Reserve bowlers impress for England

Ajmal Shahzad
12 April 2012

England's second-string seamers provided reassurance they will be ready for an Ashes call-up should it arrive after they combined to bowl out Australia A for 230 on the opening day of their final warm-up match in Hobart.

With the first-choice bowlers flying out to Brisbane in preparation for the first Test next week Ajmal Shahzad, Chris Tremlett and Tim Bresnan impressed in their first match on tour after Andrew Strauss opted to bowl on a spicy Bellerive Oval track.

The only downside of the day was skipper Strauss falling in the seven-over period England faced before the close, although Alastair Cook remained - alongside nightwatchman Monty Panesar - to see the tourists to the close at 22 for one.

Shahzad, who was arguably the pick of the bowlers, was probing in his new-ball spell from the river end and he picked up perhaps the most notable scalp as number three Usman Khawaja - touted as a possible debutant for next week's first Test - got an edge behind pushing forward.

Tremlett and first-change Tim Bresnan (two for 65) also cashed in to share the wickets of Phil Hughes, Callum Ferguson, Ed Cowan and captain Cameron White before lunch.

The tourists had taken four wickets for 15 runs. But Steve Smith and Tim Paine closed out the first session, and worked hard in the early afternoon to post a valuable 50 stand in 21 overs.

Tremlett returned to have Paine edging a pull behind down the leg-side, but Smith showed controlled aggression to lead a 59-run stand for the seventh wicket with fellow spinner Steve O'Keefe before Shahzad, who finished with figues of three for 57, bowled Smith (59) and removed Clint McKay to a bat-pad catch at short leg.

O'Keefe frustrated England's hopes of a quick kill with a half-century as he added 45 for the ninth wicket with Mark Cameron and it took Paul Collingwood, who replaced Panesar after he bowled 20 tight overs unchanged, to break the stand when he induced an edge from Cameron through to Matt Prior.

Tremlett, who returned figures of four for 54, then finished matters when O'Keefe top-edged the first delivery with the second new ball for Prior to take his fifth catch.

England lost their skipper before the close though when Strauss flashed a drive off Cameron that O'Keefe held at the second attempt at gully and Panesar was the unlikely nightwatchman but he kept company with Cook who remained unbeaten on 10.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in