WOW!! What a match. Granted the shocking umpiring decisions (when you include 3rd umpires) perhaps made it a little closer than it should have been (although both sides suffered) but what a fantastic advert YET AGAIN for test match cricket.
Going into this series it looked like it was going to be hard going for Australia. On paper only three players, at best, would make it into the England starting XI from the Australian squad – Clarke, Watson and Siddle. Few people gave them a chance. But through some heroic displays they proved that, when it comes to the Ashes at least, as a team they are greater than the sum of their individual parts.
Despite this England still managed to turn it around and prove that they have the mettle to win when all seemed lost.
It will be very interesting to see how the rest of the series develops now. Will England now steam ahead after this incredibly hard fought victory and whitewash the visitors, or will the Antipodeans claim a much needed morale boost and fight tooth and nail throughout the remainder of the summer?
I for one can’t wait – although I might be keeping the doctor busy!
So what about a review of the match?
Well it started with a poor decision by Captain Cook to decide to bat after winning the toss and see-sawed from that moment on.
Poor batting by England for the most part in the first innings along with some shocking decisions and then a supreme comeback by the England attack only for it to be blunted by a 19 year old number 11 on début.
A decent recovery in England’s second innings with Ian Bell weighing in with a brilliant century (arguably his best ever given the state of the game) when England really needed it and Stuart Broad proving strong support. They finished maybe 30–40 runs short however.
But yet again the bowlers managed to turn it around with young Joe Root taking the vital wicket of Cowan which set the tone after a good start by their openers. What did I say in my previous column? Bowl him more! Even if he just gives you 10 overs an innings. The attack managed to rip through the Aussie line-up but for the second innings on the trot the last pair managed heroics only for England to snatch it at the death when the visitors had perhaps made themselves favourites.
I say England attack – the credit must go to Jimmy Anderson for his performance during this game. Despite Bell’s century and Agar’s care-free 98, there really was no other candidate for man of the match. He recorded figures of 55 overs bowled, of which 13 were maidens, conceding 158 runs for 10 match-winning wickets. Simply world-class. He just gets better and better. Out of the others Broad looked OK, Swann took a couple of wickets but failed to live up to the pre-match hype but Finn must be very concerned about his place. He took a couple of important wickets in the first innings but overall bowled very poorly throughout the match. When England needed him in the second innings he failed to deliver and got smacked around the park. In the first innings England were a bowler down due to Broad’s shoulder injury but the captain clearly didn’t feel he had the confidence to call on Finn. Despite the next test being played in Finn’s backyard at Lords, expect Onions or Bresnan to replace him.
What an exciting summer we have in front of us.
“The pink ball appears grey/blue in red/green deficient vision, depending on its severity. I did a simulation with colour blindness…”