Tue, Jul 21, 2009 page20

• Flintoff stars as England end Lord’s Ashes hoodoo

  LONG WAIT IS OVER England beat Australia at Lord’s for the first time since 1934, with pace man Andrew Flintoff taking five for 92 and spinner Graeme Swann four for 87

  • AFP
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  Andrew Flintoff took five wickets as England finally ended their 75-year wait for an Ashes victory at Lord’s with a 115-run win over Australia on the final day of the second Test yesterday.

  Victory saw England take a 1-0 lead in the five-Test series having clung on for a draw in Cardiff.

  Australia set a mammoth 522 to win — a target that had they achieved it would have surpassed the fourth innings Test world record victory total of 418 for seven made by the West Indies against Australia in Antigua in 2002-2003 — were bowled out for 406 shortly before lunch on the fifth day.

  

  England’s Andrew Flintoff kneels on the pitch after claiming the wicket of Australia’s Peter Siddle during the final day of the second Ashes Test match at Lord’s in London yesterday.

  PHOTO: AP

  Fast bowler Flintoff, who before this match announced he would retire from Test cricket at the end of this series, took five wickets for 92 runs in 27 overs, including three for 43 in 10 overs yesterday.

  It was only the third time in the 31-year-old all-rounder’s 77-Test career he’d taken five wickets in a Test innings.

  Off-spinner Graeme Swann provided good support with four for 87.

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  Michael Clarke did his best to deny England with a superb innings of 136, but ultimately could not prevent the hosts beating Australia in a Test at Lord’s for the first time since 1934, when they won by an innings and 38 runs.

  “To win an Ashes Test match at Lord’s feels very special, but we’re not going to get carried away,” England captain Andrew Strauss said.

  His Australian counterpart Ricky Ponting was magnanimous in defeat.

  “We are obviously disappointed to lose in this type of venue, but we were outplayed from the first ball to the last ball,” Ponting said. “Now we have to bounce back, regroup and hit the ground running for the next Test at Edgbaston.”

  Australia resumed on 313 for five, 209 runs adrift of their target, with Clarke 125 not out and Brad Haddin 80 not out.

  However, starting again is never easy and they were unable to add to a stand worth 185 when Haddin was out for his overnight score.

  Haddin edged the 10th ball of the morning, Flintoff’s fourth, straight to Paul Collingwood who took a good low catch at second slip. Flintoff was now fired up and hit Clarke on the head with a bouncer, as the batsman took his eye off the ball, before beating his outside edge.

  New batsman Mitchell Johnson was fortunate on 4, after being completely deceived by a Flintoff slower ball that struck him on the pad that veteran umpire Rudi Koertzen, standing in his 100th Test, correctly called a no-ball.

  It was Swann who, with his second ball, took the wicket England craved when he beat Clarke in the air as the batsman went down the pitch and took out his off-stump to end the Australia vice-captain’s innings of more than five hours.

  Flintoff then bowled Nathan Hauritz for 1 as the batsman shouldered arms and Australia were 363 for eight.

  Flintoff, the star of England’s 2005 Ashes series win, completed his five-wicket haul when he bowled Peter Siddle, celebrating by going down on one knee with his arms outstretched after putting his side on the brink of victory.

  Fast bowler Johnson, who’d struggled with the ball, defied England with a 62-ball half-century, but Swann bowled him for 63 to seal England’s victory.
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