History was going to be made either way Monday on the final day of the second five-day Ashes test between England and Australia at Lord’s ground.England was aiming to end 75 years of futility against its oldest and most cherished rival on its most historic ground. Australia’s quest was to smash the record for the highest successful final innings run-chase in 132 years of test cricket.
Needing 522 — a record for a last innings — it had scored 313 runs for five wickets on Sunday.
England got what it wanted, and in the manner most fans would have asked for. Andrew Flintoff, a much-loved all-rounder who announced last week that he will retire from test cricket at the end of this five-match series, had a partisan crowd roaring as he charged in from the end dominated by Lord’s famous pavilion to wreck Australia’s hopes.
In his first over he ended the 185-run sixth wicket stand that had become a real threat to England’s hopes, inducing Brad Haddin to edge the ball to slip-fielder Paul Collingwood for 80.
Every ball bowled by Flintoff promised fresh drama as he threatened the wickets and the bodies of Australia’s batsmen, hitting Michael Clarke on the shoulder.
Flintoff bowled 10 six-ball overs unchanged, a marathon for a big man who has suffered endlessly with injury. He bowled tail-enders Nathan Hauritz and Peter Siddle to end with five wickets in his last test match at Lord’s.
That earns him a permanent entry on the ground’s honors board which lists such feats.
Clarke said Flintoff had bowled as well as anyone he had faced in his 49 test matches.
Flintoff found a fine, contrasting, bowling partner Graeme Swann. The spinner struck in his first over, removing Clarke for a magnificent 136. Swann ended the match when he bowled Mitchell Johnson, who had produced Australia’s best batting of the morning, for a well-struck and spirited 63.
It was all over in a little under two hours, the final margin in England’s favor 115 runs.
Australia fell short of its ultimate target but still recorded its own highest-ever final innings score and the best ever in a test match at Lord’s.
England’s first victory over Australia in eight matches means it leads the series, which it must win to reclaim the Ashes trophy, 1-0 with three games to go.
A contest between well-matched but fallible teams, neither as strong as when they last met in England four years ago, seems unlikely to be resolved before the final match at the Oval, London next month.
Ricky Ponting, the Australian captain, conceded that “England were much the better team and deserved to win. We were outplayed from the first ball until the end.”
He chose not to reiterate complaints about the dubious umpiring decisions that cost Australia three of its top four batsmen in the final innings.
The choice of Flintoff as Man of the Match was essentially sentimental, taking one of the few remaining opportunities to garland a national hero.
Andrew Strauss, the England captain, had set the tone for the victory from the start with his first-day innings of 161, batting his team into a dominant position that it never subsequently lost.
England’s concerns ahead of the next match in Birmingham, starting on July 30 are with the fitness of key players. Kevin Pietersen, the star batsman who missed much of the early season with an Achilles tendon problem, looked uncomfortable throughout and must be a doubt.
Flintoff was bullish about his chances of playing the remaining three matches, saying that while he had felt some pain while bowling, “I’ve played in discomfort for most of my career.”
Australia’s difficulties appear more fundamental. Its most experienced fast bowler Brett Lee is likely to return after missing the first two matches injured. What nobody would have predicted before the series started is that this could be at the expense of Johnson.
The left-armer from Queensland is probably the best No. 8 batsman in the world, but is failing in his primary task as spearhead of the fast bowling. Johnson conceded an average of more than five runs per over at Lord’s and his inaccuracy gave England flying starts in both innings.
Philip Hughes, the rookie opener, also has to find an answer to an apparent weakness against the fast short-pitched ball — Flintoff’s stock-in-trade — that gives him little scope for footwork. Here Australia has two difficulties — not wanting to inhibit a vividly original talent and the absence of a reserve top-order batsman in an eccentrically chosen tour squad.
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