#OTD in 2005: England registered a nail-biting victory to take a lead over Australia

England takes a lead of 2-1 (PC: Twitter)

On this day, seventeen years ago, England held their nerve to prevail by three wickets over Australia in the fourth Ashes Test fixture at Nottingham. In this pursuit, they took a lead of 2-1 in the series. 

England enforce a follow-on 

Batting first, England openers Marcus Trescothick and Andrew Strauss were proficient to negate the quality Aussie attack to add 105 runs for the first wicket. Michael Vaughan and Kevin Pietersen continued the well-built momentum. 

Flintoff hit 102 off 132 (PC: Twitter)

In the middle order, Andrew Flintoff slammed a valiant 102 off 132, and got credible support from Geraint Jones (85 off 149) to boost the Three Lions to a score of 477.  For the visitors, Shane Warne scalped four wickets. 

In response, Australia were dismissed for a score of 218, courtesy of a five-for of Simon Jones. 
The key contributors for the visitors were Brett Lee (47) and Simon Katich (45). 

With a lead of 259 runs, England enforced a follow-on. 

Australia produce fightback, but England slide through

In the second innings, Justin Langer hit 61 to provide a strong start to Australia. The knocks from Michael Clarke (56), Simon Katich (59) paved the way for the team to get back in the game. 

The late blitz from Warne (45) helped Australia to finish on 387 and set a target of 129 for the hosts. 

Ashley Giles and Matthew Hoggard remained unbeaten to seal the chase (PC: Twitter)

It was again a good start by Trescothick and Strauss, but they failed to convert their starts and fell to Warne. At the other end, Lee wreaked havoc with his line-lengths to break the 46-run stand between Flintoff and Pietersen and kept the team in the hunt. 

However, Ashley Giles and Matthew Hoggard displayed composure to help England in chasing down the score with a loss of seven wickets. 

Also Read: #OTD in 1908: Sir Donald Bradman was born in New South Wales