Late Christmas present
England strikes back to beat Australia by 12 runs
Posted: Tuesday December 29, 1998 12:00 PM
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A new hero: Headley finished with figures of six for 60 AP |
MELBOURNE, Australia (Reuters) -- England breathed life into the Ashes series with an astonishing 12-run win over Australia in the fourth test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Tuesday.
Led by paceman Dean Headley, who took career-best figures of six for 60, England captured the last seven wickets for just 32 runs to dismiss the Australians for 162 in their second innings. They had set the home side a modest total of 175 for victory.
"We always thought 175 was going to be competitive. Australia in the past, as great a side as they are, have often struggled chasing totals like that," England captain Alec Stewart said.
"We went out their with our heads high, to show a bit of pride and try and win the game." England had already lost the Ashes when they went 2-0 down after the third test.
"We said after Adelaide when we couldn't win the Ashes that we wanted to show Australia what we are capable of doing," Stewart said.
"We've won one game, there's still one to go and we're going to Sydney trying to square the series." The fifth and final test begins on January 2 in Sydney.
Australian captain Mark Taylor said his team only had themselves to blame for the defeat. "We do tend to lose matches when the major prize is already won," he said.
"We got lazy, our top five batsmen all made between 18 and 43 when all we needed was for one of them to go on to make a 70."
Australia looked to be cruising towards victory at 130-3, only to collapse in a heap in the face of the bowling of Headley, who took match figures of eight for 176 on his test debut against Australia at Old Trafford last year.
He picked up the wickets of Mark Waugh (43), Darren Lehmann (4), Ian Healy (0) and Damien Fleming (0) within the space of 14 deliveries to reduce the home side to 140 for seven. He then added Matthew Nicholson (9).
Darren Gough, who took five for 96 in the first innings, polished off the tail when he dismissed Stuart MacGill and Glenn McGrath in three balls to give England an unforgettable win on one of the longest days in test cricket history.
After a morning session of 2 1/2 hours to make up for time lost when the first day was rained off, the final session was a punishing three hours.
An extra half an hour had been added to the first and last sessions but Stewart had wanted to go off when that time elapsed and the clock ticked past 7.19 p.m. local time.
He was told by the umpires, however, that play could continue for an additional 30 minutes because a result was likely and the decision seemed to put new life into Headley.
Australia, after leading by 70 runs on the first innings, always looked to be in control after they dismissed England for 244 in their second innings before tea on the fourth day.
England's batsmen, after resuming at 65 for two, performed well but never took control of the bowling despite three half centuries. Stewart scored 52, Nasser Hussain 50 and Graeme Hick 60 but the England total still looked inadequate.
Australia was in the driving seat even after Headley picked up his four quick wickets as Steve Waugh, who made a magnificent 122 not out in the first innings, took the home side to within 14 runs of victory with three wickets in hand.
Headley again provided the breakthrough when Nicholson edged a ball to wicketkeeper Warren Hegg. Gough cleaned up the tail to the delight of the "Barmy Army" of England supporters and the disappointment of Waugh, left stranded on 30.
Despite its success in recent years, Australia has a reputation for losing "dead" matches, particularly when chasing small totals.
It lost the last test in three of the previous four Ashes series' including the final test at the Oval in 1997 when they were dismissed for 104 needing 124 for victory.
Taylor said: "We drew the first test and won the next two pretty comfortably and came into this test thinking if we play some reasonable cricket we'll win this one as well.
"But just because things go a certain way in the first three tests, it doesn't mean they'll automatically go the same way.
"Test matches can often change in the space of 15 to 20 minutes and that's what happened in this one."
Copyright 2003 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
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