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There’s no doubt England were the better team in the fourth Test and if not for Manchester’s wet weather saving Australia’s skin, they’d be heading to The Oval with a chance to regain the Ashes.
They were clearly the superior side in the third Test too when they scored a well-deserved three-wicket victory.
When they tempered their ultra-aggressive approach and run rate by parking their Bazball egos at the door in Leeds and Manchester, they played better Test cricket while still living up to their oft-stated mission to entertain the fans.
But it was in the first two matches of the series where they let their chance of regaining the urn slip from their grasp.
On both occasions they could have and possibly should have emerged victorious instead of going down by two wickets and 43 runs in nail-biting contests.
England captain Ben Stokes after day five of the Test at Old Trafford. (Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images)
Bazball is a high-risk, mostly successful strategy. It has propelled an inferior, on paper, English team to the level of the machine-like world champions.
But to be the champion you need to beat the champion and they failed to knock the Aussies to the canvas when they had chances at Edgbaston and Lord’s.
Which is also part of the Bazball mystique. Playing up-tempo cricket on fast forward heightens your chances of dominating a methodical team like Australia.
But it also means you can throw away a position of advantage with an overly attacking shot or a gamble like selecting a batter who keeps ahead of an expert gloveman.
England have improved in leaps and bounds from the rabble that left Australia with their tails between their legs at the start of last year – it feels longer but that was only 18 months ago.
But that pathetic effort is also the reason why they no longer have a chance of regaining the old piece of woodwork which is such famous sporting silverware.
Even in Stuart Broad’s fantasy world where that 4-0 result is a “void series”, the Aussies are still the champs because they drew 2-2 in 2019 on the back of a 5-0 whitewash in 2016-17.
It would have been a clean sweep in Australia the last time around as well if not for rain saving England from certain defeat in Sydney when Broad and James Anderson held firm to deny the home side the final wicket required.
Cricket is a sport that can be ruined by rain like no other.
In a five-match series in the UK you’d be lucky to go 25 days without rain or bad light interfering which means if you don’t have the urn, you can’t afford two losses, particularly the opening matches of the series.
It’s not the first time wet weather has saved either side in an Ashes Test at Old Trafford.
Ten years ago, Australia had England in strife at 3-37 on the final day of the third Test at Manchester, chasing a target of 332 when rain ended play early after 20 overs, allowing the home side to retain the urn in what turned out to be a 3-0 series triumph.
Way back in 1953, Lindsay Hassett’s side was on its knees at 8-35 in the second innings with a slender lead of 77 when rain prevented England’s victory march.
Don Bradman’s masterful 304 propelled Australia to a 384-run first-innings lead in 1934 and England were 6-229 at Headingley when the heavens opened.
England have claimed the moral high ground this series on the back of the Jonny Bairstow stumping incident at Lord’s, grasping at the spirit of cricket in their defence.
Tell me which team is upholding the ICC’s code which involves respect for:
Your opponents
Your own captain and team
The role of the umpires
The game and its traditional values.
The team that had a player churlishly claim their previous series defeat didn’t count while also continuing his “celebrappeal” theatrics to boorishly put pressure on umpires,
requested the wickets be tailor-made to suit their playing style, aka pitch doctoring,
had a bowler deliver an unprovoked foul-mouthed spray at a batter he’d dismissed after a gallant hundred,
the side that didn’t respect the umpire’s decision when Bairstow was given out due to his own carelessness
and the team that claimed a catch at slip in this Test that was clearly caught on the half-volley?
(That team’s own privileged members at the supposed home of cricket abused the opposition players as well but you can’t really blame the side for that.)
England’s Ollie Robinson sledges Usman Khawaja after taking his wicket in the first Test. (Photo by David Davies/PA Images via Getty Images)
Or the team that had a wicketkeeper clever enough to execute a legitimate form of dismissal?
It should also be noted that Bairstow, when batting with Anderson at Manchester, didn’t seem to think the ball was dead the moment the ball hit the keeper’s gloves when they decided to run through for a bye with Alex Carey standing back.
Broad wrote in a column before the final day of the fourth Test was washed out that it would be “unjust” if rain saved the Aussies.
Blame it on the rain, if you want. It didn’t work for Milli Vanilli and that rationale will hold just as much water this time around as well.
If England want to truly show that they deserve to have the Ashes back in their keeping for the first time since 2016, they need to thump the Aussies at The Oval in the final Test starting on Thursday.
It’s been a ripping series with the first three matches decided by less than three wickets or 50 runs – the only time that has happened in Test history.
Australia’s retention of the urn and escape from near-certain defeat in Manchester gives them a bittersweet result unless they win the series finale.
Stuart Broad and Ben Stokes. (Photo by Nick Potts/PA Images via Getty Images)
Their mission in England was to win the World Test Championship and be the first Aussie side to be triumphant in an Ashes series on tour since 2001.
“There’s been a lot of work gone into putting us into a position where a draw does make us retain the Ashes,” captain Pat Cummins said on Sunday night. “But there’s a Test match starting in three days, so that’s going to be our full focus.
“In some regards, whatever happened today wouldn’t really change how we look at next week. We want to win it to make sure we win it outright.”
Both teams still have plenty to play for in the final match – England can show they’re back on equal footing if they win while Australia can only call themselves the undisputed champions of the world if they bounce back to take out the series, otherwise an invisible asterisk will forever hover over this result.
The Ashes rivalry is alive again thanks to England’s revival under Brendon McCullum’s high-octane coaching methods and Ben Stokes’ fearless captaincy.
But their chances of getting the Ashes back are dead, not because of England’s fickle weather but their own lack of attention to detail during the big moments early in the series.