Simon Barnes has a lovely tribute to the retiring England spinner Ashley Giles in this morning’s Times. Giles had a bit of a rough press as he was nearly always used in purely negative ways by his captain. While he irritated the purists as he wasn’t a great spinner of the ball. But, as Barnes, points out England wouldn’t have won the Ashes in 2005 without him.
Few small innings have been as important as Giles’s at Trent Bridge in 2005. England were collapsing chasing a mere 129 to win. The Australians had opened up every old English wound and looked to set to snatch the unlikeliest of victories and keep hold of the Ashes. But Giles would not yield. By sheer willpower he kept Warne at bay before scampering the winning runs. He might only have scored seven runs, but the dogged way they were made summed up Giles’s qualities.
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