So It Ends A Draw
A brilliant defensive stance by English tailenders James Anderson and Monty Panesar has played out the first test between England and Australia into a draw. Victory looked unavoidable for Australia when Paul Collingwood was dismissed for 74 after five hours and 43 minutes of continual resistence by England.
Australian captain Ricky Ponting sent in his two off spinners Nathan Hauritz and Marcus North for the final over¡¯s to try and break the pair and take the series. Anderson held on to 21 runs and Panesar made seven runs to allow England to draw the series. All round celebrations were heard in the dressing room when they realised that they had held off the Australian attack, a result as good as winning.
The Australian bowlers demonstrated good attack all day and performed their jobs well. Ben Hilfenhaus started the day by dispatching English star Kevin Pietersen in the fourth over. Nathan Hauritz then took over to take care of Andrew Strauss and Matt Prior.
With time running out, England decided to send out their physiotherapist to run some new gloves to Anderson with Ponting complaining to the umpire about time wasting tactics. This became a big talking point after the match with much of the media conference focusing on Ponting¡¯s complaining.
For England, the test really serves as a big wake up call for their batsman. Kevin Pieterson did not live up to his potential. His second innings dismissal was overly elementary when he decided to just leave a ball that went straight for off stump. The other batsman did not serve great impact with the Australians continually on the front foot. Although the English can think of themselves as heroes for the first match, they better wake up and confront the battle for the rest of the series.
