I guess last night's defeat in the ODI gives me the perfect opportunity to dwell a little more on the cricket this summer....remember that The Ashes series was between the teams ranked No. 1 & 2 in the world for Test cricket. Turns out the gap is still massive, as the 5-0 scoreline demonstrated, so what went wrong for England?
For my liking the series was over before that fateful first ball from Harmison flew to 2nd slip. In fact it was over the day or two after the last Ashes series when England were busy drinking themselves into oblivion, partying in Trafalgar Square and receiving MBEs. Whilst they were doing that, Australia were busy thinking about how to get the Ashes back.... and notice there has been no open-top bus trip through the streets after the historic 5-0 win.
England arrived in Australia too near the 1st Test having, with the result that they could not get in enough time on the very different Australian wickets.
This error was compounded by picking the wrong team for the 1st Test (a keeper-batsman who couldn't keep or score runs, a spinner who couldn't spin) & sticking with it for too long.
England managed to throw away the Adelaide Test on the last day after scoring 500+ runs in the 1st innings - and this brought to light another of England's failures - it's tail. Throughout the series Australia knew that once they got the top order of England out then the last 5 wickets would be easy prey - I'm not sure that once did the last 5 English wickets compile more than 50 runs which is shocking.
My fear of England being unable to bowl Australia out twice in 5 days was also realized - at times it just seemed that they were incapable of bowling the most simple deliveries - "line & length boys, line & length".
At times England outplayed Australia for a session or two and looked to have at least a draw sewn up in Adelaide, and a chance for a while in Perth, but Melbourne was an embarrassment & Sydney a cakewalk for the Aussies.
The many members of the Barmy Army who paid a fortune to get over here, and provided vocal support throughout, should be ashamed of the way this England team capitulated - especially as Watermelon Hats were banned.
Of course, England were also up against a great Australian team who were determined to win back the Ashes. Any team with Hayden, Ponting, Hussey & Gilchrist is going to score a few runs, whilst with bowlers of the calibre of Warne, McGrath & the emerging Clark they are going to take wickets. At times the bowling was so precise that it just strangled the life out of England. The Australian's were well & truly worthy of the 5-0 margin.
The question for Australia now is just how they replace the great players who are retiring now, and will continue to do so over the course of the next year or so.
Seems that a couple of batsmen are vying for the opening spot vacated by Langer, and Clark is a ready made replacement for McGrath...but how do you replace someone like Warne? Admittedly, he did start to look a little tired this series, but he's going to be a hard act to follow. As will Gilchrist when he goes.
Onto the ODI and this time you had the team ranked No.1 in the world against the No.8 (as only Bangladesh, Zimbabwe & Kenya are below England I guess they are at the bottom) and it showed.
In the 20/20 game Australia's batsmen just powered through the English bowling and set a total which England never looked like matching.
Gilchrist was playing so well that he was talking to the commentators on the camera mic as he launched one ball for six. Amusing moment when the camera panned to the crowd & I caught site of one bloke with a huge sign saying "The people behind me can't see"...they definitely couldn't.
It was also revealed that Gilchrist had the nickname 'Church' (it was emblazoned on the back of his shirt). On his first tour to England a little kid was asking for autographs from the Australian players...gets all their names right until he gets to Gilchrist. The kid looks at him and says "Are you Eric Gilchurch?" It's stuck - and prompted a few signs at the next game with people claiming that they were the REAL Eric Gilchurch!
On to the MCG & England were once again comprehensively outplayed, they never got going with the bat and the innings was effectively over once Pietersen got hit in the ribs. Australia reached the total easily, with Ponting looking in great form. Quite why England have the idea of putting in a 37yr old wicket-keeper making his debut & a bunch of no-bodies to try & beat the best in the world is beyond me.
The World Up in March is looking VERY promising for Australia & on this form it's difficult to see anyone matching them - their batting line-up is long & powerful, whilst the bowling attack is varied and the fielding awesome. The only doubt is that they do not really have a wicket-taking spinner....but I'm sure they can overcome that & make it 3 in a row (do they get to keep it then?). And to cap it all off Australia even have a much more tasteful uniform!
England on the other hand should plan on doing nothing more than topping up the tan & I hope they haven't put a deposit down on the hotel for longer than the opening rounds.
One final mention, this time on the TV coverage. During the last Ashes series the big thing was "Hawk-eye" & I lost count of the number of times Hussain & Atherton mentioned 'nurdle' (is that a made up word?). This time the big TV thing is the "Hot-Spot" (an infra-red camera which shows the heat generated by impact of ball on bat / pads) and the mention is of the "ball getting big". Most interestingly, whilst in the UK the coverage NEVER shows streakers, here they pan out so that you can't see the detail but you can see the police chase, which is often highly amusing. Unfortunately, no female streakers yet.
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