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Camden Sports - MATCH POINT by STEVE BARNETT
Published: 23 July 2009

Flintoff a hero, but Strauss sets tone for victory

WHAT a week it has been in the football-free world of sport.
On Monday few could have escaped the euphoria of Freddie Flintoff leading England to a historic 1-0 lead in the Ashes. The 115-run victory also ended a 75-year wait for a win over Australia at Lord’s.
With so much to celebrate, I couldn’t help but feel it was wrong for Flintoff to announce his retirement from Test cricket before the Ashes were over.
Almost everything he did was greeted with the words” “That will be the last time he ever does that at Lord’s”.
Andrew Strauss’s first innings score of 161 became lost in the sub-plot, as did the four-wicket hauls from James Anderson and Graeme Swann.
Now that Kevin Pietersen has been ruled out of the rest of the Ashes the spotlight will no doubt be firmly fixed on Flintoff instead of the whole England team.
Elsewhere, the boxing world watched on as Amir Khan won his first world title with a unanimous points win over Andreas Kotelnik.
For the first time ever, the light-welterweight actually looked calm and composed as he powered his way through the 12 rounds.
Khan’s best move didn’t come from a solid jab or a devastating hook, but when he appointed American trainer Freddie Roach.
That truly was a knock-out blow to all of his opponents.

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