I’m sitting up at midnight listening to a rain break on the final day of the Ashes series, which is ridiculous because if I wanted to stay up all night NOT listening to cricket there were about 340 other days in the past year that I could have done that.
Obviously this is quite a special night, during which hopefully England will wrap up a 3-1 series win - exactly the score that people like Jonathan Agnew were predicting months before the series started. Yes, confidence was high and rightly so; England have dominated very large parts of the series and plenty of questions have now been answered.
Q: Will England start the series strongly after their thorough preparations?
A: Er, no. Not really. Day 1 of the first Test was nothing special by any means. Strauss was dismissed in the first over, Peter Siddle took a hatrick (and six wickets in total) and England were dismissed for a below-par 260. Australia finished the day 25-0 and went on to post a first innings lead of 221.
Q: So, will England crumble under a bit of pressure (as English cricket teams are wont to do)?
A: No again. England’s second innings was alarmingly different to what we have come to expect. Strauss followed up his duck with 110, Cook practically doubled his 2010 run tally with 235 not out and Jonathan Trott scored his second Ashes ton. 517-1 and Australia looked clueless.
Q: Will Kevin Pietersen rediscover his match-winning form?
A: After a promising 43 in Brisbane, KP came to the crease at 176-2 in Adelaide and was eventually dismissed with the score on 568, having notched a Test best 227. The majority of this innings happened to coincide with my one night of watching the live coverage and I can confirm he looked happy out there. His dismal failure at Perth (0 and 3) was followed by a fluent 51 in Adelaide that was very helpful at the time. Pietersen hasn’t proved to be the England match-winner but he really hasn’t needed to be.
Q: Will this be Swann’s Ashes?
A: Certainly not, but as with Pietersen it hasn’t mattered that England’s spinner hasn’t been at his devastating best. The form of Anderson, Bresnan and Tremlett has taken the pressure off him. Swann took 5-91 in the second innings at Adelaide to finish off the match but apart from that he’s only taken the odd wicket here and there. At one point in Melbourne he had figures of 22 overs for 23 runs, demonstrating his usefulness as a containing bowler. His 36 off 26 balls (mostly from Mitchell Johnson) in this Test match was wonderfully entertaining.
Q: Is Mitchell Johnson really that bad?
A: Not quite. His first-innings spell in Perth (6-38) was a superb show of fast, threatening swing bowling and even though he’s spent almost every other session trying to prove that it was a fluke it’s clear there is talent there, somewhere. The Barmy Army have got after him, his confidence looks shot, I still think his low, slingy action lends itself to wide half-volleys BUT I don’t think he can be written off yet.
Q: Will England win their first series in Australia since 1986/87?
A: A very convincing yes. Three Test match victories, each one by an innings; the highest score by an England team in Australia (644); four totals over 500 – the records tumbled like Australian top-order batsmen. A lovely statistic just revealed is that Ponting and Clarke had a lower combined series average than Peter Siddle. History is being made as I type and there’s a part of me that wishes some of the matches had been a bit closer, but the fact is England have batted, bowled and fielded better and fully deserve their crushing victory.
BANG! Played-on. Tremlett picks up his third wicket and it’s all over. It’s now 1am and time for me to get some sleep. Well done England.
Thursday 6 January 2011
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