First direct arena, Arena in Leeds, England

Australia captain Meg Lanning backed her decision of not declaring the inning on the fourth day despite her team having an upper hand in the Test match against England saying they were in a position to make that decision.Australia had white-washed the English side in a three-match ODI series and stepped out on the field for the only Test match, in the multi-format Ashes series, with a six-point lead. Both Australia and England were awarded two points each after the draw in the match and consequently, Australia retained the Ashes as they have an 8-2 point lead.Keeping the ODI series' result in mind, Lanning said they were in a position to make that decision."We weren't going to throw it open to England to give them a chance. We came into the Test match six-nil up and we were in a position to make that decision," Cricket.com.au quoted Lanning as saying.Australia had an impeccable start to the only Test match as they declared the first inning after scoring 420 runs for the loss of eight wickets. England then came out to bat and put 275 runs on the board, for the loss of nine wickets, before declaring. Australia had a 145 runs lead and went on to bat for the fourth day, letting the match end on a draw.Lanning also admitted that they thought about declaring but made a calculated move after they felt they could not win the game."We thought about (declaring) and had a good chat about what our options were, and whether we could force a result but we sort of looked at how many overs were left, especially given how many wickets were falling," she said"Test cricket's supposed to be hard and a tough battle and I think that's exactly what it was. Both teams were trying to get an advantage. I don't think it was entirely either team's fault where we ended up in the game, to be honest. At different points we were trying to win it, we just lost time throughout and it got to a point where we felt we couldn't win the game," Lanning added.Australia will now face England for the T20I series, starting from July 26.( With inputs from ANI )

First Direct ArenaFOLLOW

First direct arena, Latest News

After coming out as the losing side in the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup final, New Zealand's opening batsman Martin Guptill posted an emotional message on Instagram saying it was the best and worst day of his cricketing life. ...

Just a week after winning the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup, England's pacer Liam Plunkett has said that he always thought that the team could win the tournament. ...

England pacer James Anderson has the chance to top the ICC bowlers Test rankings as the team is set to take Ireland in their one-off Test at Lord's on Wednesday. ...

Birthday wishes poured in for New Zealand all-rounder Colin de Grandhome as he turned 33 on Monday. ...

Former skipper M.S. Dhoni's decision to opt out of India's upcoming tour of the West Indies as he wishes to train with the Parachute Regiment of the Territorial Army might have seen former England cricketer turned commentator David Lloyd put two tear ...

Indian paddlers made most of the 'home advantage and grabbed all the gold medals seven to be precise in the 21st Commonwealth Table Tennis Championships which concluded at the Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Stadium on Monday. ...

As the one-off Test match between Australia and England ended in a draw, Aussies coach Matthew Mott said the team ran out of time and called the match as an advertisement for five-day Test matches in women's cricket. ...

Australia captain Meg Lanning backed her decision of not declaring the inning on the fourth day despite her team having an upper hand in the Test match against England saying they were in a position to make that decision. ...