2009
Sixty-nine balls
The Cardiff Test of 2009 had four Australian hundreds and a Collingwood 74 that took 344 minutes. The card’s last two lines are James Anderson, not out 21 from 53 balls, and Monty Panesar, not out 7 from 35, and the draw belongs to them.
England were 233 for nine at Cardiff on 12 July 2009, six runs behind with 11.3 overs of the match left. The card’s result line reads Match drawn. The two names not out at the bottom of the innings are the two bowlers who batted at ten and eleven, and their lines read 21 from 53 balls and 7 from 35.
Six hundred and seventy-four
England had chosen to bat and made 435, Kevin Pietersen 69, Paul Collingwood 64, Matt Prior 56, Graeme Swann 47 not out. Australia replied with 674 for six declared in 181 overs. Simon Katich 122, Ricky Ponting 150, Marcus North 125 not out, Brad Haddin 121, Michael Clarke 83. Four hundreds in one innings, and Swann bowled 38 overs for 131 without a wicket.
Ponting declared on the fourth afternoon with a lead of 239. England were 20 for two by the close, seven overs in, Alastair Cook leg before and Ravi Bopara leg before, and the last day was a day to survive rather than to win.
Full scorecard: England v Australia, 1st Test, Cardiff, 8–12 July 2009 →
The fifth day, by the card’s notes
Drinks: 55 for four. Pietersen bowled by Ben Hilfenhaus for 8, Andrew Strauss caught behind off Nathan Hauritz for 17. Lunch: 102 for five, Prior caught for 14. Drinks: 148 for six, Andrew Flintoff caught by Ponting off Mitchell Johnson for 26. Tea: 169 for seven, Stuart Broad leg before to Hauritz for 14. Collingwood 55 not out from a day and a half of balls.
After tea, Swann made 31 and was leg before to Hilfenhaus at 221. Then at 233, in the 94th over, Collingwood was caught by Michael Hussey off Peter Siddle for 74, from 245 balls and 344 minutes. Nine down. Australia needed one wicket, and England needed six runs to make them bat again, and time.
Eleven overs and three balls
Anderson and Panesar batted from the 94th over to the 105th. The card’s notes give the 250 at 101.2 overs, and the innings closed at 252 for nine when the overs ran out. Anderson made 21 with three fours. Panesar made 7 with one. The stand was 19 runs from 69 balls, and it took England from six behind to thirteen in front.
Hauritz bowled 37 overs in the innings, twelve maidens, three for 63. Johnson, Hilfenhaus and Siddle took the other six between them. North bowled seven overs, four maidens, for 14. None of them took the tenth. The umpires who called time were Aleem Dar and Billy Doctrove, and it is Test number 1922.
The other guys
Ponting was player of the match for his 150, in a drawn game his side had dominated for four days. Collingwood’s 74 is the innings the day is usually credited to, and the card’s minutes column supports it. The 69 balls at the end are the part that decided the result, and they were faced by the two men in the side whose job was not to face any.
The card lists their bowling too: Anderson 32 overs for 110 and two wickets, Panesar 35 for 115 and one, in an innings of 674. It is not the reason either was picked, and it is not the line they are remembered for from this match.
What the card holds
Four hundreds and a declaration at 674. A second innings of 252 for nine in 105 overs, at 2.40 an over, with a top score of 74. A last-wicket stand of 19. Sixty-nine balls faced by numbers ten and eleven with the series at stake. And a series line, level at nought all, which was still true at the start of the second Test because of the last 11.3 overs of the first.
••••••
No. 19 in The Other Guy, a series of 24.
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