Australia’s thumping victory over England by an innings and 14 runs in the third Test at the MCG secured the Ashes for a third consecutive series.
It was another dominant performance from the home side, and as the player ratings voted on by you show, it was a great match for the Victorians at their home ground.
Leading the way was, of course, player of the match Scott Boland, whose figures of 6-7 in England’s woeful second innings earned him maximum votes from over half of you, with nothing below a 7.
Not too far behind was under-pressure opener Marcus Harris, whose match-high 76 with the bat made him one of the few batters who withstood an onslaught from a James Anderson-led English attack. Only Boland and fellow quicks Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc outperformed Harris in the rankings; fair enough, considering the dominance of the Aussie bowlers.
For the third Test in a row, England’s ratings made for sorry reading. Only captain Joe Root scrounged a pass mark of the top seven that was blown apart in both innings at the MCG, with openers Haseeb Hameed and Zak Crawley particularly brutally marked.
It was a different story for pace-bowling trio Anderson, Ollie Robinson and Mark Wood, who along with Root were clearly the tourists’ four most highly-rated players from the Boxing Day Test.
Anderson was the only Englishman to earn a 10, compared to three Australians (Cummins, Starc and Boland), for his sublime 4-33 in Australia’s innings.
1. David Warner
Average score: 5.65
Most common rating: 6 (35.2%)
2. Marcus Harris
Average score: 7.07
Most common rating: 8 (33%)
3. Marnus Labuschagne
Average score: 3.44
Most common rating: 2 (30.8%)
4. Steve Smith (vc)
Average score: 4.01
Most common rating: 4 (28.6%)
5. Travis Head
Average score: 4.63
Most common rating: 4 & 5 (33%)
6. Cameron Green
Average score: 6.08
Most common ratings: 6 (39.6%)
7. Alex Carey (wk)
Average score: 5.93
Most common rating: 6 (38.5%)
8. Pat Cummins (c)
Average score: 8.21
Most common rating: 8 & 9 (36.3%)
9. Mitchell Starc
Average score: 8.68
Most common rating: 9 (63.7%)
10. Scott Boland
Average score: 9.35
Most common rating: 10 (53.3%)
11. Nathan Lyon
Average score: 6.98
Most common rating: 8 (36.3%)
1. Haseeb Hameed
Average score: 1.61
Most common rating: 1 (53.9%)
2. Zak Crawley
Average score: 1.91
Most common rating: 2 (48.9%)
3. Dawid Malan
Average score: 2.47
Most common rating: 2 (37.8%)
4. Joe Root (c)
Average score: 5.59
Most common rating: 6 (28.6%)
5. Ben Stokes
Average score: 3.69
Most common rating: 4 (32.6%)
6. Jonny Bairstow
Average score: 3.68
Most common rating: 4 (33.3%)
7. Jos Buttler (wk, vc)
Average score: 2.76
Most common rating: 3 (30%)
8. Mark Wood
Average score: 5.63
Most common rating: 7 (31.1%)
9. Ollie Robinson
Average score: 4.80
Most common rating: 4 & 6 (22.2%)
10. Jack Leach
Average score: 3.38
Most common rating: 3 (25.6%)
11. James Anderson
Average score: 7.84
Most common rating: 8 (37.8%)
redbackfan
Roar Rookie
Greens gully fielding has been sensational, no-one catches them all
DaveJ
Roar Rookie
Ridiculous over the top comment. I wasn’t squealing about anything and didn’t need a lecture about Windies cricket. Just saying that individual scores can be a funny way of judging players, including bowlers, eg 5 wickets doesn’t always reflect a better bowling performance than someone who takes three. As for Vic, I’d be happy to put Malcolm Marshall up there with him in Test cricket, but no need to have a go at me over the Wisden ratings, chosen by 100 ex-players, journos and cricket historians by the way. Viv obviously won his spot in part on the basis of his monumental record in ODIs which hasn’t been equalled when you adjust for the higher scores in the last 20 years thanks to huge bats and smaller boundaries. And his Test average was up near 60 for a good ten years.
Mike
Guest
The interesting thing about Green is that I think he's actually our best fast bowler after the big three. Even allowing for Boland's great match. In fact, I reckon if you asked the English who they'd least like to face I wouldn't be surprised if it went Cummins, Green, the rest. Certainly I reckon Root would answer that way. As far as the ratings go, I can't believe somebody there is having a weep about how hard batsman have it! It's certainly easier to keep your place in the team as a batter - four bowlers vs six batsman. If a bowler performed as badly as Harris do you honestly think he would've played over 20 test matches? Not even 10 more likely! Batsman win man of the match awards more regularly. You can score as many runs as you like but you won't win a sod unless you can bowl 'em out. Of the five Wisden players of the century (Sobers, Bradman, Hobbs, Warne and Richards) only one was a bowler - yes, Sobers bowled but he wouldn't have got close to that recognition without his 50+ batting average. So you're telling me that Richards with his just scraping average of 50 and his far less rate of century scoring per test than Greg Chappell and many others was much better than any fast bowler of the 20th century? Yep, Richards was an excitement machine when he was going but he never had to bat against his own bowling attack...or any seriously decent spinners in that era. I remember old Bob Holland making a fool of him at the SCG and also Alan Border getting him twice in a game for sod-all runs. Methinks Marshall and Lillee were at least his equal. And perhaps a string of others - Larwood, Trueman, Hadlee, Holding, Wasim, Murali, Bedi, Garner, Lindwall, O'Reilly. Perhaps there were too many bowling options for the fifth spot - but I personally would've made the choice between Lillee and Marshall. My overall point? Don't squeal about batters getting the rough end of the pineapple. Batters set up most matches. Bowlers win most matches.
DaveJ
Roar Rookie
Exactly!
The Late News
Roar Rookie
Straight ones...in Leach's case it's usually STRAIGHT back over his left ear!
Micko
Roar Rookie
Dropping one tough chance is a harsh reason to downgrade the bloke when the rest of the time his catching & fielding is excellent. Agreed that he seems bit down on confidence with his batting at present though.
DaveJ
Roar Rookie
That’s true! But getting out to a straight one from Leach after you’ve just badly missed a cut shot against him has to be a lot worse than getting out to leg cutters from Cummins or Starc. I was having trouble squaring up a rating of 6 for Green (doing his main job) vs 1s for the Poms or a lower rating for Warner.
The Late News
Roar Rookie
Yes but they had two attempts each!
DaveJ
Roar Rookie
Dunno they batted as well as Green.
DaveJ
Roar Rookie
Very hard giving ratings in cricket Tests because it’s difficult to go beyond the numbers. Eg Lyon finishes with three wickets in the first innings thanks to polishing off the tail and gets rated a 7, while batsmen like Warner and Head etc get lower ratings because the scores are lowish. That’s the nature of batting- it’s usually not about playing “badly”. Though in this case I thought Warner’s fast and very solid start was important to getting Australia off on the right foot, and did as much as Lyon for the cause, maybe more when you add in a couple of catches at slip. And he definitely batted better than Harris, who made it to 76 because he played and missed 20+ times. I have no idea how Carey or Green end up with a better score than Warner. Green was all at sea against Leach and dropped a catch. Stokes’s wicket doesn’t make up for all that.
The Late News
Roar Rookie
It's ridiculous that the two pommie openers managed to break one. Must be an accounting error...