Bill Lawry: Welcome to the first game of the 2007 Commonwealth Bank series between England,Australia and New Zealand. We are here at the beautiful Melbourne Cricket Ground for this floddlit match between Australia and England. After a brilliant Ashes series for Australia which inmcluded them winning back the ashes, with a 3-1 series win. Let me introduce you to Mark Taylor who is here in thh studio with me.
Mark Taylor: Yes thankyou Bill. This shoudl be a cracker with Australia coming back from a very good performance in the Ashes and with England looking for revenge in this series.
Bill Lawry: Yes indeed Mark. Now I hear that the two captains are down on the field and with them is Ian Healy.
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Ian Healy: Yes I am here with the two captains Ricky Ponting of Australia and Andrew Flintoff of England.
Ricky you have the coin so Andrew it is you to call.
Flintoff says heads, And it has landed a head. Andrew what are you going to do?
Andrew Flintoff: We are going to have a bowl Ian, We shall try and chase anything down but we hope to bowl them out and give us a decent chance of winning this game.
Ian Healy: Ok, so how do you feel you can bounce back from the 3-1 ashes defeat a few weeks ago?
Andrew Flintoff: Well it was tough for us throughout thje series but give credit to Ricky and hsi team who put us underpressure each game and forced us onto the backfoot! But we have to move on now and concentrate on our one day game and show the world that we are still a very good side.
Ian Healy: And what additions to the One Day squad have you added for this match?
Andrew Flintoff: Well John Lewis and Saj Mahmood have come in instead of Hoggard and Anderson and Monty Panesar has replaced Ashley Giles as our spinner.
Ian Healy: Well thank you andrew and have a good match!
Andrew Flintoff: Cheers Ian.
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Ian Healy: Ok Ricky how do you feel about battingfirst on this pitch?
Ricky Ponting: We would have liked to have a bat anyway Ian, As we feel we can bowl well enough and chase down any total so we are confident of a win.
Ian Healy: How do you think your side will perform after the wonderful Ashes series?
Ricky Ponting: Well I hope we carry on in the same way. The boys performed excellently throughout the series and we are all very excited about winning back the urn.
Ian Healy: And are there any players added for the One Day series?
Ricky Ponting: Yes Andrew Symonds and Nathan Bracken are in. Shame to see Glenn McGrath retire but we have other young bowlers that can do the job for us!
Ian Healy: Ok thankyou Ricky and have a good game!
Ricky Ponting: Thanks Ian.
Ian Healy: Ok so there you have it England have won the toss and elected to field first. Back to Bill in the studio.
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Bill Lawry: Thank you Ian. So England will be bowling first. We will go for a short break but when we come back we shall have the team news and the start of the match.
Bill Lawry: Ok welcome back to the first game of the Commonwealth Bank 2007 series opening match between Australia and England here at the MCG. Lets just take a quick look at the pitch and the conditions.
The Pitch is very Hard and dry. It should create a lot of apce and bounce for the seam bowlers, but later on there might be some turn for the spinners. There seem to be little cracks on the pitch so the bounce should be pretty consistent. It is quite warm here at the MCG and the ske is clear so we should be in for a great game.
Ok lets take a look at the teams
Australian Squad:
A very strong Australian line up. With Gilchrist and Jacques to get Australia off with a bang. One of the strongest middle orders in the world with Ponting, Langer, Hussey and Symonds will be the main bulk of the problem for England. And the bowling isn't that bad either with Lee and Bracken to open up. And Clark and Hogg the other two bowlers that need to perform well.
England Squad:
England go in with a not very experienced side for today's game. With Strauss, Cook and Bell making up the top 3 they all need to get England off to a good but steady start. Then comes the explosiveness of Pietersen, Collingwood's brilliant nurdling and then the captain Flintoff's power that make up the 4,5 and 6 spot. Geraint Jones needs to score runs but is on the back of 2 hundreds in the Ashes. Lewis and Harmison will be the opening pair. Panesar and Mahmood make up the other bowlers.
Ok lets go down to the pitch where Ian Healy and Ian Chappel are the commentators.
Australia have had the better of the first 10 overs here at the Melbourne Cricket Ground for the first game of the Commonwealth Bank series between England and Australia. England started off with Steven Harmison and John Lewis to open the bowling. Harmison went for a few off his first over straying over onto Jaques pads and being punished. Lewis didn't have much luck either as Jaques and Gilchrist started to lay into them.
Things were going all Australia's way and the fielding from England was extremely poor. Flintoff needed some inspiration from somewhere and decided to bring on Sajid Mahmood to try and change things up. First ball Saj dug one down into the pitch and caught Jaques on the chest with a savage bouncer!
But still Jaques and Gilchrist stayed on top. The scored moved onto 52/0 after 7 overs and the brilliant partnership between them had too.
Flintoff then decided enough was enough and brought himself on to bowl the 9th over. He bowled every single ball in the same area and nearly got what he was looking for. A near runout after a great diving stop by Bell, almost ended Jaques innings but a poor throw lead to him being home comfortable. Jaques played and missed but then Gilchrist eased the pressure hitting a four off the 5th ball of the over. England need to find the breakthrough otherwise they could be looking at chasing a huge total!
Australia 69/0
10 Overs bowled
Jaques 43
Gilchrist 24
Great stuff from the Australian openers there culli
Nah really hard facing them today just getting slogged around
Maybe an introduction of Monty early?
Lets hope I can get a break through hey English fans?
Ian Chappell: Well after 20 overs England have pulled themselves together and started to show some character. Australia made 69 runs after the first 10 overs without the loss of a wicket. The 11th over got off abdly with 16 runs coming from it. But it was that man Flintoff who broke the deadlock in the 12th over. He pitched one fuller than he had bowled before that over and with a hint of swing into the batsman. Jaques went to leave it and it struck him on the pad. The whole England team went up and the umpire had no hesitation but to give it out.
Ponting was the new man in.
Ricky Ponting:
Innings - 255
Runs - 9411
Not Out's - 29
Average - 41.64
Highscore - 164
Ponting made a steady start and let Gilchrist unleash at the other end! But after 5 overs from Saj Mahmood Flintoff decided to bring back his strike bowler, Steve Harmison who had only bowled 3 overs so far. Harmison gave Ponting a nasty boucner that caught Ponting on the shoulder and was caught at slip. England players went up appealing for the catch but the umpire didn't move. Lets take a look at the replay...
But the very next ball Ponting was out! Harmison bowled another vicous bouncer but this time Ponting got hold of it. It looked to be sailing over fine leg's head and the rope for six. But somehow Saj Mahmood leaped up and took a brilliant catch just inside the rope.
Langer was at number 4.
Innings - 7
Runs - 160
Not Out's - 2
Average - 32
Highscore - 36
But after the 20 overs Australia have pressed together more runs. Gilchrist got too his half century from just 32 balls including 7 fours and 3 sixes.132/2 is the score at 20 overs.
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