England vs. Australia 2015 1st Test Quiz

Answer: Swalec Stadium, Cardiff

The Swalec or as it was formerly called, Sophia Gardens, has been an international venue for test matches since 2009. Its capacity of 16,000 makes it one of the smallest test venues for an Ashes match. It also holds the honour of becoming the 100th venue to host an international test match since records began. Unusually the venue is not in England but it is the home of Glamorgan County Cricket Club in Wales.

England captain Cook won the toss and decided to bat.

Answer: Hazelwood

Adam Lyth faced 10 balls, and having scored 6 runs, faced the pace of Hazelwood. In the third over Hazelwood delivered a superb ball that was edged to fourth slip where Warner took a superb low catch. The first wicket of the 2015 Ashes belonged to Hazlewood with just 7 on the board.
The second wicket fell when Cook tried to cut Lyon who sent a devilish spinning delivery down that clipped the top of the England captain's bat. Haddin, keeping behind the stumps, snaffled the ball and a score of 20 off 40 balls saw Cook heading back to the pavilion.
England were 42-2.
It got worse. Only one more run was added when Starc sent a left hand swinger into the pad of Ian Bell who had only just come to the crease. The umpire raised his finger and England were in disarray on 43-3 with just over an hour played.

Answer: Joe Root

Root had a torrid start, facing appeals for LBW off the bowling of Starc and then arguably the most decisive error of the match followed. A superb ball from Starc arrowed in on Root who managed to edge the ball to the keeper, Haddin, who had a poor Ashes the last time Australia visited England, took the ball in his right glove whilst diving to his right, but amazingly spilled the catch.

This would be a decisive mistake as Root would go on and score a match winning century.

Answer: 5-114

Starc took five wickets with some excellent deliveries that most batsmen would have struggled with. He, at times did overplay it , and was quite expensive in terms of runs conceded, but the five wickets more than made up for the runs lost. He took the wickets of Bell, Root, Stokes, Ali and Anderson.

Starc 24.1 overs 4 maidens 114 runs 5 wickets.

Answer: Rogers

Rogers played well, smashing the England attack all over the park. His shot selection was superb particularly on the offside. When set for his century he received a ball of real menace from Mark Wood that led to Buttler taking a catch behind the stumps. Incidentally it was Wood's first ever Ashes wicket.

Clarke scored 38 before he was caught and bowled by Ali with the score at 207. Warner scored 17 and was the first wicket to fall when caught by Cook off the bowling of Anderson. Voges fared no better, scoring 31 before Anderson caught him off the bowling of Stokes.

Answer: Rogers and Warner

England had the luxury of 122 runs to play with so batted at times, with some real abandon. Top scores of 60 by both Bell and Root kept the match away from Australia and then when the final wicket fell at the end of day three, the visitors knew that an Ashes record needed to be broken in order to win.
Rogers and Warner opened on the morning of day four but the partnership lasted just 19 runs when Rogers was caught by Bell off the bowling of Broad for ten.

Answer: Moeen Ali

With Australia seemingly set to go on and chase the total, Moeen took the vital wicket of Warner in the final over before lunch. At 97-1 the visitors would have gone into the break believing an unlikely win was on the cards, but when Moeen dismissed Warner, England were in the ascendancy. A spiteful delivery had Warner plumb for LBW, and Australia never really recovered.

Answer: Mitchell Johnson

Despite being given a lot of stick from the England fans for his poor bowling performance, Johnson made sure he was not going to go without a fight. Two sixes and nine fours were hammered in an exhibition of free flowing stroke play. But like all good things, they must come to an end, and England got their man with Joe Root snaffling the ninth wicket of the innings.

Answer: Joe Root

Root was exceptional, but how things may have been different had Haddin taken that catch in the first England innings when Root was on zero. He went on to score 134 and 60 with flawless stroke play and also took 2-28 bowling in the second Australian innings. In addition, Root took two catches including the match winning effort to dismiss Hazelwood.

Answer: H D P K Dharmasena

Marais Erasmus from South Africa was officiating in his 31st test match since he began his international career in 2010.
The other umpire Kumar Dharmasena from Sri Lanka also was officiating his 31st test match which also began his test career in 2010.
Both Madugalle (third umpire) and Gaffaney (match referee) have been on the international scene for the past decade.