Over the weekend, the cricket world saw one of the greatest Tests of all time in Headingley. England did what many thought was impossible and unachievable. After going down for 67 in their first innings, they won the match by one wicket and became the first side since 1888 to win a test after being bowled out for less than 70.
Ben Stokes' hercules 135-not out won the match for England and they levelled the Ashes 1-all. But one can not overlook the contribution of two Joes (Root & Denly). Chasing 359 to win, England were in all sorts of trouble at 15 for 2. Then came Joe Denly who slowed things down and put a 126-run partnership with his skipper Joe Root.
10 years ago, on this day, in 2009, Joe Denly made his ODI debut for England. The result didn't go the way England would have liked as they lost to Ireland by 3 runs (D/L method).
Skipper Paul Collingwood won the toss and chose to bat first. England had the worst possible start to the innings. Denly who opened the innings saw the back of RS Bopara (0) and J Trott (0) at 6/2.
Under difficult batting conditions, the Englishman then stitched a handy 53-run partnership with M Prior. Denly kept his wicket at the other end and added 33 runs with Collingwood and 36 runs with Owais Shah before getting dismissed in the 39th over.
Denly's 67 runs knock showed great quality and patience that helped him score plenty of runs in all formats of the game.
