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Once in a lifetime line-up bids for rare sweep against England
Monday, 1 January 2007 - 11:17 PM SL Time
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Shane Warne had a winning farewell on his home ground and now, the Australians reckon, it must be Glenn McGrath`s turn.
Opening batsman Justin Langer on Monday decided to join the bowling greats and call it quits on his test career after the Ashes, giving the Australian lineup plenty to play for in the series-closing match against England at the Sydney Cricket Ground.
Australia is bidding to become only the second team to sweep a five-match Ashes series, the first since Warwick Armstrong`s team trounced England in 1920-21.
`As long as we all keep our emotions in check, then hopefully the performances that we`ve been putting on the board can continue,` Australia skipper Ricky Ponting said. Australia has won 11 consecutive test matches.
Warne, the leading wicket taker ever in test cricket, said he`s been jumping around like a teenager since announcing his retirement after Australia reclaimed the Ashes in Perth last month. His enthusiasm could be infectious.
`We`re all enjoying it as much as we can - it`s not about Warne and McGrath, it`s about the side - a whitewash is want we want,` the 37-year-old legspinner said after Australia won the fourth test by an innings and 99 runs inside three days at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
That was Act 1 of a farewell performance in Australia, with Warne taking 5-39 in the first innings of his last match on his home ground to surpass the 700 test-wicket milestone.
He now wants to take his 1,000th international wicket - he had 293 in limited-overs cricket before retiring from the shorter version of the game in 2003 - and to share one last win with McGrath and co.
McGrath, who has 557 test wickets and is the most prolific paceman of all time, is playing on his homeground at the SCG, 13 years after making his debut against New Zealand at Perth.
Despite Andrew Flintoff`s persistent proclamations of renewed fight in the England camp, the biggest threat to Australia fulfilling an Ashes sweep could come from the weather - rain is forecast in Sydney this week.
Flintoff said offspinner Jamie Dalrymple had come into contention to replace one of the seam bowlers because of the traditionally spin-friendly nature of the SCG pitch.
He said the English squad would learn a lot from this series and would be better prepared for the next Ashes contest in England.
The turnaround has to start in Sydney, he said.
`We`re going to be taking this test in isolation,` from this series, Flintoff said. `I don`t want to be the captain that loses 5-0 and the team don`t want to be the team that gets beaten 5-0, so there is still a lot to play for.
`The side are up for this last test. We feel we have a point to prove.`
Australia will also need to be looking ahead, having to groom a new leading paceman, spin bowler and opening batsman after the biggest departure of veterans since 1984, when Greg Chappell, Dennis Lillee and Rod Marsh all retired.
Between them, Warne and McGrath have 1,263 test wickets from 267 matches. Add Langer, who has 7,650 runs from 104 tests and shared Australia`s most successful opening partnership with Matthew Hayden, and there`s a lot of experience on show for the last time.
`I`ve played in an incredible team so I retire from this game having played with some of the greatest players of all time,` Langer said.
Speaking soon after Langer`s retirement announcement, Ponting said despite all the public focus on retirements, his lineup was concentrating 100 percent on winning the fifth test.
`We had this general sort of build up last week in Melbourne and it didn`t seem to affect us too much down there with the way we played,` Ponting said. `Now that Justin`s actually done what he`s done today - I think he`ll have a bit of a load off his shoulders.`
The test is John Buchanan`s last as Australia coach. Like McGrath, he`s planning to quit international cricket after the World Cup in the West Indies in March.
He started his tenure with 15 consecutive test victories from 1999-2001 and could finish with 12 straight wins, which would give him 69 wins from 90 tests.
Ponting said Buchanan was pivotal in Australia maintaining it`s No. 1 status in test and limited-overs cricket.
`He`s been coaching a very talented team. What you`ve seen some of those players do has been a lot of the time pretty extraordinary, so he`s got to take a lot of the credit for that,` Ponting said.
Lineups:
Australia (from) - Ricky Ponting (captain), Justin Langer, Matthew Hayden, Mike Hussey, Michael Clarke, Andrew Symonds, Adam Gilchrist, Shane Warne, Brett Lee, Stuart Clark, Glenn McGrath, Mitchell Johnson.
England (from) - Andrew Flintoff (captain), Andrew Strauss, Alastair Cook, Ian Bell, Kevin Pietersen, Paul Collingwood, Chris Read, Jamie Dalrymple, Sajid Mahmood, Steve Harmison, Matthew Hoggard, Monty Panesar.
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