Is it cowardly to pray for rain? was the title of a delicious book written about the 2005 Ashes series, referencing the gnawing feelings on that final day ten years ago when the nation prayed for rain, bad light and the Ashes to return. Yesterday, with the Ashes in the bag, the overriding desire was simply to get the series done, rather than hope for weather to give England an escape they did not deserve.
It would have been different, of course, had Australia taken the opening Test in Cardiff into a final wet day, as they ought to have done; had they, and were the series 2-1 rather than 3-1, nail-biting rain dances would have been the order of the day. Instead, with England six wickets down overnight, and eight down within the hour, nobody wanted rain to extinguish the dying embers of the series. Come it did though, and it was not until mid-afternoon that Australia’s bowlers were able to administer the full stop to the series.
Jos Buttler and Mark Wood were dismissed before the downpour, Buttler driving Mitchell Marsh to mid-off — frustrating this given that some semblance of form and rhythm had started to return for the Lancashire player — where Mitchell Starc took a good tumbling catch, and Wood was leg-before to Australia’s best seamer, Peter Siddle, on review. After the rain relented, Siddle trimmed Stuart Broad’s bails and Moeen Ali swished once too often, edging Siddle behind. The winning margin was a crushing one, an innings and 46 runs.
The urn was presented then, Jerusalem and other ditties sung, and a lap of honour made by the players, with sons, daughters and wives in tow. With the sun now shining and the crowd at capacity, it was a splendid occasion — and we should never underestimate or take for granted the winning of the Ashes — but there was none of the raw emotion seen from the captains and the players at Trent Bridge. Much was spent in the winning of the series there and England’s players, it was clear and despite the exhortations and indeed personal example of the captain, had little more to give.
It was a fitting end, then, to a truly bizarre series, one in which England handed out three heavy beatings outside of London, and had taken two in the capital. So England’s players sprayed champagne around and cheered the returning urn, having been beaten by an innings; Australia commiserated with each other, bade their farewells to their captain and opening batsman, having played some of their best cricket of the series. It was a victory for them that must have been tinged with great regret as to what might have been.
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Pat Howard, Andrew Strauss’s opposite number in Australian cricket, has said that there is no need for an institutional review of his team’s defeat, as there was after the home defeat in 2010-11: that is just as well for those who would be charged with the task. After all, who could explain just why the margins of victory and defeat were so large, swinging as they did so wildly from side to side, so unpredictably?
It is possible that Australia’s players were a little complacent beforehand. Steven Smith received the man-of-the-match award for his first-innings hundred and in doing so his pre-series comment that England would struggle to live with Australia was easy to recall.
The way Australia’s batsmen played in the second innings in Cardiff, and in Birmingham and Nottingham, was barely respectful of the conditions or the situation in which they were in. Maybe Australia underestimated the scale of their task: they have not won a series here since 2001.
The end-of-series statistics offer up further conundrums: three of the top four scorers, David Warner, Chris Rogers and Smith, are Australian, with only Joe Root, of England, scoring more than 400 runs in the series; four of the five leading wicket-takers were Australian, too, with Nathan Lyon, Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Johnson just behind Broad’s tally of 21 wickets. Seven of those nine leading cricketers, then, were wearing the baggy green.
What England had were the key match-winning performances. Root won the England man-of-the-series award, and the Compton Miller award, for his hundreds in Cardiff and Trent Bridge, his catching and general enthusiasm. Some hundreds are more valuable than others and his first, in the first innings of the first Test, should not be underestimated for its importance. Then there was Broad with his career defining eight for 15 at Trent Bridge and Steven Finn, with his career resuscitating six for 79 at Edgbaston. Match-winning performances all of them.
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If both teams were flawed, then England’s selectors were less flawed than their counterparts, although decisions viewed in hindsight can be misrepresentative. England had some key calls to make: the omission of Gary Ballance after Lord’s was more than justified; the return of Steven Finn equally so.
The key changes had already been made, the selection of Wood against New Zealand and the return of Ben Stokes to the all-rounder’s berth at No 6 were vital.
Australia’s selectors had a difficult time. Players came and went with more than a hint of panic. Shane Watson was dumped after one match; Brad Haddin’s continued exclusion after stepping down because of family concerns did not sit well with anyone in the Australia team; Marsh, impressive with the ball, should not have been canned for Trent Bridge. Siddle’s performance at the Kia Oval suggested he had been wrongly ignored thus far.
It was a series played in excellent spirit. The fears expressed beforehand that Australia would tarnish the memory of Brendon McCullum’s New Zealanders remained unfounded. Michael Clarke conducted himself with dignity throughout and received a full tribute from the crowd as he bade his farewell to cricket. He has been a fine cricketer but his Ashes tally reads five defeats from seven series and as this triptych of series concludes it does so with England in the ascendancy.
Things return to normality now, the Ashes coming every two years, which is a relief. Most of England’s players are likely to be around for the return series in Australia. Smith’s task, as the 44th Australia captain, is to get a competitive side together that will continue and extend this great tradition.
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Coach’s in-tray
Opening batsman
Adam Lyth has joined the likes of Nick Compton, Michael Carberry, Sam Robson and Jonathan Trott in failing to fill the boots of Andrew Strauss.
Ian Bell
He may have saved his immediate future at Edgbaston in the new slot at No 3, but thoughts of retirement suggest he feels past his best
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Wicketkeeping
Jos Buttler suffered an inglorious end to a personally inglorious series when he slapped to extra cover yesterday and may be ready for a rest.
Adil Rashid
Another series has gone by without his debut so the selectors will be leaping in the dark if and when they pick him against Pakistan in October.
Pace bowling resources
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The attack was brilliant without James Anderson at Trent Bridge, but lacked the same spark when the series was won at the Kia Oval.
Words by Richard Hobson