The reaction to England's Ashes victory following their innings defeat of Australia at Trent Bridge has all been about the visitors’ flaws and the retirement of their captain, Michael Clarke.
Castigation of the Australian cricket team, which only four months ago lifted the World Cup, and eulogies for Clarke are in abundance on both traditional and social media. The English press, meanwhile, filled up their columns by toasting their team’s fourth straight home Ashes series win.
England’s performance, especially after what they’ve endured in the last 21 months, deserves credit. In this period, the Three Lions suffered a whitewash Down Under in the 2013-'14 Ashes series, axed their most prolific batsman, Kevin Pietersen, exited the World Cup at the group stage, sacked their head coach, Peter Moores, appointed a new director of cricket, Andrew Strauss, who blocked the return of Pietersen to the squad despite promises made to him and then brought in a new head coach, Australian Trevor Bayliss, right before the 2015 Ashes.
A shock even to England
Not many gave this England side a chance of regaining the urn. So when they did, and in such emphatic fashion, even the captain of the team was shocked with what they had done. “From a team’s point of view, what we’ve done is beyond belief,” said Alastair Cook, after England clinched the Ashes at Trent Bridge with a game to spare.
“I didn’t quite think we were ready to win the Ashes because I thought you need good players who have been match-hardened. But the guys out there have surprised me. We’ve won really critical moments and the players have really stepped up.
“The big thing is we tried to show people our talent and they have seen that. Players in the dressing room have thrived in that atmosphere we created. People have been prepared to, not exactly take risks, but express themselves more than they have done in the past. We’ve got a lot of rewards for that.”
This "new England", as the local media has dubbed them, have proved their detractors wrong. The Three Lions have out-batted, out-bowled, out-fielded and out-captained Australia. However, much of that is down to the fact that the Australians were quite abysmal, rather than England being exceptional.
How Australia handed it to England
Yes, England exploited their home conditions to the T. Their seam bowlers caused all sorts of problems for the Australian batsmen, who were dismissed for 136 at Edgbaston and 60 at Trent Bridge. Four different English bowlers took at least six wickets in consecutive innings, including career-best figures for Stuart Broad (8-15), Steven Finn (6-79) and Ben Stokes (6-36).
But good as the England bowlers were, the Australia batsmen were poor with their technique, playing too hard at deliveries on tracks without pace and repeatedly going for swinging balls that should have been left alone. There were only a handful of wickets that were taken with unplayable deliveries. More often than not, it was a case of the Australians handing their wickets to the hosts on a silver platter with their shot selection.
Not only did Australia's batsmen fail to learn from their mistakes, but also their bowlers. After the batsmen collapsed in a heap, the bowlers let the scoreboard pressure get to them and tried too hard to get wickets, which resulted in them messing up their lines and lengths.
In spite of this, if you look at the tour statistics, the top five wicket-takers in the series so far includes four Australians. Broad's nine wickets in the fourth Test has taken his tally to 21, thereby surging over Mitchell Starc (18), Josh Hazlewood (16), Nathan Lyon (12) and Mitchell Johnson (11).
In the batting, Joe Root, with two hundreds and as many fifties, is the highest scorer in the series with 443 runs. Following him are Australia's top three – Chris Rogers (437), Steve Smith (367) and David Warner (333). Rounding up the top five is England’s No 8, Moeen Ali (228).
England’s top order has been average at best. Cook, an opening batsman, has scored five fewer runs than his part-time spin bowler, at an average of under 32. His opening partner, Adam Lyth, has just managed 86 runs at under 13. Ian Bell, who has batted at numbers three and four in this series, has just 192 runs to his name. England have been saved by Root and the middle-lower orders with the bat, coupled with Australia's own mediocrity.
If the hosts have been outstanding at anything, it's been their catching. Cook has led from the front here, taking eight brilliant catches at first slip and even an unorthodox short mid-on. As have Root (8), Stokes (6) and Bell (6).
England's slip cordon has been as safe as a vault, with just a couple of occasional inexpensive breaches. It has been a marked improvement since the series against the West Indies and New Zealand, where far too many catches were dropped.
The hosts have hardly been challenged in this series, except at Lord's where the pitch actually worked in favour of Australia. Due to this, players such as Lyth and wicketkeeper-batsman Jos Buttler (79 runs at 13.16) have been allowed longer ropes.
The selectors have retained the duo for the fifth and final Test, perhaps not wanting to mess with a winning combination. However, a failure at the Oval could be the end of the plank.
England's achievement and performance over the last month should and will be treasured, but by no means are they a finished product. With tough tours to the UAE (versus Pakistan) and South Africa coming up later this year, they would be wise to not let this Ashes victory get into their heads.
Castigation of the Australian cricket team, which only four months ago lifted the World Cup, and eulogies for Clarke are in abundance on both traditional and social media. The English press, meanwhile, filled up their columns by toasting their team’s fourth straight home Ashes series win.
England’s performance, especially after what they’ve endured in the last 21 months, deserves credit. In this period, the Three Lions suffered a whitewash Down Under in the 2013-'14 Ashes series, axed their most prolific batsman, Kevin Pietersen, exited the World Cup at the group stage, sacked their head coach, Peter Moores, appointed a new director of cricket, Andrew Strauss, who blocked the return of Pietersen to the squad despite promises made to him and then brought in a new head coach, Australian Trevor Bayliss, right before the 2015 Ashes.
A shock even to England
Not many gave this England side a chance of regaining the urn. So when they did, and in such emphatic fashion, even the captain of the team was shocked with what they had done. “From a team’s point of view, what we’ve done is beyond belief,” said Alastair Cook, after England clinched the Ashes at Trent Bridge with a game to spare.
“I didn’t quite think we were ready to win the Ashes because I thought you need good players who have been match-hardened. But the guys out there have surprised me. We’ve won really critical moments and the players have really stepped up.
“The big thing is we tried to show people our talent and they have seen that. Players in the dressing room have thrived in that atmosphere we created. People have been prepared to, not exactly take risks, but express themselves more than they have done in the past. We’ve got a lot of rewards for that.”
This "new England", as the local media has dubbed them, have proved their detractors wrong. The Three Lions have out-batted, out-bowled, out-fielded and out-captained Australia. However, much of that is down to the fact that the Australians were quite abysmal, rather than England being exceptional.
How Australia handed it to England
Yes, England exploited their home conditions to the T. Their seam bowlers caused all sorts of problems for the Australian batsmen, who were dismissed for 136 at Edgbaston and 60 at Trent Bridge. Four different English bowlers took at least six wickets in consecutive innings, including career-best figures for Stuart Broad (8-15), Steven Finn (6-79) and Ben Stokes (6-36).
But good as the England bowlers were, the Australia batsmen were poor with their technique, playing too hard at deliveries on tracks without pace and repeatedly going for swinging balls that should have been left alone. There were only a handful of wickets that were taken with unplayable deliveries. More often than not, it was a case of the Australians handing their wickets to the hosts on a silver platter with their shot selection.
Not only did Australia's batsmen fail to learn from their mistakes, but also their bowlers. After the batsmen collapsed in a heap, the bowlers let the scoreboard pressure get to them and tried too hard to get wickets, which resulted in them messing up their lines and lengths.
In spite of this, if you look at the tour statistics, the top five wicket-takers in the series so far includes four Australians. Broad's nine wickets in the fourth Test has taken his tally to 21, thereby surging over Mitchell Starc (18), Josh Hazlewood (16), Nathan Lyon (12) and Mitchell Johnson (11).
In the batting, Joe Root, with two hundreds and as many fifties, is the highest scorer in the series with 443 runs. Following him are Australia's top three – Chris Rogers (437), Steve Smith (367) and David Warner (333). Rounding up the top five is England’s No 8, Moeen Ali (228).
England’s top order has been average at best. Cook, an opening batsman, has scored five fewer runs than his part-time spin bowler, at an average of under 32. His opening partner, Adam Lyth, has just managed 86 runs at under 13. Ian Bell, who has batted at numbers three and four in this series, has just 192 runs to his name. England have been saved by Root and the middle-lower orders with the bat, coupled with Australia's own mediocrity.
If the hosts have been outstanding at anything, it's been their catching. Cook has led from the front here, taking eight brilliant catches at first slip and even an unorthodox short mid-on. As have Root (8), Stokes (6) and Bell (6).
England's slip cordon has been as safe as a vault, with just a couple of occasional inexpensive breaches. It has been a marked improvement since the series against the West Indies and New Zealand, where far too many catches were dropped.
The hosts have hardly been challenged in this series, except at Lord's where the pitch actually worked in favour of Australia. Due to this, players such as Lyth and wicketkeeper-batsman Jos Buttler (79 runs at 13.16) have been allowed longer ropes.
The selectors have retained the duo for the fifth and final Test, perhaps not wanting to mess with a winning combination. However, a failure at the Oval could be the end of the plank.
England's achievement and performance over the last month should and will be treasured, but by no means are they a finished product. With tough tours to the UAE (versus Pakistan) and South Africa coming up later this year, they would be wise to not let this Ashes victory get into their heads.
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