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Fiery final day adds spice to Lord's

Roar Guru
13th July, 2009
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Australia’s fight for the Ashes is set to turn nasty at Lords this week following a bitter final day in Cardiff. Relations between the sides have soured significantly in the wake of the dramatic draw in the series opener at Sophia Gardens on Sunday.

There are several running spats between players and even the captains are at loggerheads after Australian skipper Ricky Ponting accused England of not playing in the spirit of the game.

Ponting’s anger was directed at time wasting tactics employed by England when a 12th man and physiotherapist came on the ground late in the match for no apparent reason.

But that is only the tip of the iceberg in terms of tension between the sides seeking first blood in the series after England last-wicket pair James Anderson (21no) and Monty Panesar (7no) batted out the final 69 balls to salvage a draw.

Alpha males Mitchell Johnson and Kevin Pietersen had a heated exchange before the start of day five over a stray ball the superstar England right-hander struck towards Johnson in the Australian warm-up nets.

Pietersen has publicly mocked Johnson’s claims to be considered as an allrounder and questioned the left-armer’s ability to make an impact on British soil.

It won’t surprise if Pietersen – under pressure after succumbing to two lame dismissals – starts baiting Johnson early in the second Ashes Test at Lord’s starting Thursday.

But they are hardly alone with Peter Siddle and Graeme Swann having a running battle during England’s second innings as the paceman tried to bounce the Englishman out of the game.

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Siddle struck Swann on both hands, the arm and the helmet in a ferocious spell of fast bowling during which the paceman got right in the face of his opponent on several occasions.

The passionate Siddle also got on the wrong side of Stuart Broad and the pair bumped shoulders after Broad had edged a ball through slips for four.

Like a pair of fighters eyeing each other off, they turned immediately and rubbed shoulders again with neither player prepared to give ground to the other.

To top it all off, Strauss had a slight post-match dig at Ponting’s decision to throw the ball to part-time spinner Marcus North at the death at Sophia Gardens.

But Ponting feels the pressure is all on England and that they shouldn’t take too much heart out of their great escape.

“I’m not sure if they look at it like a win, they’re not 1-0, they’ve been outplayed for four days.

“They’ll have more soul-searching and selection issues than we will.

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“We know what we’ve done so well here and we can take a lot of confidence from that.

“Commentators over the last few days have been talking about the selection changes that England need to make for next week.

“They can go away and worry about that.”

Strauss said his men had work to do with the squad for the second Test due to be announced at 2:30pm on Monday.

“I am not going to sit here and say that I am happy with our form,” he said.

“This week we were down on where we need to be and Australia sort of showed us they are going to be a hard nut to crack.”

Australia are, fitness permitting, expected to take the same line-up into Lord’s with spinner Nathan Hauritz on track to keep his spot after being the leading wicket-taker in Cardiff.

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