Filed under EngAvAus-1-4July09

When Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne retired, Brett Lee was tipped to lead Australian bowling in test and one day cricket. Lee did his best against easy opposition New Zealand but struggled big time on Indian tour and at home against South Africans.

Soon, he found himself back to gym and on injury table. Something was bothering him and Cricket Australia decided to rest him long enough that his desire for International cricket starts burning again.

Brett Lee returned to highest level cricket in IPL 2009 in April and inpired his Kings XI Punjab team for the reminder of the tournament. Australians performed below par in T20 world cup in June and Lee was the scapegoat once again.. criticised for not finishing his overs in speculated time and no taking wickets either.

Leading upto Ashes 2009, in first warm-up against Sussex, Brett Lee bowled quick but wickets still didn't came his way. Today, they did. 5 of them, back to back. Brett Lee bowled 9 overs from Diglis end but couldn't get a wicket. Captain Ricky Ponting switched him to New Road end and that did the trick. Lee's marathan spell of 10 overs produced 5 wickets, slipping England Lions from 172 for no wicket to 209 for 5 wickets.

Brett Lee produced a nice mixture of yorkers and bouncers, extracting little bit of reverse swing from the flat County ground pitch at Worcester. Brett Lee has been working with reserse swing expert coach Troy Cooley and his works seemed to show colors today, although Mitchell Johnson struggled, going over 5 run per over from his 21 overs in the day.

Mini Scorecard : Aus v Eng Lions : Warm-up :-
Australia 358 all out in 96.4 overs
M Hussey 150, S Katich 95, Hasmison 4/80.
England Lions 302 for 6 wickets in 81 ovs
Stephen Moore 120, Joe Denly 66, Lee 5/53.
Full Scorecard : Australia vs England Lions.

England lions finished second day's play 56 runs behind Australian first innings with 4 wickets in hand.. and 2 day's play remaining.

Earlier, Local boy Stephen Moore scored a megnificent century = 120 off 176 balls, playing pull shots to perfection everytime Aussie bowlers tried to rattle him with short pitched bowling. Another local cricketer, Steve Davies, made a brisk half century later in the day to bring Lions back into the match.

Preview : Australia vs England Lions : Practice match : 1,2,3,4 July 2009

Scorecard : Australia vs England Lions, Practice game : 1-4 July 2009

Brett Lee brings Australia back in game against England lions

Tour Match : Australia boost moral with victory over Northamptonshire.