Comment on England enjoy swinging time in Ashes

England enjoy swinging time in Ashes

Nottingham (United Kingdom) (AFP) - One of the great traditional challenges of playing cricket in England is batting against the swinging and seaming ball.It was a challenge that Australia's top-order batsmen have for the most part failed to master so far in the 2015 Ashes and, as much as anything, explains why England took an unbeatable 3-1 lead in the five-match Ashes series with a crushing innings and 78-run win in the fourth Test at Trent Bridge on Saturday.Australia can't say they were not warned -- this was, after all, Australia's fourth successive Ashes series loss in England, a run stretching back 14 years.Darren Lehmann, the Australia coach, spent several seasons with English county side Yorkshire while on-tour selector Rodney Marsh was behind the stumps when Bob Massie produced one of the all-time great displays of swing bowling in taking 16 wickets on Test debut at Lord's in 1972.Significantly, the Australia batsman who fared best was Chris Rogers, the veteran opener putting his years of experience with several counties to good use.Rogers is something of a 'throw back' as a batsman in that he accepts there will be times when he has to absorb pressure and battle hard to keep his wicket intact.Before the series both sides made much of their intention to play "aggressive" cricket, with some Australians giving the impression that anything else was a lesser form of the game."Australia are just poor at batting when the ball moves.

 

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