Sunday, 25 August 2013

England's Ashes but Aussies can hold heads high....-ish

After bad light brought a promising series finale to a ludicrous and disappointing anticlimax, the urn may have been presented to Alastair Cook but Australia can take some heart from the 2013 Ashes. A 3-0 defeat sounds pretty emphatic, and the score was fairly predictable given the sides' respective rankings and recent performances. However, despite the change of regime in mid-tour, there are soe groumds for optimism in the Lehmann camp.

Michael Clarke and Shane Watson rediscovered the art of scoring big hundreds and I commend the skipper's courage to turn a near-certain rain-affected Oval draw into a thrilling series climax. Chris Rogers showed the skill and patience of an old-school opener that had been missing in the T20 era, and Steve Smith's first Test century, which I witnessed at first hand on Thursday, will dampen criticism of his Test credentials. Brad Haddin contributed a few important fifties and broke Rod Marsh's world record for dismissals in a Test series.

With the ball, Ryan Harris proved conclusively, in spite of the many young pretenders, he is Australia's premier fast bowler by taking 24 wickets at under 20 apiece. That's McGrath-esque! Seeing his line and length should prove a lesson to Starc, Bird and Pattinson. I remain a fan of Peter Siddle, at least in English conditions, and Nathan Lyon probably justified his place as his team's main spin option.

Australia held a first-innings lead in four of the five matches yet they contrived to lose twice and draw twice. That is where they were out-fought and perhaps out-thought in the second half of games. England played to the bitter end, and their bowlers were simply too good for the Aussie batsmen when called to arms for a second time. If it wasn't Jimmy Anderson, it was Stuart Broad or even Graeme Swann who ended up the leading wicket-taker from either side with 26. Tim Bresnan, too, proved his worth as a supporting act to the big three before injury presented Chris Woakes with his opportunity at The Oval. The latter's time may yet come again, but it will take a lot to allow Onions or Tremlett to add to their Test appearances. Steve Finn is a more credible alternative on conducive pitches.

England's batsmen did not enjoy a particularly successful series, with the notable exception of Ian Bell. He was a revelation. If he doesn't now get the recognition of being a world-class willow-wielder, I don't know what else he can do. Apart from Woakes in the single game he played, Bell was the only one on the home side who averaged 40+. Pietersen and Root made some telling hundreds but more than half of the young opener's 339 runs came in a single innings. His list of failures is more worrying, although selectors should definitely persevere with him. In the absence of any credible competitor, he should be retained as partner to Cook, whose moderate aggregate of 277 was one of the Ashes surprises.

So congrats to both teams on making the 2013 Ashes a closer contest than I had feared, even if the 3-0 result suggests otherwise. My combined team of the series reflects this:-

Rogers (A), Root (E), Pietersen (E), Bell (E), Clarke (A *), Watson (A), Haddin (A), Broad (E), Swann (E), Harris (A), Anderson (E)