England tie in last ball thriller

Australia 196 (Hussey 62*) and England 196 for 9 (Jones 71, Collingwood 53) tie the NatWest Series final

Nerves are high as Glen McGrath bowl to Ashley Giles who scrambled the bowl for two leg-byes on the last bowl of the match to tie the series played between England and Australia.Paul Collingwood and Geraint Jones put on 116 runs for the sixth wicket to rescue a desperate situation, but neither could go on to win the match.

Ten runs were needed off the last over, bowled by Glenn McGrath, and that became three of the last two balls.

But Darren Gough was run out and Ashley Giles scrambled a couple at the death.

With the day dawning overcast - the clouds never left north-west London - Michael Vaughan opted to bowl first after winning the toss.

England’s pace bowlers exploited the swinging conditions to shoot Australia out for 196. Matthew Hayden and Adam Gilchrist once again got Australia off to a flyer, taking 46 runs from the first six overs. But they both fell in quick succession and from then on England applied the squeeze. The dangerous Andrew Symonds made 29 - but it took him 71 balls, an unusually slow rate for him, while Mike Hussey posted his third one-day fifty on his way to an unbeaten 62. Steve Harmison and Andrew Flintoff were the pick of the bowlers, arresting the run-feast at first, and taking wickets later.

Wickets began falling at regular intervals and the runs started drying up alarmingly.Gilchrist had a swipe at a slightly short Andrew Flintoff delivery which looped invitingly to Kevin Pietersen at midwicket.

Then Steve Harmison, kept under wraps until the 13th over, struck with his first delivery as Ricky Ponting - who had hit Gough for six - tickled a ball fine down the leg-side for Jones to take a good diving catch.

Harmison continued to bowl beautifully and was soon rewarded with a second wicket when Damien Martyn edged a delightful delivery to the wicket-keeper.

As the scoring rate stagnated, a virtually strokeless Michael Clarke was the next to be dismissed as Jones fired one in at his stumps to have him lbw.

At 93-5 a partnership was desperately needed and it came as Michael Hussey and Andrew Symonds played out 15 overs in patient fashion, adding 54.

But Symonds fell to Collingwood just before the final 10 overs began, exposing the tail to the returning pacemen.

Hussey continued to hit some superb shots, but Flintoff took two wickets in two balls and Harmison and Gough each claimed another wicket as Australia were all out for 196 with seven balls remaining, Hussey unbeaten on 62.

England lurched to 65 for 5 by the halfway mark, having lost the top half of their order within the first ten overs. Geraint Jones and Paul Collingwood were making a painstaking effort to rebuild England’s innings after they had been in dire straits at 33 for 5. But Andrew Symonds came on and kept things tight with five overs of his medium pacers which went for just 8 and he is set to continue, while Brad Hogg’s first over went for 3.

The run rate is climbing for England who are crawling along at just over 2.5 an over: they now need more than five an over. It’s still a gettable total, but will require patience amid difficult, swinging conditions. The smart money, however, is on a buoyant Australia.

But the climax of the match was a thrill to watch.The Natwest Series final finished in a thrilling tie as Ashley Giles scrambled two leg-byes from Glenn McGrath’s final ball to level the scores. Under tournament rules the trophy will be shared. When Geraint Jones and Paul Collingwood fell in quick succession after adding 116 for sixth Australia were on course for win. However, Ashley Giles hit 20 from 21 balls and with help from Darren Gough earned England share of the spoils.

The NatWest International Triangular Series: England v Australia

02-07-2005 at Lord’s

TEAM TOTAL OVERS RUN RATE

Australia 196/10 48.5 4.01

England 196/9 50.0 3.92

MATCH STATUS

Australia tied with England

MAN OF THE MATCH

Geraint Jones

MAN OF THE SERIES

Andrew Symonds

Match : Final Australia v England
Toss : England
Venue : Lord’s
Current Status : Match tied

Australia

Batsman Status Runs Balls 4’s 6’s S.Rate
A Gilchrist c Pietersen b Flintoff 27 32 5 0 84.38
M Hayden c Giles b Gough 17 19 3 0 89.47
R Ponting c G Jones b Harmison 7 18 0 1 38.89
D Martyn c G Jones b Harmison 11 24 1 0 45.83
A Symonds c Strauss b Collingwood 29 71 2 0 40.85
M Clarke lbw b S Jones 2 19 0 0 10.53
M Hussey not out 62 81 7 0 76.54
G Hogg c G Jones b Harmison 16 17 0 0 94.12
B Lee c G Jones b Flintoff 3 5 0 0 60
J Gillespie c G Jones b Flintoff 0 1 0 0 0
G McGrath c Collingwood b Gough 0 4 0 0 0

EXTRAS : b - 5, w - 7, nb - 3, lb - 7, p - 0 22

TOTAL : (in 48.5 overs, for 10 wickets ) 196 Run Rate : 4.01

Fall of Wickets
1/50 2/54 3/71 4/90 5/93 6/147 7/169 8/179 9/179 10/196

Bowling Analysis (England)

Bowler O M R W nb wd R/O

D Gough 6.5 1 36 2 1 2 5.27
S Jones 8 2 45 1 0 1 5.62
A Flintoff 8 2 23 3 1 1 2.88
S Harmison 10 2 27 3 1 3 2.7
P Collingwood 8 0 26 1 0 0 3.25
A Giles 8 0 30 0 0 0 3.75

England

Batsman Status Runs Balls 4’s 6’s S.Rate
M Trescothick c Ponting b McGrath 6 16 0 0 37.5
A Strauss b Lee 2 8 0 0 25
M Vaughan b McGrath 0 7 0 0 0
K Pietersen c Gilchrist b Lee 6 10 1 0 60
A Flintoff c Hayden b McGrath 8 9 2 0 88.89
P Collingwood run out ( Symonds) 53 115 4 0 46.09
G Jones lbw b Hogg 71 99 4 3 71.72
A Giles not out 20 19 1 0 105.26
S Jones b Hussey 1 2 0 0 50
D Gough run out (McGrath ) 12 13 0 0 92.31
S Harmison not out 0 0 0 0 –

EXTRAS : b - 2, w - 3, nb - 2, lb - 10, p - 0 17

TOTAL : (in 50.0 overs, for 9 wickets ) 196 Run Rate : 3.92

Fall of Wickets
1/11 2/13 3/19 4/19 5/33 6/149 7/161 8/162 9/194

Bowling Analysis (Australia)
Bowler O M R W nb wd R/O
B Lee 10 1 37 2 1 1 3.7
G McGrath 10 4 24 3 1 0 2.4
J Gillespie 10 0 42 0 0 1 4.2
A Symonds 10 2 23 0 0 0 2.3
B Hogg 6 0 25 1 0 0 4.17
M Hussey 4 0 31 1 0 1 7.75

Umpires: B F Bowden, D R Shepherd
England: M E Trescothick, A J Strauss, M P Vaughan, A Flintoff, K P Pietersen, P D Collingwood, G O Jones, A F Giles, D Gough, S P Jones, S J Harmison
Australia: M L Hayden, A C Gilchrist, R T Ponting, D R Martyn, A Symonds, M J Clarke, M E K Hussey, G B Hogg, B Lee, J N Gillespie, G D McGrath