Kent cricketer leads England to ‘Grey Ashes’ glory

Kent cricketer Chris Swadkin led England's 60+ side in the second half of their victorious tour of Australia.

After clinching the Ashes series in the 2nd ODI, England suffered a first defeat losing to Victoria in the next match but then racked up four further victories before the final match of the tour – the third Test match against Australia Over 60s.

Perhaps stung by their series loss, Australia made five changes for this match and Kent man Swadkin, standing in for injured skipper John Foster, lost the toss and England were asked to bat in conditions favouring the bowlers for the first hour or so.

Despite this, England made good progress but kept losing wickets at the wrong time which pegged back the run rate. Eventually England reached 225-8 in their 50 overs, mainly through Rupert Staple's late assault (40* from 26 balls with three huge sixes).

In reply, Australia made a steady start but struggled to make rapid progress and at 100-2 off 30 overs, the required rate was climbing.

However Phil Dreschler then crashed 50 off 26 balls – unfortunately dropped 3 times – to transform the game and although England fought back again and 18 were needed from 2 overs, Murray Harrison only needed 1 over to score those runs, so restoring some pride to Australia albeit in a dead rubber.

A fantastic tour may have ended with defeat but the "grey Ashes" are on their way back to the UK.

Full scorecards for each match and match reports are on englandseniors.play-cricket.com