the umpires, play ended and England had saved the test match in the most nail-biting finish to an Ashes test since Edgbaston 2005.

Only in an Ashes series will you find that grit and determination to never back down and that 'never say die' spirit. Day five at Cardiff is what the Ashes is all about!