England’s footballers failed to live up to their ‘Golden Generation’ tag after their embarrassing exit from the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. But their cricket counterparts might still have a chance to live up to that label. While Capello’s men were getting knocked out after losing 4-1 to Germany.
The England cricket team was winning the third one-day international against Australia. Even though it was by one wicket, it gave England an unbeatable 3-0 lead in the five-match series.
Success is now not only expected from the superstar footballers and anyway, it will now be another 4 years before England will have another shot at football glory at the world stage. In the meantime, however, the cricketers have made dramatic progress. After little more than a month of winning the ICC World Twenty20 in West Indies, they are now eyeing a 5-0 win over Australia.
Graeme Swann, England off-spinner, who was man of the match at Old Trafford with four wickets for 37 runs, has been central to England’s recent success. Swan was selected in England’s 15 man squad for the 2010 ICC World Cup Twenty20 in West Indies. Swann played all of England’s fixtures, including the final against Australia and was described as “the most improved cricketer in the world” by Shane Warne. Swann finished the tournament with 10 wickets at an average of 14.40, and his ability to adapt to different forms of the game and retain control over his bowling won widespread appreciation. His performance earned him the ECB’s Cricketer of the Year in May.
Swann was saddened by the football teams embarrassing failure, but was pleased at the possibility that the cricket team instead of the football team could be the golden generation. While in last year’s corresponding one-day series England were beaten 6-1 by the Australians, they are now looking to extend their run of ODI wins to 10 in a row, with victories at The Oval and Lord’s against Australia. England has resurged under the leadership of Captain Andrew Strauss and Coach Andy Flower. Swann credited former Zimbabwe batsman, Flower, with instilling confidence back into the England team and enabling them to perform on the big stage like they do in the county games. The team’s altered mindset was exemplified in the Twenty20, which they went on to win.
England very nearly lost the game, but in the end won by a single wicket. After Swann’s 4 for 37, England seemed on their way to a comfortable win, but a sensational collapse of six wickets for 18 in 38 balls made an Australian win a possibility. This could be blamed on the dismissal of Morgan, England’s star finisher from the first two games. Morgan teamed up with Captain Strauss to take England to victory with his fourth ODI century hanging in the balance. But Tim Bresnan kept his cool and got England over the line by one wicket and wrapped up the series at 3-0 with two matches still to be played. It was an important win and a consolation for the millions who had just seen their football team get destroyed at a score of 4-1 by the Germans.
A whitewash of Australia is within reach and on England’s agenda, but considering last year’s corresponding series which ended in a 6-1 defeat, anything is possible. Doug Bollinger admitted that it would be devastating to concede a one-day series whitewash to England, but was confident enough that Australia could regain some pride in the last two matches, after their late surge at Old Trafford to pull off an almost come-back. "Hopefully we can build on that. We've been very successful in the last few years and a couple of losses probably aren’t that bad even though nobody likes to lose.” said Bollinger. They start at the Oval tomorrow before the final game at Lord’s this Saturday.
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