From a promising
position on day four of the fourth Ashes test at Chester le Street,
Durham, Australia’s batting disintegrated and succumbed to another
defeat to England. This result gives England the series, having
already retained the Ashes with the draw at Old Trafford, and
Australia with only pride to play for at the Oval next week.
The fourth test swung
both ways, with England and Australia taking the advantage at
different times, much like most of the series so far. Australia
established a first innings lead of 32 in a low scoring match. But it
should have been more. Opener Chris Rogers picked up his maiden test
century with some dogged determination and batting. Shane Watson
scored 68 coming in at number six. But very few others made much
contribution to the total, with three of the top five not making
double figures.
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| Shane Watson and Chris Rogers, Australia's highest scorers |
Australia’s attack
once again performed better than their batsmen and dismissed England
for 330 in the second innings giving Australia an achievable target
of 299 and the best part of two whole days to get them. England’s
total was mainly the result of another superb century from Ian Bell
and some handy runs from Tim Bresnan, once again coming in as the
night watchmen, and Graham Swann’s unbeaten 30 boosting the tail.
The second innings for
Australia started really well with an opening partnership of 109. But
things quickly fell away from there. Khawaja and Clarke both made
only 21 and Stuart Broad broke the hearts of the Australian batsmen
with two sensational balls to dismiss Clarke and the dangerous wicket keeper Haddin. From there the writing was on the wall. Peter
Siddle contributed a gutsy 23 but he was never going to make the
required 118 remaining runs with Australia’s weakened tail.
