Jack Leahy – Sports Editor
After 25 days without anything close to a sufficient amount of sleep, I can finally rest easy, safe in the knowledge that England (it’s OK to support them; Eoin Morgan is from Ireland) have retained the Ashes with a superlative-evoking and record-breaking series of performances down under.
Said performances – three innings victories, devastating bowling and a record nine centuries to name but a few highlights – were so good that I would go as far as calling them un-English. As my deputy Matt once noted, English sports teams tend to suffer from the fact that ‘’there’s always one lad who’s not doing his job’’ as his team collapse around him. Think of Lampard and Gerrard pouring forward gratuitously with no regard for defensive cover, and of Steve Thompson’s wayward throwing in the ill-fated 2004 Six Nations Championship.
To be fair, it was not perfect this time around, and that ‘’lad’’ was Paul Collingwood; while he excelled in the field with some truly awesome catching, as an all-rounder he was expected to contribute much more with bat and ball. Consistent failure at the crease in the key number six slot could so easily have proven fatal for his side, potentially exposing the tail a few hours earlier than they would have liked.
Such was England’s overwhelming batting prowess, however, that Collingwood’s failures were practically negligible. Aliastar Cook and Johnathan Trott put their hands up for hypothetical selection in many fanatics’ ‘’World Test XI’’, with captain fantastic Andrew Struass, Kevin Pietersen, Ian Bell, and Matt Prior all contributing centuries at key moments. When all of a team’s specialist batsmen all notch up centuries in a series, there is little chance that the team will end the series on the losing side.
But this was a team effort, and a magnanimous one at that. Putting 600+ runs on the board is futile if the bowling is expensive and impotent. An Aussie side boasting the batting abilities of Ricky Ponting, Michael Clarke, Shane Watson, Brad Haddin, and Mike ‘Mr. Cricket’ Hussey were all out nine times in ten innings, taught a comprehensive lesson in reverse-swing by James Anderson. The so-called ‘Burnley Express’ proved himself to be the best fast bowler in the world in this series, ably supported by Tim Bresnan, Graeme Swann, Steven Finn and Chris Tremlett. Wickets tumbled at just the right times and the run-rate was more frugal than a Michael O’ Leary business venture as England’s attack mercilessly pummelled their opponents into a writhing submission.
The effusive praise has not yet reached a conclusion, nor could it ever do so without recognition of the men who put this side together: coach Andy Flower and captain Strauss. The scale of their achievement in retaining the Ashes down under is only rendered grander when we consider their respective mountains long-since summitted.
Just over two years ago, Strauss was in New Zealand in a desperate effort to save his international career, only staying in the side by the skin of his teeth. He looked a broken man, pawing meekly outside his off-stump in a doomed effort to put runs on the board.
In April 2009, Flower inherited a team in disarray following Peter Moore’s sudden dismissal and Kevin Pietersen’s acrimonious resignation as team captain. In the period since their coming together, they have both reclaimed and retained the Ashes and won the ICC World Twenty20, emerging from the rubble of Pietersen’s regime and instilling a winning mentality and focus too frequently absent from the repatoire of otherwise talented English sports teams.
Their decisions were also spot-on on a basis so consistent that it bordered on the psychic. Strauss made all the right calls when he won the toss, whereas his Australian counterparts seemed to play into his meticulous plans having called correctly. Replacing leading wicket-taker Steven Finn with the unglamourous Tim Bresnan after a crushing 274-run defeat in Perth was a difficult call, but one which stabilised the side where previous teams might have been prone to collapse.
There were, of course, two teams in it, and for the sake of fairness, a few words on the Australians are required. No longer intimidating and dominating, the Aussies are still missing the likes of Shane Warne, Glen McGrath, Matthew Hayden, and Adam Gilchrist. They lack the aura exuded by their now retired stars that had English sides beaten from the moment they stopped off the 24-hour flight from Heathrow. A grim period of transition now awaits a side seriously lacking in world-class talent, with 2009 ICC World Player of the Year Mitchell Johnson now looking more afraid of what will come out of his hand than the opposition batsmen does.
The ODI series, however, is proving a little more challenging as England fail to pile on the runs when needed and lose key wickets at key moments. Things will have to turn around fast if they are to follow last year’s Twenty20 heroics with another limited-overs championships on the subcontinent.
But take nothing away from this English side, because Australia is still the toughest place to come and play your cricket. To perform so consistently and fearlessly is the mark of a truly great team in the making and they deserve all the praise they get for this memorable tour, one which has been worth all the exhaustion of staying up until dawn.
