“Australia won by 251 runs” That’s what the score card is showing now.
But who had thought it would be like that before the start of the series. England came as World Cup Champions and nobody thought would get beaten up in the very first test on their home soil.
The momentum was surely on England’s side and on paper they looked really a threat. The result is absolutely opposite. That too when you got Australia’s first 8 wicket at less than 150.
Steve Smith who was always a threat before The Sandpaper incident has now come back and is looking dangerous as ever. Who would have thought he would light up the ashes right from the word go.
Scores of 144 and 142 are good enough to show what impact he had on the game but they don’t show how tough it would have been for him to get them in front of the ever sledging English Audience.
He looks promising now and England would have to look into their bowling resources to decide who would get Smith from now on.
On the other side, Nathan Lyon who probably never had a dark patch in his career has shown why he is the best off spinner right now. Getting a 6-Wicket hall for less than 50 on not so deadly track against this English Team is definitely a big achievement.
Amongst all this, the biggest issue with English Team is losing Anderson who bowled only 4 overs in the first ashes test. Can they bounce back in this series without Anderson? Will he be ready after the second ashes test? All these are really important questions and will decide England’s future in this series.
Australia, on the other side must be thinking that the momentum is with them now and they must use it to create history. Let’s see if they can beat England on their home soil or the hosts make a good comeback.
Cricket Vikas 