Story The Ashes 2013/14: Australia's Search for Redemption

[just_cricket]

In 1882 the Old Empire fell to the Antipodeans, and onlookers mourned the death of English cricket.

As 2013 begins to draw to a close, the tables have turned and now it is Australia who languish in defeat - their third consecutive Ashes loss.

Now, in the Commonwealth Bank Ashes Series 2013/14, the war resumes. England seek to confirm their domination but for Australia, success would mean redemption.

"Only a man who knows what it is like to be defeated can reach down to the bottom of his soul and come up with the extra ounce of power it takes to win when the match is even."

- Muhammad Ali​

War is coming... it begins in Brisbane soon​

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[surendar]

Wow,JC! Welcome back to stories section! looking forward to those classy times.

 

[Aravind.]

Waiting for more.

 

[just_cricket]

All Set for First Test at the Gabba

There is nothing quite like the morning of the first test of an Ashes series. The ground is filling fast and the atmosphere is brilliant - tension is mounting as we anticipate this massive occasion. It is just about time for the two captains to meet for the toss, the first official act of the series, which as history shows can be one of the most pivotal moments of an Ashes summer.

Kevin Mitchell Jnr. has prepared a belter for us here today, it's absolutely rock hard, flat, and should be fast. It has perhaps a touch less grass and moisture in the surface on this all-important first morning, which should mean that both captains will be gunning to win the toss and bat first. There is a roar from the crowd as the blazer-clad Alastair Cook and Michael Clarke emerge onto the arena to flip the coin.

Clarke does the honours, Cook calls heads but it is tails. Clarke has no hesitation in batting first.

It looks a great surface, we'd love to get out here and stamp our authority on the series by building a good score. England have a good bowling attack but we're confident if we bat well then we'll post a good score.

- Michael Clarke

I probably would have liked to have had a bat but this way it gives our bowlers a chance to do their business up front. Our seamers have been in good form lately so if we can hit our areas and carry out our plans we'll go a long way to setting up the game for ourselves.

- Alastair Cook

Now let's have a look at the teams:

A relatively inexperienced but not necessarily youthful batting line-up for Australia, the exception being Clarke who has been in a class of his own for the last few years. Watson is no slouch but is relatively new to batting at 3, Warner and Rogers have had sporadic success while Smith and Bailey did enough in their endeavours during the winter to warrant selection today. The bowling looks strong though, with Harris being the pick of the bowlers in recent times, the bustling Siddle performing well day-in, day out, and Lyon being a steady performer. A lot rests of the form of Johnson.

The English side is much more settled, although the order has been shuffled slightly with Root moving to six and Carberry getting an opening opportunity. Cook - so instrumental in England's last series win down under - will be key, alongside that formidable middle order of Trott, Pietersen and Bell. However Australia believe they have plans that can unsettle all those 3 so it will be interesting to see how they fare. Their bowling also looks strong, led by Anderson but it could be Broad and Swann who enjoy the Australian pitches more. Tremlett has got the nod ahead of Finn and Rankin as the third seamer and it will be important for England that he fires in order to take some of the load of their other three front-line bowlers.


Stay tuned for the first ball of what promises to be a cracking series, it's not far away now.
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[WubbaLubbaDubDub]

Amazing writeup. I feel the English boys have an upper hand seeing the performance of Aussies has not been upto the mark in recent times. Good luck

 

[Prithvi]

Its great to see stories by JC. Aussies to win Ashes 5-0.

With Suren bhai and JC's stories- its almost like vintage PC- and now let me see people who say that "stories forum is dead."

 

[Samuels]

I love your work on gfx. Clean and appealing. Your writing is great as expected. I am glad to see quite a few stories active at the moment in the section which was as good as dead few days back.

 

[surendar]

I love your work on gfx. Clean and appealing. Your writing is great as expected. I am glad to see quite a few stories active at the moment in the section which was as good as dead few days back.

I echo this, as I still love those C2k4 stories of JC which made me to play that game again.

Am interested to know on which game is this been played.