Tag Ashes 2010-11

A rare co-incidence happened today at Melbourne cricket ground as Australia beat England in 2nd twenty20 to end their 5 consecutive losing streak in the format which also brought about an end to England's 9 match undefeated run. Aussies were beaten in World T20 finals by England and then went on to lose to Pakistan twice at Edgbaston and then to Sri Lanka at Perth before losing the first game of this KFC series while England had not lost a single T20 match since their wash-out against Ireland in Windies World T20 last year upto today = 9 games consecutively..

It was a surprising result at MCG today as England were in front for most part of this match but middle order collapse pushed their asking runrate so high they couldn't overhaul as the over ran out. here's how the story unfolded, begining with toss that home team won and elected to bat yet again :-

Shane Watson and David Warner were conservative in first game, trying to build an opening partnership rather than exploiting powerplay overs but today, they were intent on taking their team off to a flying start. 37 runs from first 4 overs, Watson was out to Chris Woakes but new vice captain Tim Paine kept the momentum up with his 12 ball 21 including a six and two fours but spinners Graeme Swann and Michael Yardy pegged their progress back with 8 overs between them costing just 38 runs and eating up 4 wickets and David Hussey was trapped leg before wicket.

Aaron Finch, playing only his second twenty20 international match, justified his selection above several performers in on-going Big Bash tournament by adding a crucial half century stand with Steven Smith in the dying moments of their innings. Finch scored his maiden half century and remained unbeaten to give his bowlers a reasonable target of 147 for 7 wkts to bowl at.

England chase began superbly as Ian Bell and Steven Davies took risks and got lucky against new ball spell by Shaun Tait and Brett Lee. Bell's 39 came off just 30 balls while Davies' 29 off just 26 balls as they put on 60 runs from first 7 overs but Mitchell Johnson came in 2nd change to take two wickets in his first over which started with a wide and brought home team back into this game for the first time. Shane Watson claimed Davies and captain Paul Collingwood from other end to reduce visiting team to 88 for 4 wkts in the 14th over and in trouble.

Luke Wright and Eoin Morgan were left to do a rebuilding job on a slow and long outfield which took it's time and England's second fifty runs came from 57 balls which propelled asking runrate past 10 runs per overs and both of them lost their wickets right when they tried to accelerate.

Tim Bresnan and star of previous game = Chris Woakes, did all they could yet they needed 14 runs off last ball. Woakes hit Brett Lee for a 104 meter six off the 3rd last ball but Bresnan couldn't repeat it off the last ball and their team went on to lose the game by sleek margin of 4 runs.

The scores

Australia 147 for 7 wickets in 20 overs.
Finch 53*, Warner 30, Swann & Yardy 2 wkts.
England 143 for 6 wkts in 20 ovs (4 runs short)
Bell 39, Davies 29, M Johnson 3/29, S Watson 2/17.
Full scorecard : Eng v Aus, 2nd T20, 14 January 2011.

Winning/losing streak

Most consecutive t20 matches without defeat is a record held by Australia for their 12 matches undefeated back in 2009-10 and England were upto 9 games untill they lost this match. on other hand, Australia were at their poorest T20 form losing 5 matches in a row but they achieved a hard fetched vistory today.