Former South Africa captain AB de Villiers is exhausted witnessing the sheer competitiveness with which Ashes 2023 has been played by two fierce rivals in England and Australia thus far. If truth be told, the ongoing series was hyped-up to the core this time around and fans have been entertained along the expected lines as well.
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Results of the first two Tests were decided on the last hour of Day 5, while the ongoing third Test at Headingley has also been a perfect sea-saw battle with none of the sides having been able to place themselves in a position of ascendancy for a longer period of time.
The Aussies do have their nose slightly ahead by the end of Day 2 as they will be setting England a target yet again. However, a couple of wickets in quick succession will easily turn the tide in favour of the home side. With result a guarantee in this Test a well, it is highly likely that the result will be obtained maximum by the end of Day 4.
AB de Villiers Exhausted From Back-To-Back Ashes Thrillers
By the end of the second day’s play, de Villiers took to his social media handle to exclaim that he managed to catch up with the match proceedings of the day for the first time tonight during the fag end of the evening session.
Speculating the match to possibly end as another thriller, the 39-year-old sarcastically cried out for a need to have a break as he has been exhausted watching the cut-throat battle for the Ashes urn.
As part of his personal analysis, de Villiers further remarked that one of the Australian batters will either need to score a century or batters will need to stitch a couple of half-century stands to win the contest with a lead around the 250-275-run mark in the second innings.
The duo of Mitchell Marsh (17*) and Travis Head (18*) are presently at the crease with Australia’s scorecard reading 116/4, and a resultant lead of 142 runs. For those who don’t know, they had put together a 155-run partnership for the fifth wicket in the first innings.
Edgbaston And Lord’s Had Set The Ball Rolling
During the first Ashes 2023 Test at Edgbaston, England’s ‘Bazball‘ approach had meant that they had declared their first innings at 393/8 with former captain Joe Root still at the crease playing at his individual score of 118*.
Getting dismissed at the score of 273 in their second innings, England ultimately set the visitors a target of 281 runs for victory. The opening batting pair had stitched a 61-run stand and had laid the platform for a successful run-chase. However, the English bowlers stormed right back into the contest and looked favourites after having scalped eight wickets by the drinks break in the evening session.
However, skipper Pat Cummins (44*) and Nathan Lyon (16*) stood their ground and added 55* runs for the ninth wicket to see their team through to a remarkable victory by 2 wickets.
There was much more drama during the second Test at Lord’s, especially on Day 5. Having been set a mammoth target of 371 runs, England had lost four batters by stumps on Day 4 and were staring at a probable defeat.
However, opener Ben Duckett (83) and skipper Ben Stokes together played out almost the entire morning session on the final day. They added 132 runs for the fifth wicket. However, the biggest moment of the day arrived after Alex Carey stumped Jonny Bairstow (10) and which would later become a huge matter of debate and discussion till this day.
Post the incident, Stokes activated his beast mode on and took the Aussie attack to the cleaners single-handedly. He contributed 93 runs during a 108-run seventh-wicket partnership alongside veteran pacer Stuart Broad (11).
However, after hitting nine fours and as many sixes, he was ultimately dismissed by Josh Hazlewood at the score of 155 to end England’s hopes of what would have been a victory of the highest order.
