Tale of One and half hour: Trent Bridge

England bowlers especially Stuart Broad demolished Australia in just 18.3 overs

Hovering clouds over Trent Bridge with some extra grass on the turf, surely was an easy call of ‘bowling first’. The coin flipped into Cook’s favor as English seamers got the opportunity to unleash their efforts on the suitable track.

Before the start of this game, cricket fraternity was weighing on Australians for a turnaround. Expectations from Michael Clarke’s side were high enough to take the ‘URN War’ to the ‘OVAL’. This all seemed perfect for a nice morning of ‘Test cricket’ at Trent Bridge but first ‘One and half hour’ sealed the fate of ‘Ashes 2015’.

After losing Jimmy for the 4th Test, England had to go to Stuart Broad. Broad, who was on the verge of breaking into the 300 club was also ready to exploit support from the track as well as from ‘home crowd’. He already put a lot in Edgbaston but overshadowed by Finn and Anderson. Not this time as he got an edge from Chris Rogers. A beautiful swinging away kookaburra got the welcome from 1st slip and Broad became the proud 5th English bowler to break into 300 club.

After surviving for 45 innings, Rogers finally got a duck against his name. Steve smith could have avoided Broad’s swing, but it was a different day. After driving a beautiful one to boundary he was the next victim of Broad as Nasser Hussain on air sparked, “soon after 300, it's 301 for broad”.

By now Australia would have gotten the message from Trent Bridge track but they couldn’t avoid the ‘coming carnage’. Getting a healthy competition from Finn, Mark Wood was eager to make an impact and his hard work paid off when his 85 mph shorter in swing got a healthy edge from Warner. This was really an ecstatic moment and Warner had to appreciate it. This was a ‘double duck opening shock’ for Australia and Clarke walked in with having some serious expressions.

Shaun Marsh had replaced his brother in this game after continuously knocking the door. Maybe this was an ideal situation for him to concrete his spot in struggling Aussie middle order. But the ‘Local boy’ had enough to trap Marsh as he gave it away to Ian Bell on slip. Marsh has been doing this all the time. Last summer Indians have this method to get him out as he likes to drive the ball. Australia were hoping that Voges could get his touch back in this game but Broad was totally unplayable at the moment. A ball shaping in nicely held itself at turf and Voges closed the face of bat little early and broad added 4th scalp in his tally.

Losing 5 wickets just under 30 runs can add a lot more pressure. This happened here as Clarke tried to break the shackles hitting a boundary to Wood. He was looking to take on to Broad as well but chasing a wide half volley, Skipper became ‘Broad’s bunny’ again. You have to give credit to Cook on first slip as ball was going away from him. Meanwhile Broad got the fifer in just 19 balls and became the joint fastest one to do so along with Ernie Toshack, who did it in 1947 against India.

Australian team was in deep trouble and Peter Nevill had to show some resistance. Unlike Haddin, who have compiled more runs down the order in previous Ashes, Nevill couldn’t hold the ship and a full length ball from Finn got enough space to disturb the stumps. This was the only wicket which fell against speed rather than swing. Australia already had reached on the verge of its lowest first inning score of the century, citing the 2011 game against South Africa.

Take a note on this:

“Last time a team won a test after losing 7 wickets just for 33 runs in 1st inning, was back in 1887”

Standing on 33/7, as a tail ender, you don’t have much to do. Mitch Johnson got the double digit after getting couple of boundaries, but Broad wasn’t in the mood of mercy. He picked Starc and Johnson within 3 deliveries in the same manner. Both southpaws fallen to broad driving to Joe Root at slips. Australia were lucky to escape embarrassing 47 run mark with Josh Hazelwood picking up 3, taking Australia to 50. This lightened up the TB as Mike Holding on the air said, “Sarcasm at its naughtiest”. Trent bridge crowd applauded batting effort for quite a time. Well apart from that Broad got the final one sending Lyon back to pavilion, ending Australia’s third shortest test inning in the history.

This all happened in just 18.3 overs and took exactly 94 minutes. Just two batsmen could break into the double digits and Extras (14) topped the scorecard. Twitter was also enjoying the run of #Ashes. EspnInfo just tweeted -

“Australian Inning lasted 100 minutes, about as long as a horror movie #GoneIn60”

Hero of the “One and half hour” Stuart Broad got his best figures in Test cricket 15/8 at his home ground beating another one 44/6 vs India at the same venue.

Truly, it was a beautiful display of bowling, fielding, and captaincy. Putting 6 slips onto the place Cook never allowed Australians to get away with a nick. Jimmy was all in smile back in the dressing room, but this scorecard could have been much distorted if He was fit. The days of Clarke were already dimming just before this test and these “one and half hour” can have a final say on his future. ‘The URN’ is already making its way to England and BarmyArmy is ready to take the ‘Revenge’ of Ashes 2013/14.

It all happened in just one and half hour. Australia losing it all and facing ‘Swing’ is out of their scope. All catches were directed to slip corners and rest was done by English fielders. The series which was well poised till Lords Test, now looks like another writing of English domination in Britain. Clarke led this side will have to extend its 15 years wait of winning Ashes in England as from this point victory would be a miracle.