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Moments. Ultimately that’s all it will boil down to.
In an otherwise even contest between two strong but limited sides, whichever country grasps the critical, match-deciding moments will win this edition of sport’s greatest rivalry, The Ashes.
Pretty simple concept, right? Not exactly groundbreaking analysis.
But it’s significantly easier said than done, and it’s something Australia must do if it is to retain The Ashes, beginning with the first match at Edgbaston on Thursday.
Unlike cricket in Australian, where conditions often wear away the opposition until their ground into submission on hard, flat and generally unresponsive pitches, cricket in England is characterised by dramatic swings in momentum fuelled by changing weather and pitch conditions. Each day or even each session is punctuated by defining periods that can go a long way to deciding not just the battle at hand but the war overall.
Australia must learn from its previous losses of these moments.
(AAP Image/David Moir)
Rewind just four years, when the series was poised 2-1 going into the fourth Trent Bridge Test. Within the first 90 minutes the Ashes were over.
Stuart Broad’s 8-15 decimated Australia there, the visitors all out for 60 in only 18.3 overs. But the writing was already on the wall from the previous Test, where James Anderson’s spell of 4-19 on his way to six for the innings on the first morning had led England to an eight-wicket victory and a series lead.
While these instances clearly highlighted Australia’s vulnerability when conditions were in the bowler’s favour, many of Australia’s top order dominated the series.
Three of the top four run scorers for the series were on the Aussie side of the ledger, with Steve Smith leading the way with 508 runs at 56 and Chris Rogers 480 runs at 60.
Australians also occupied four of the top five spots in the most wickets for the series; however, critically, only Mitchell Starc managed to take a five-wicket haul compared to England’s four, each being the decisive factor in the determining the match’s outcome.
The series echoed 2009, when the Australians performed well but lost the most significant moments, losing the series 2-1.
Six Australians were in the seven highest run scorers across the series, scoring eight centuries compared to two from the English. Australia’s bowlers were also dominant, taking 84 wickets against 71 by the English.
Despite this control, the Aussies won only one of five Tests.
Crucially, they didn’t take their opportunities.
Cast your mind back to the first Test in Cardiff, when Australia was seemingly on track to go one-nil up before the last wicket partnership of Jimmy Anderson and Monty Panesar nicked, nudged and frustrated the visitors for almost 22 overs. They survived for an unlikely draw and crucially prevented England from falling behind in the series.
And again, in the final Test at The Oval just as Ricky Ponting and Michael Hussey were forming a formidable partnership, Hussey’s push to a one-legged Andrew Flintoff, who rediscovered his athleticism for the first time all series for that single moment, threw the keeper’s stumps down, running out the Australian captain and thus extinguishing Australia’s last remaining hope.
And yet I still haven’t even mentioned Gary Pratt’s runout of Ponting or the ball faintly brushing Michael Kasprowicz’s glove at Edgbaston within three runs of victory back in 2005.
These singular moments changed the course of each series, and this series will be no different.
And as Australia’s openers walk out to face Jimmy Anderson with a new thickly lacquered Dukes ball under grey skies on a raging green seamer, can they win the moment, or will they be consigned to following recent history?
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