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The Mighty Woakes – England win first T20

Australia 157-4. England 158-9. England win by 1 wicket (off the last ball) After a nervy start with the ball, Chris Woakes must have feared the worst. Fortunately, with the bat, the Warwickshire youngster was calmness personified. He brandished the willow with great aplomb and guided England home off the last ball of the match. He’s got real courage, this lad. You could even say he’s got a heart of Woakes. We didn’t bat convincingly, to be honest, but any win over Australia is delicious. It...

The Ashes quiz

So, have you been paying attention over the last seven weeks? If so, here’s a chance to test your Ashes acumen with our very latest quiz. Please enter your answers below – or, to avoid seeing any spoilers, e-mail them to maxie@thefulltoss.com . Good luck! 1 Which two bowlers took, respectively, the first and last wickets to fall during the series? For a bonus half point each, who were the batsmen? 2 Ashley Kerekes, an American woman who achieved notoriety during the series, was...

Schadenfreude

Not a great time to be a member of the Australian cricket establishment. Oh, doesn’t it make your heart bleed? Poor fellows. In the Guardian’s Spin column, Andy Bull nails the head-in-the-sand attitudes down under: “I think we’ve done a very good job as a selection panel.” Andrew Hilditch, chairman of the Australian selectors, actually said that. No really, he did. And he wasn’t joking. Let’s count the ways: dropping Mitchell Johnson and Ben Hilfenhaus...

England blow away Aussie young guns

Prime Minister’s XI 254-9 (43 overs). England 225-3 (33.3 overs) England win by 7 wickets D/L. This is exactly the kind of match England would have lost a few years ago. Remember that humiliating Benson and Hedges World Series in 1995 when we not only lost to the Canary Yellows, we also got stuffed by Australia A (the tweety pies)? When the Aussie young guns qualified for the finals at our expense, there wasn’t so much egg on English faces as a whole omelette. Fortunately the boot’s on the...

The ten best things about the Ashes

1. The margin of victory Everyone expected a tight, closely fought series. Some pundits thought we might just be able to nick it – with a bit of help from the weather. No one, not even the ultra cheerleaders such as Sir Ian Botham, forecast an England win of such crushing magnitude. 3-1 – and all three test victories by an innings, something never before achieved by any touring side, anywhere. It’s our most emphatic Ashes triumph of modern times – and we still quite...

Let the hard slog of one-day cricket begin (if it must)

It’s not often we feel sorry for international cricketers. With the exception of professional cricket commentators, and maybe Playboy photographers (if you’re a bloke), they’ve got the best job in the world. However, it seems a little unfair that the England team have to begin an unnecessarily long one-day series so soon after the Ashes finale. The first game – a warm up match against a Prime Minister’s XI in Canberra – starts on Sunday night. That’s barely three days after the raucous...

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