When the Ashes ended in a 3-1 win for the visiting England side, the Aussies can’t have been relishing the upcoming pair of Twenty20 internationals. England came into the matches having not lost in seven games and is the current world champions in that format. There was a light at the end of the dank murky tunnel though.
The man of Ashes series, Alastair Cook, was jettisoned by the English hierarchy for simply being too good and because they were feeling incredibly sorry for Ricky Ponting (last seen crying into his vegemite sandwich). Unfortunately as the tourists are the best in the world at cricket’s shortest format there was no stopping them earlier on today.
Australian posted a respectable 157-4 off their 20 overs, in Adelaide, with all-rounder Shane Watson hitting 59 off 31 balls. What Australia weren’t expecting, was a young replacement to be the focal point of England’s batting performance.
Watson’s figures of four for 15 were impressive enough, but 21-year-old Chris Woakes hit the winning run with the final ball, finishing with 19 runs off 15 balls. You knew that these games would more than likely retain the excitement of the previous test series and supporters won’t have been disappointed.
That now makes it a world record eight wins on the trot in this format for the tourists and you can bet that they’ll want to get the whitewash in this mini series come Friday afternoon. As for the Aussies: might be an idea to chow down on some of that vegemite with Ponting.
