Ashes 2015: England beat Australia by 169 runs

CARDIFF: Its all over for Australia in Cardiff, England has cruised Aussies in first Investec Ashes Test by a heavy margin of 169 runs.

Chasing down gigantic target of 412, Australia crumbled in the middle and were bundled out for 242 runs in the fourth innings.

 Australia were clear favorites coming into this game and well, it has to be said, they didn’t even play anywhere near to their best.

England won the toss and Cook, with no hesitation, decided to bat. The surface looked dead and flat, England posted 430 runs with the help of Joe Root’s heroic innings and Moeen’s fluent fifty.

Australia were all-out on 308, too earlier than expected with their last five wickets fell down for 43 runs. Rogers was the only to score fifty, he scored 95 runs. Autralia were in deficit of 112 runs.

England with the help of big lead, posted a total setup a giant target of 412 for visitors, it was clearly too heavy to take for struggling Australian batting line-up.

England ended up winning the game quite comfortably by 169 runs.

The series is nicely set up with England one-up, and Australia already on the back foot.

Moeen and Root share five wickets in the second innings and Moeen takes five in the match, coupled with his runs, but no doubt who will be Man of the Match. What a game for Root. He leads the team off to a standing ovation.

The Ashes – 1st Investec Test

Test no. 2170 | 2015 season

Played at Sophia Gardens, Cardiff

8,9,10,11 July 2015 (5-day match)

	England 1st innings		R	M	B	4s	6s	SR
	A Lyth	c Warner b Hazlewood	6	7	10	1	0	60.00
	AN Cook*	c †Haddin b Lyon	20	58	40	3	0	50.00
	GS Ballance	lbw b Hazlewood	61	223	149	8	0	40.93
	IR Bell	lbw b Starc	1	5	7	0	0	14.28
	JE Root	c Watson b Starc	134	247	166	17	0	80.72
	BA Stokes	b Starc	52	98	78	6	2	66.66
	JC Buttler†	c Johnson b Hazlewood	27	63	34	3	0	79.41
	MM Ali	c Watson b Starc	77	116	88	11	1	87.50
	SCJ Broad	c †Haddin b Lyon	18	53	26	2	1	69.23
	MA Wood	not out	7	26	10	1	0	70.00
	JM Anderson	b Starc	1	10	6	0	0	16.66
	Extras	(b 17, lb 3, w 5, nb 1)	26
	Total	(all out; 102.1 overs)	430	(4.20 runs per over)

Fall of wickets 1-7 (Lyth, 1.6 ov), 2-42 (Cook, 13.2 ov), 3-43 (Bell, 14.3 ov), 4-196 (Ballance, 53.3 ov), 5-280 (Root, 72.1 ov), 6-293 (Stokes, 76.2 ov), 7-343 (Buttler, 85.5 ov), 8-395 (Broad, 97.1 ov), 9-419 (Ali, 100.2 ov), 10-430 (Anderson, 102.1 ov)

	Bowling	O	M	R	W	Econ	0s	4s	6s
	MA Starc	24.1	4	114	5	4.71	104	17	0	(1nb, 1w)
	JR Hazlewood	23	8	83	3	3.60	108	12	1
	MG Johnson	25	3	111	0	4.44	106	15	1
	NM Lyon	20	4	69	2	3.45	86	5	2
	SR Watson	8	0	24	0	3.00	38	2	0
	DA Warner	2	0	9	0	4.50	7	1	0

	Australia 1st innings		R	M	B	4s	6s	SR
	CJL Rogers	c †Buttler b Wood	95	182	133	11	1	71.42
	DA Warner	c Cook b Anderson	17	62	42	3	0	40.47
	SPD Smith	c Cook b Ali	33	78	56	5	0	58.92
	MJ Clarke*	c & b Ali	38	82	52	6	0	73.07
	AC Voges	c Anderson b Stokes	31	106	75	4	0	41.33
	SR Watson	lbw b Broad	30	84	57	6	0	52.63
	NM Lyon	lbw b Wood	6	33	26	1	0	23.07
	BJ Haddin†	c †Buttler b Anderson	22	50	38	5	0	57.89
	MG Johnson	c Ballance b Broad	14	41	19	2	0	73.68
	MA Starc	c Root b Anderson	0	12	6	0	0	0.00
	JR Hazlewood	not out	2	6	4	0	0	50.00
	Extras	(b 6, lb 11, w 3)	20
	Total	(all out; 84.5 overs)	308	(3.63 runs per over)

Fall of wickets 1-52 (Warner, 14.3 ov), 2-129 (Smith, 32.6 ov), 3-180 (Rogers, 42.4 ov), 4-207 (Clarke, 52.1 ov), 5-258 (Voges, 67.2 ov), 6-265 (Watson, 71.4 ov), 7-265 (Lyon, 74.6 ov), 8-304 (Haddin, 82.5 ov), 9-306 (Johnson, 83.2 ov), 10-308 (Starc, 84.5 ov)

	Bowling	O	M	R	W	Econ	0s	4s	6s
	JM Anderson	18.5	6	43	3	2.28	94	6	0
	SCJ Broad	17	4	60	2	3.52	79	7	1	(1w)
	MA Wood	20	5	66	2	3.30	92	9	0
	MM Ali	15	1	71	2	4.73	62	12	0
	BA Stokes	14	5	51	1	3.64	66	9	0	(2w)

	England 2nd innings		R	M	B	4s	6s	SR
	A Lyth	c Clarke b Lyon	37	86	62	4	1	59.67
	AN Cook*	c Lyon b Starc	12	30	26	1	0	46.15
	GS Ballance	c †Haddin b Hazlewood	0	14	7	0	0	0.00
	IR Bell	b Johnson	60	129	89	11	0	67.41
	JE Root	b Hazlewood	60	133	89	9	0	67.41
	BA Stokes	b Starc	42	81	59	9	0	71.18
	JC Buttler†	c †Haddin b Lyon	7	30	19	0	0	36.84
	MM Ali	c †Haddin b Johnson	15	45	41	2	0	36.58
	SCJ Broad	c Hazlewood b Lyon	4	7	7	1	0	57.14
	MA Wood	not out	32	38	18	4	1	177.77
	JM Anderson	b Lyon	1	5	4	0	0	25.00
	Extras	(b 7, lb 6, w 6)	19
	Total	(all out; 70.1 overs)	289	(4.11 runs per over)

Fall of wickets 1-17 (Cook, 6.6 ov), 2-22 (Ballance, 9.6 ov), 3-73 (Lyth, 19.4 ov), 4-170 (Bell, 39.6 ov), 5-207 (Root, 51.1 ov), 6-236 (Buttler, 58.2 ov), 7-240 (Stokes, 59.1 ov), 8-245 (Broad, 60.4 ov), 9-288 (Ali, 69.1 ov), 10-289 (Anderson, 70.1 ov)

	Bowling	O	M	R	W	Econ	0s	4s	6s
	MG Johnson	16	2	69	2	4.31	69	9	0	(1w)
	JR Hazlewood	13	2	49	2	3.76	59	8	0
	MA Starc	16	4	60	2	3.75	77	11	0	(1w)
	NM Lyon	20.1	4	75	4	3.71	88	8	2
	SR Watson	5	0	23	0	4.60	23	5	0

	Australia 2nd innings (target: 412 runs)		R	M	B	4s	6s	SR
	CJL Rogers	c Bell b Broad	10	45	28	2	0	35.71
	DA Warner	lbw b Ali	52	118	86	6	1	60.46
	SPD Smith	c Bell b Broad	33	77	49	6	0	67.34
	MJ Clarke*	c Stokes b Broad	4	24	13	1	0	30.76
	AC Voges	c †Buttler b Wood	1	21	16	0	0	6.25
	SR Watson	lbw b Wood	19	82	58	2	0	32.75
	BJ Haddin†	c Cook b Ali	7	24	20	1	0	35.00
	MG Johnson	c Lyth b Root	77	124	94	9	2	81.91
	MA Starc	c Lyth b Root	17	58	38	3	0	44.73
	JR Hazlewood	c Root b Ali	14	17	17	2	0	82.35
	NM Lyon	not out	0	3	5	0	0	0.00
	Extras	(b 4, lb 3, nb 1)	8
	Total	(all out; 70.3 overs)	242	(3.43 runs per over)

Fall of wickets 1-19 (Rogers, 9.4 ov), 2-97 (Warner, 26.3 ov), 3-101 (Smith, 27.4 ov), 4-106 (Clarke, 31.4 ov), 5-106 (Voges, 32.2 ov), 6-122 (Haddin, 38.1 ov), 7-151 (Watson, 50.5 ov), 8-223 (Starc, 65.4 ov), 9-242 (Johnson, 69.1 ov), 10-242 (Hazlewood, 70.3 ov)

	Bowling	O	M	R	W	Econ	0s	4s	6s
	JM Anderson	12	3	33	0	2.75	59	5	0
	SCJ Broad	14	3	39	3	2.78	68	6	0
	MM Ali	16.3	4	59	3	3.57	77	7	2
	BA Stokes	8	2	23	0	2.87	36	3	0
	MA Wood	14	4	53	2	3.78	66	9	0	(1nb)
	JE Root	6	1	28	2	4.66	22	2	1