Saturday, September 12, 2009

Lee fires Aussies to series win

Brett Lee's explosive, full-length demolition of England at Lord's yesterday, which sealed the series win for Australia, showed he still had a point to prove after missing the Ashes.
Afterwards he said losing the urn has hurt the team "immensely" and they remain hungry -rather worryingly for Strauss, who isn't going to find much let-up in the last three matches.
On this evidence, England can be mighty grateful Lee didn't take part in the Test series or the outcome would have been entirely different.
Few batsmen would have coped with the toe-crushing inswingers he got going so effectively - and it was a reminder to all of the benefits of bowling full and straight, a lesson Broad hopefully reflected on as his leg stump went cartwheeling.
For England, it was deja vu again as solid foundations disintegrated and no batsmen had the courage to press on, particularly in the middle overs.
The bowling wasn't much better. Overall, I like the look of Rashed, but he served up a series of full tosses that wouldn't have looked out of place in the Devon village leagues, and there were some perplexing moments, such as when Shah was bowling when Clarke had just come to the crease.
The next three matches should be used to bring in some fresh blood, and try and salvage some respect to a disastrous series.

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