London, August 08: England are five days away from regaining the Ashes. It was the solitary salient fact that remained unalterable until late yesterday when precious little else had been clear and it is the single issue that will drive the penultimate match of the series which starts in Leeds today.
Both sets of players are well aware what is at stake, both must try at all costs not to be distracted. For England that became more difficult as the evening wore on when it began to emerge that their warrior all-rounder Andrew Flintoff would be out of the match. That could still not alter the feeling that they can almost touch the trophy, while Australia must sense that it is about to be grasped away.
“We have talked about it but we’re not going to dwell on it because sometimes the closer you are to something the harder it is to achieve it,” said the England captain Andrew Strauss. “From our point of view we will only achieve that by putting the Australian team under a lot of pressure and we will only achieve that by starting the game well so it’s one step at a time.”
–Agencies