Well another Ashes series has come and gone with Australia retaining the urn after a hollow 2-2 series draw.
With Australia leading the series 2-1 after a lucky rain affected escape at Manchester, the fifth test was held at The Oval in London, where England scored a miraculous victory in the final session of day 5.
The win was not without controversy, with the umpires gifting England a newish ball at around the 35th over mark late on Day 4 before play was abandoned due to rain with Australia on top at around 0-140:
You can read about the controversial ball change here.
“This ball change has made an enormous difference”, former England batter Mark Butcher said yesterday.
“The (new ball) looked brand-spanking new”.
The previous ball had not moved and Australia’s batsmen were in full control on day 4 before the rain arrived.
By contrast, the new ball swung around like a taped tennis ball on day five and took three quick wickets to get England back into the game.
Then Steve Smith and Travis Head batted until lunch before the rain arrived again, with Australia is a solid position to either win or draw.
The final session was an unmitigated disaster with Australia collapsing and England taking 7 wickets for just 96 runs in 28 overs to take the match and level the series 2-2.
This left Australia retaining the Ashes in the most hollow way. England were the better team over the series.
After stupidly staying up and watching almost every session of the match I can say that Australia lost the fifth game for the following reasons:
- We dropped five catches on Day 1 and should have bowled England out for 100 runs less.
- On day 2, braindead batting ushered a collapse in the second session, meaning we did not score enough runs.
- On day 3, England’s batsmen creamed our bowlers setting up a strong target of 388 to win.
- We batted beautifully on day 4 for 1.5 sessions until rain spoiled play.
- The ball change from old to effectively new, alongside better bowling by England, changed the game early on day 5. Then we suffered another painful batting collapse.
Losing gun spinner Nathan Lyon in the second test was a body blow and our batsmen only scored four centuries over the five test series. That cost us in the end.
Australia will rue the lost opportunity to secure our first outright series win on English soil in two decades.
Much like we were the better team in the 2019 Ashes and deserved to win, England can argue likewise this series.
It was also the last time that we will see Stuart Broad, James Anderson, David Warner, Steve Smith and Usman Khawaja go head-to-head.
It was an enthralling but highly frustrating series and I am glad it is now over. I need some sleep.
H&H here. My view is that the series has ended brilliantly for Australia. The whole tour is a triumph.
World Test champions and Ashes retention.
Perhaps best of all. England is now deluded about Bazball. The 2-2 result will make England believe they were unlucky so they will persist.
But they doctored every pitch to suit it. We might have been playing on roads in India. Not English greentops.
This guarantees that we will win the return series in Australia as Bazball falls apart on proper pitches.
Following directly in the footsteps of famed flat track bully Brendan McCullum.
