If you asked me a couple of months ago if I’d take winning the World Test Championship final and retaining the Ashes, I would have taken it and so would the Australian players.
There’s still a bit of a disappointment that they didn’t win the actual series against England but one thing is for certain – the Ashes rivalry is alive again.
The Poms have certainly closed the gap from the previous time we played them in Australia, even though Stuart Broad reckons that one didn’t count. We’re still chalking that up as a thrashing.
The 2-2 result sets up an eagerly anticipated contest in a couple of years time when both teams will have a fair few new faces.
England are claiming a moral victory but I’m a traditionalist and I go by what the scoreboard says.
They can have the Moral Ashes, we will have the Actual Ashes. Do they have an urn in the Moral Ashes or do they have a little heart trophy?
Australia can feel hard done by about the ball change that happened during their fourth-innings run-chase.
They were cruising along and I thought they were a fair chance to knock over the target of 384 at 0-135 but England managed to convince the umpires to change the ball and their choice of a replacement was ludicrous.
I hope that the Australians don’t have to ask for an investigation, the ICC needs to hold their own inquiry to work out how they got that decision so wrong. That cannot happen again.
How does it happen that a ball that was going slightly reverse gets replaced by a much newer one?
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Usman Khawaja said later on he knew as soon as it was changed that it felt like a new ball not one that was supposed to be close to 40 overs old.
The previous ball hardly moved the previous day – we wanted to keep batting because we were on a roll when play ended early.
England had a lot to say when rain cost them in the fourth Test but this time around, that was a massive blow for the Aussies.
Chris Woakes bowled beautifully on day five, you can’t take anything away from him, but they were handed a massive advantage with the ball change.
Ben Stokes harped on about the spirit of cricket earlier in the series after the Jonny Bairstow stumping incident at Lord’s but it didn’t seem to be on his mind when he asked for a review over his catch off Steve Smith. He’s had a shocker.
He knew that he had dropped the ball after catching it and a few of his teammates convinced him to go upstairs but if England are following the spirit of cricket, shouldn’t he have said there and then that it wasn’t a fair catch.
You could tell by his expression straight away that he knew it wasn’t out.
And then when the correct not out verdict came back, he was having a go at the umpires about losing a review.
Mitch Marsh walked when he knew he snicked one a little later and Stokes also had the opportunity to show good sportsmanship by saying he didn’t complete the catch and not review it.
It’s hard for people who haven’t been in that situation to know the pressure you are under. You want to win the game and in the heat of the battle when you’re pushing for victory, you make decisions you probably wouldn’t ordinarily come up with.
White line fever and competitive spirit plays its part. This series there were plenty of pot shots about fair play, mainly coming from England.
But you don’t want to be a hypocrite and contradict yourself. And he has.
You can’t be selective when you talk about the spirit of cricket.
I hope this talk about England not wanting to share a beer with the Australian players after the game is just a miscommunication because that’d be horrible if they didn’t want to do that.
At the end of a series like that you get a chance to get to know the opposition players a little bit better and particularly after everything that was said during the matches.
It was a great contest over all five Tests but the series wasn’t quite as engaging as the 2005 classic and that’s mainly because of the pitches and the tactics.
Bazball requires flat wickets and that took the air out of the contest on several occasions during this series with both teams resorting to short-pitched barrages.
The bouncerthons and spread-out field settings don’t build the pressure as much as an even contest in traditional English conditions.
I thought the Aussies batted well in that fourth innings at The Oval but they didn’t get the big score they needed from one of the top six.
They lost the game earlier with their bowling to guys like Ben Duckett and Zak Crawley. It was the fifth Test of the series and they still didn’t look like they knew where to target them.
Usman Khawaja was magnificent for Australia, finishing as the leading run-scorer for the series to remove probably the last blemish on his resume – getting bulk runs in England.
Todd Murphy showed he belongs in Test company with a solid match with the bat and ball. Australia should have bowled him more in the third Test and the result might have been different.
If Nathan Lyon didn’t get injured, I think the Aussies would have won 3-1 but Woakes and Mark Wood were the momentum-changers for England.
Woakes was the right choice for player of the series and Wood’s impact with his raw pace was just what they needed.
Broad gets his fairytale ending in his final Test – he’s been enormous for England but also a legend of Ashes cricket.
He’s got a lot of charisma. We need characters who polarise opposition supporters and he’s up there with Woakes and Mitchell Starc as the best bowlers in the series.
There will be a natural transition with Moeen Ali, David Warner and a few other players from both sides who won’t be there for the next Ashes in 2025-26.
England are back on the right track and cricket’s oldest rivalry is alive and well. Can’t wait for the next one. Looking forward to seeing who the next Ashes superstars will be.
The Idiot
Roar Rookie
It takes plenty of time to develop into a good test batsman
Rohan
Roar Rookie
Main problem was persistence with ineffective bowling and field placement strategies. English weren't place under sufficient pressure when batting The exception was Lords with the bouncer session. England responded with out and out bodyline. Australian bats played the short stuff better IMO, and Australia won the test. Likely the officials warned the captains off this approach because it wasn't seen again. Australia bowled into the English batters areas, especially Stokes and Crawley, and allowed easy rotation of the strike. Everyone knows this, everyone says this, except the team.
Richie
Roar Rookie
Don’t be concerned, it’s 4 years away. :thumbup:
Pumping Dougie
Roar Guru
I'm sure they did ... and were staggered, chuckling and delirious with joy when the umpires accepted that. But as Sheek says above, it's incumbent upon the umpires to ask for another box until they are presented with a ball similar in condition. Which begs the question (Sheek's question), Why didn't they?
Pumping Dougie
Roar Guru
But Kohli has a lot of integrity. He doesn't cheat, he's not full of $h1t, he's not a hypocrite, he's not a sook, he's not bad sport. Big difference. Broad's only Australian quality is his competitiveness, and he speaks our language. :happy:
Rohan
Roar Rookie
It just shows how much pressure Stokes was under right then and he snapped. Australia failed to put enough pressure on Stokes captaincy throughout the series. Easy singles. Bowling into his and Crawleys strengths.
Rohan
Roar Rookie
My take on the no get together after the match and subsequent 'clarification' At a nightclub you don't have to address anyone directly. Its loud abd dark and lots of other people there to interact with if you choose. You don't have to look a bloke in the eye. It's a cop out. England were hiding, why? As for the ball change, we all know the major sponsors of sports these days is gambling. Corruption always hides in plain sight.
Rohan
Roar Rookie
10/10 Flem. You got it covered :thumbup:
Rowdy
Roar Rookie
"... their sales pitch ... " :laughing: . I had a good chuckle on that. It's a wonder that the Archbishop of Canterbury didn't come out and lick the ball in his holiest blessing.
Rowdy
Roar Rookie
And they knew the rules. Well it's an allegation at this stage.
matth
Roar Guru
We didn’t get beat. It was a draw and we were the away team. Plus we hold the title
matth
Roar Guru
He banged his hand on his knee coming down which dislodged the ball. He didn’t even get to the point of throwing it. The annoyance is over the pile on earlier regarding the Starc catch and all the Spirit of Cricket junk and then they turn around and review that and then argue with the umpires afterwards
matth
Roar Guru
I counter that with home advantage and made to order pitches designed for their strengths. That’s why it’s so hard to win away from home. When you contrast how each team does away to the other you can plainly see Australia have been the better all round team for the best part of a decade and continue to be so. If cricket had an away goals type rule we would be well ahead
matth
Roar Guru
It’s a bit harder to miss hit sixes on Australian sized grounds
matth
Roar Guru
I heard they met up at the barbers for a series of free haircuts
HR
Roar Rookie
It wasn't a mistake not taking Morris, he had a flare-up of a back injury in late April and couldn't play (no bowling at all for four to six weeks following the injury, managed return to bowling following scans at that point).
Rowdy
Roar Rookie
There is no defence
The Idiot
Roar Rookie
I am concerned about our batting for the next Ashes in England. Right now there is not one young batsman (< 26) who is even tapping on the door let alone knocking it down. I still have everything crossed that Pucovski comes good
matth
Roar Guru
Isn’t 2-2 just the same as the last series in England. Are the English really that much better now?
Sgt Pepperoni
Roar Rookie
Good on you Gilberto Bottom line is that in Australia we're fans of cricket In India they're fans of the Indian cricket team Same now applying to England