China: At last, Ashes joy for England.....in Shanghai

The inaugural 6-a-side Shanghai Ashes was played on yet another hot sunny Shanghai summer's day. As the headlining game during the Shanghai Football Club's annual all-day Beach Party, the game was the centre of attention for many and had been the focus of endless amounts of banter during the previous few weeks. The ever-cocky Aussies were highly favoured, and buoyed by Australia's crushing victories over the English in the real Ashes they felt they just couldn't lose.

They got off to a great start by winning the toss and electing to bat, looking to knock-up a big score and make England work hard on a hot day. England, who earlier in the day had had to draw heavily on the rugby clubs resources to field a full team, knew that they would have to strike early in order to contain the Australians' powerful batting line-up.

After his platinum duck in the RoW game, Aussie skipper Paul Turner declined the opportunity to face the first ball, instead allowing Mat Hutton, to take strike against Larry Langdon. There was little drama bar a controversial wide during the first over, with the Aussies picking up a steady 7 runs. Nick Francis though, recently native to New Zealand but the son of a proud Yorkshireman, bowled a far more eventful second over. 14 runs were plundered from his first 5 balls before he dramatically brought England right back into it, having danger man Paul Turner caught behind after skying a huge pull-shot.

English captain Mike Tsesmelis then brought himself into the action to bowl the third over, and bowled no. 3, Graham "Max" Hamill first ball. Only 2 more runs came from the rest of the over, and on 23-2 from 3 overs the Aussies knew they'd have to make hay from the remaining two bowlers, Rory McKibbin and Shanghai Football Club President, Sam Crispin. But both McKibbin and Crispin kept their heads and bowled steadily and cleverly, Australia finishing on 47-2.

After a brief recess Tsesmelis and Langdon walked out to take the game to the Aussies, fully aware of the fragility of the English batting line-up but knowing that an unlikely victory was well within their sights if they could just bat through for 5 overs.

With Tsesmelis to face the first ball, opposing skipper Paul Turner took the new ball. Perhaps predictably the first ball was a bouncer, a good one a little outside off-stump and Tsesmelis, believing that it would be called a no-ball for passing over shoulder height, went back and hooked but top-edged it just over the keeper's head. 4 runs but no no-ball called by Kiwi Umpire Scott "Waffle" Brown - was this a sign it might just be England's day?

Tsesmelis picked up an easy single the next ball, to give Langdon strike. Langdon though, manager of Shanghai's Velvet Underground nightclub and usually extremely cool, cracked under the pressure, and after 2 wild slashes and a lecture from his captain, dragged the fifth ball of the over on to his stumps. England 5-1 and Australia already into the tail.

In at number 3 though Nick Francis, with just one brief innings under his belt in several years, proved to everyone that he did indeed have the Yorkshire fighting spirit. Over the next two overs the two bats between them collected 37 runs, and bar one extravagant backfoot drive for four from Francis, scored them entirely in 1s and 2s. Good running, excellent shot selection and sheer determination to win - it was a model of sensible cricket and took England to within 7 runs of victory.

Max Hamill, bowling his awkward left-arm around seamers was to bowl the last over, and Tsesmelis was on strike. A simple leg glance off the first ball brought Francis to the striker's end, and having batted patiently and within himself until then launched into a loose delivery and sent it crashing into the advertising boards at midwicket.

With just two more runs needed from the last 4 balls the field was brought in, but Francis still found a gap to leave Tsesmelis to hit the winning runs. Having dreamt of this all week Tsesmelis' eyes lit up when he saw the ball drop a fraction short, but instead of sending it into the road only managed to top-edge it straight into his face. The ball ran down towards third man and Francis sensed the opportunity and started running - Tsesmelis though was oblivious to what was going on around him and could neither see him coming nor hear the call and for a moment there looked like there might be a tragic run-out. But just as Francis was about to turn back Tsesmelis' faculties returned and knowing all he had to do to secure a priceless victory over the arch enemy was put his head down and run, just got to the other end before the throw came in, and victory was England's.