For the first time in 24 years, England have retained the Ashes on Australian soil and what a way to do it! Beating Australia in Australia is notoriously hard to do, even when their team is as average as the current side. England have come to Australia and not just beaten them, but hammered them. Before this series Australia had not been beaten by an innings in 18 years. England have inflicted two innings defeats in the space of a month. In one of the other games, they amassed 517-1. This shows the complete domination they have enjoyed over Australia.
There was a blip in the road when a Mitchell Johnson inspired Australia briefly fought back on a spicy WACA pitch but this turnaround was short-lived, extremely short-lived. Australia had entered the match with hope, hope that the fiery atmosphere of the MCG would inspire them to another much needed victory. It didn't. It all went wrong from the minute the coin went up in the air. Andrew Strauss won the toss and elected to bowl on a helpful pitch with grey skies above. Australia's fate was sealed.
Of course, Australia were not down and out already, if they could survive until Lunch the pitch would have flattened out and batting would become much easier. All that was needed was a bit of grit and determination to get through the first session. This was easier said than done. As they have been unable to do all series, the Australian batsmen failed to dig in. They played unnecessary shots to balls they could have left alone. Once again they lost 3 early wickets, once again they needed Michael Hussey to bail them out and for once, he failed to deliver. Without Hussey's runs, Australia were completely incapable of recovering from their perilous situation and in the end crawled to 98 all out.
An Australian team of the past might have been able to recover after losing Hussey but this team, with Steve Smith at No.6, never looked like doing so. Smith will become a good Test Match player but he is totally out of his depth at the moment and in my opinion, his selection was one of the key reasons Australia lost this Test as convincingly as they did. He is a bits and pieces selection, the kind of player England would have selected in the 1990's. Not exactly the best template for success.
From this point on, it was always going to be extremely hard for Australia to get back into the game. To stand any chance, Mitchell Johnson would have to bowl in the same brilliant way he did in Perth. He didn’t. Unfortunately for Australia the Brisbane version of Johsnon re-emerged, on the first day his seven overs leaked 42 runs. This gave England a great start and they ended the first day on 157-0. Sure enough, as predicted, the pitch had flattened out and the sun had emerged. Batting was far easier than in the morning. Some will say that England winning the toss was the reason for their victory but it wasn’t. It was merely a push off the start line.
England bowled extremely well on that first morning. Australia did not deserve a single run more than the pitiful 98 they managed. It was a combination of very good England bowling and very poor Australian batting. Some determined batting from Australia could have kept them in the game, given them a chance. Instead of grinding it out however, they seemed more concerned with going at a run-an-over, such were the ridiculous shots they offered in response to England’s disciplined bowling.
After that crazy first day there was only ever going to be one winner. Barring one of the most miraculous turnarounds in cricket history (it really would have been). The next 2 and a bit days were merely a procession towards England’s eventual victory. Although that’s not to say England didn’t have to play well. They did. On the second morning it even looked like Australia might drag themselves back into contention as they removed both openers early on. Unfortunately for Australia, that was as good as it got for the remainder of the match. They were repelled by Jonathon Trott for 499 minutes and it would have been even longer were it not for the fact he ran out of partners. He found support in the form of firstly Kevin Pietersen and then Matt Prior. They proceeded to grind Australia into the dust, whilst doing so they amassed the greatest ever lead in Ashes history after batting second. This was one of many records which tumbled at the MCG during the course of the match.
It was not just the weight of runs which demoralised Australia and more specifically, Ricky Ponting. It was the misfortune along the way which eventually led to Ponting having a spat with the umpires, a petulant act which earned him a fine from the match referee. From close run-outs, wickets off no-balls and a controversial referral (the thing that finally set off Ponting’s fuse) nothing was going right for Australia. It basically summed up their whole series.
For the first half of the third day, Australia did finally play well. They fought back to bowl England out for 513, just 69 runs more than their overnight total. Shane Watson and Phil Hughes then came out firing after lunch. After 10 overs they were 50 for no wicket. By no means was this a fight back, England were still leading by over 350 runs at this point, but it did briefly give Australia’s fans something to cheer about. Briefly.
Obviously, Shane Watson had decided they were playing far too well and were in danger of turning the match around. Thus he decided to run out his young partner. His suicidal call left Hughes high and dry and once again, Australia were in trouble. Ponting valiantly tried to defy the England bowlers, who were by this point reversing the ball, but it was to no avail. He had scratched his way to 20 before chopping on to his stumps. It was about 200 short of what Australia needed from their captain and as he walked off, for possibly the last time at the MCG, their were murmurings all over the ground about his future.
After Ponting had failed, the rest of the batting order seemed to take their own words too literally. They have been saying for weeks now how they will find inspiration from Ponting, that they will always support and follow him. It appears that also applied to his batting. Watson had already fallen after leaving a hooping in-swinger from the brilliant Tim Bresnan. Out once again in the fifties. Watson has been a success story at the top of the innings but his conversion rate is absolutely abysmal. I have no idea what is stopping him from converting his fifties into hundreds but he must figure it out soon because that is what separates the good from the great.
Whilst Watson is struggling to convert fifties to hundreds. Vice-captain Michael Clarke is struggling to get to fifty, I’m sure he would kill for Watson’s problems right about now. Once again he looked scratchy, even to Swann which shows just how out of form he is as usually, he is Australia’s best player of spin.
There is not much to say about the rest of Australia’s line-up. They folded like a deck of cards. Even Mike Hussey could not add an air of respectability to the performance as he failed for the second time in the game. For a while, it even looked like England might be able to force the result on the last day. If they had taken one more wicket they probably could have taken the extra half-hour to try and win the game. Although they didn’t quite manage that, they entered the fourth day needing only 3 wickets to retain the Ashes. It would have been 4 but unfortunately for Australia and Ryan Harris, he suffered a stress fracture in his ankle and will now be out of action for 3 months. A serious blow to both their Sydney prospects and looking further ahead, their World Cup ambitions as Harris had established himself as a key player in their one-day side.
Australia had started the day well and even though a comeback was never really on the cards. They would have loved to have put up more of a fight. Their batting performance in the last two sessions was embarrassing. Batting conditions were good and they had just been taught by Jonathon Trott how to bat well on the pitch. Instead of learning from their mistakes, they made the same ones all over again. Playing at balls they could have left and in Watson’s case, leaving one he should have played. It is unthinkable that Test Match players can have such fundamental problems with such an essential part of the game, knowing which balls to play. Australia have to find some way of learning this skill because currently, they are disgracing the great teams that have preceded them.
The last day was merely a warm-down for England. The game was won, it was just a matter of time before it was official. Mitchell Johnson went early which sparked hopes that the game could be finished within minutes. Thankfully for the few thousand very committed Australian fans that turned up to watch their side lose, they did have something to cheer about as Brad Haddin and Peter Siddle cut loose and posted a 50 partnership in the most hopeless of causes. It was Graeme Swann who finally ended the Australian’s fun, having Siddle caught on the boundary trying to repeat his earlier six.
England were already celebrating. The Barmy Army were in full voice, Kevin Pietersen was even joining in with the singing and dancing. Sure enough, the real celebrations were not far away. Ben Hilfenhaus got an inside edge off Tim Bresnan and Matt Prior dived to his left to spark wild celebrations amongst both players and fans alike.
It was a special moment. One I am very proud to have witnessed in the flesh. It was one of England’s most dominant performances over Australia, right up there with the Adelaide mauling only a few weeks ago. England totally deserve to retain the Ashes, they have been by far and away the better side this series. They will however want to make sure they go on and win the series. If Australia win in Sydney it will be a grave injustice to the domination this England side has enjoyed over Australia during the series.
England will be desperate to win the series in Sydney. Andrew Strauss has said their ultimate goal is to be the No.1 side in the world. I fully believe this England side will not rest on their laurels after retaining the Ashes. They want to be the best and winning in Sydney will show they really mean business. Keeping a winning streak going has been a problem for them in the last couple of years. This problem has come up in the 2009 Ashes, against South Africa in the winter and even here on this tour when their crushing Adelaide win was followed by their WACA nightmare.
Having said that, England should win. Australia have lost an important bowler in Ryan Harris, Mitchell Johnson is back out of form, Hussey has hit a blip which means that none of Australia’s batsmen can be relied upon to score runs. To make matters even worse for the Aussies, we are heading for the most spin-friendly surface in Australia. Michael Beer should come into the side but when you compare him to Graeme Swann, this should be a straightforward England win. However, cricket is never straightforward.
For now however, England will reflect on this fantastic victory. Either that or they will be nursing some sore heads after their celebrations last night. One thing is for sure, this England unit has a bright future.
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