THE ASHES
ADVANTAGE AUSTRALIA
The home team seems to have turned the test match in its favour in Perth. After being dismissed for 268, the visitors seemed to be in a strong position. But Mitchell Johnson wrote a superb script for himself and his team.
In the first innings, Johnson scored a half-century and that perhaps could have boosted his confidence with the ball. The helpful wicket at Perth did the rest and there were times when the left-armer looked unplayable. The same bowler struggled to put the ball in the right place in the Brisbane test. In the English first innings, he took six wickets. Johnson was picked for this test and there was a lot of answering the selectors had to do to justify his selection.
Ponting failed once again but the win in this test match may bring runs from the Australian skipper in the rest of the series. That is something of a bad sign for the English.
Steve Waugh commented that Ricky Ponting would leave international cricket if he were to be dropped from the captaincy. Waugh was an acknowledged master at the art of ‘mental disintegration’. This might have inspired the Aussie bowlers to rise up to the occasion.
For the first time in the series, the Australian commentators had something to gloat about the superior abilities of the home team. Everyone seemed to have removed from their memories the bad showing in the first two test matches.
England can only bank on a miracle to save this match.
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It is not very often that Australia trails behind in a test series and more so in the Ashes at home.It was more than two decades ago that this happened and the Ashes went all the way to England.
The last time the English went to the land down under, they were wiped clean, losing all the five matches.But now things are different with the home lacking the firepower in both the batting and the bowling departments to crush their traditional rivals.
It is true that the home team was regarded as not too strong going into the Ashes but after two test matches, the edge lies with the English.Of course, only a fool would be courageous enough the write-off the Aussies.
In a selection policy that is best practiced in the sub-continent, Cricket Australia has been busy in picking and dropping players.Add to this is the public clamour building up for the comeback of Shane Warne.
As a neutral, I would still love to see the Ashes being taken to England
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Y V SAI MADHAV 