Ashes Buzz
Anything but another anticlimax
The first Test took England supporters back to the dark days of the 1990s
Tim de Lisle
25-Feb-2013
The first Test took England supporters back to the dark days of the 1990s. It wasn’t the fact that their team lost: it was that they lost heavily. It wasn’t the fact that they didn’t take wickets: it was that they couldn’t bowl straight. It wasn’t the fact that they didn’t make runs: it was that they seemed to be giving their wickets away. The upshot, after all the hype, was a thudding let-down. For the second Test, the fans will take anything but another anticlimax.
The central problem at Brisbane was that the bowlers had a shocker – and then the batsmen did too. Result: first-innings deficit of 445. If Ricky Ponting hadn’t sportingly given them a chance to regroup, they might well have lost by an innings and 300 runs.
It’s being said that everything has to go right for England if they are to get back into the series. That’s overstating it. But everything can’t carry on going wrong. At Adelaide, either the bowlers or the batsmen have to do well in the first innings.
Full postThe Aussies have fixed two holes
Australia had two glaring weaknesses in the last Ashes series: their third seamers and middle-order batsmen
Tim de Lisle
25-Feb-2013
Australia had two glaring weaknesses in the last Ashes series: their third seamers and middle-order batsmen. At the Gabba, England saw just how well they have fixed those holes.
Mike Hussey came in at no.5 and turned a possible turning point (198 for 3) into a walk in the park (407 for 4). He did it by approaching Test cricket the old-fashioned way, playing the percentages. Of the six major individual scores in the match, Hussey’s 86 was much the slowest. Happy to play a supporting role to Ricky Ponting, he faced 187 balls and hit only eight of them for four, even though he largely evaded England's big gun, facing just 20 balls from Andrew Flintoff. It was boring but effective. Hussey isn’t vice-captain yet, but this, just like his studious unbeaten 32 against England at Jaipur, was a vice-captain’s innings.
Full postFlintoff's role needs rethinking
England didn’t deserve to escape from the Gabba with a draw, and when Kevin Pietersen departed in the first over, the last faint hope went with him
Tim de Lisle
25-Feb-2013
England didn’t deserve to escape from the Gabba with a draw, and when Kevin Pietersen departed in the first over, the last faint hope went with him. Australia were far too good. They shrugged off the hype and found the strength to play their natural game; England didn’t.
The team with four bowlers took 20 wickets. The team with five bowlers took only 10 wickets, one of them a run-out. England had one more bowler than in their last series – a world-class one, Andrew Flintoff – yet they bowled decidedly worse. While the batsmen found their feet by the end of the match, the bowlers remained lost.
Flintoff was England’s best bowler by a mile, but that doesn’t mean his role should go unexamined. When a players is given three jobs, something has to give. With England’s last two allrounder captains, Ian Botham in 1980 and Alec Stewart in 1998-99, it was the batting that suffered. Botham kept on trying to do everything, won no Tests, and resigned after a year; Stewart gave up the wicketkeeping gloves after three Tests, found some batting form, and was sacked all the same, two Tests (and one botched World Cup) later.
Full postAge-old duel resumes: England v Warne
Today, for the first time, these two teams looked well-matched
Tim de Lisle
25-Feb-2013
Today, for the first time, these two teams looked well-matched. Of course, only one of them is going to win this Test, and England’s batsmen, Ian Bell apart, are open to the charge that they have delivered when it is too late. But they could easily have crumbled again. Four years ago in Brisbane, their second innings amounted to 79 all out.
Instead we saw an intriguing battle, the latest chapter in an age-old duel – England v Shane Warne. Here, as in no other department of their game except Andrew Flintoff’s bowling, England managed to recapture the mood of 2005. In that series, they handed Warne loads of wickets, but refused to let him dominate. For years, Warne and Glenn McGrath had been both attacking and defensive at the same time, adding up to a quadruple whammy for their captains. Under Michael Vaughan, England’s approach said: we can’t stop you taking wickets, so we’re going to make you pay more for them.
Warne went for 3.15 an over last year, the first time he had been above three in an Ashes series. England took 797 runs off him in 252.5 overs, whereas 12 years earlier, in the wonderball series, they scraped only 897 off 439.5, at the ridiculous price of 1.99. Kevin Pietersen fearlessly laid into Warne; Flintoff played block-or-bash; Vaughan showed his usual flair; Andrew Strauss slowly learnt to survive; Geraint Jones managed better than usual against high-class spin. Only Bell and the tail were mesmerised.
Full postEngland flattened, McGrath flattered
We have been here before
Tim de Lisle
25-Feb-2013
We have been here before. For England fans, there is a sinking sense that is 1994-95 all over again, or 1998-99, or 2002-03. But there are other, more recent parallels. England being shot out for 150-odd and Flintoff making nought? It happened in their first innings of the 2005 Ashes. Conceding a huge total and failing to reach 200 themselves? It happened at the start of the series against South Africa in 2003. Twice.
That series ended in a draw, 2-2. The result in 2005 you may conceivably remember. Which isn’t to say that England will recover in this series – just that it’s not over yet.
For the first two days here, Australia were immense. Today they were merely efficient. Glenn McGrath was greatly flattered by his figures: a gift from Strauss, a joint gift from Pietersen and Billy Bowden, a push down the wrong line by Jones, a couple of tail-enders … the only major wicket conjured by McGrath himself was that of Cook.
Full postAussies make experience tell
Australia have played the first two days superbly
Tim de Lisle
25-Feb-2013
Australia have played the first two days superbly. What they have done is to apply their experience.
Justin Langer was scratchy early on – the comment from Bob which provoked such outrage here contained a grain of truth – but he imposed his will, converted nerves into nervous energy, and targeted Steve Harmison as surely as Harmison targeted him last time round. Ricky Ponting was back to his magnificent best, and showed with his anger at getting out that he wanted a second hundred as much as the first.
Full postStrauss and KP hold the key
There are not many conclusions you can draw from one day of a Test series, and the feeling of doom and gloom that has spread over England like one of our clouds is premature
Tim de Lisle
25-Feb-2013
There are not many conclusions you can draw from one day of a Test series, and the feeling of doom and gloom that has spread over England like one of our clouds is premature. The fans think the team slip back too easily into their old ways; the team could say the same of the fans.
Some things, however, we can state with confidence. The Australian batting has already broken free, as it never did in 2005. This match is conforming to the pattern for Brisbane, where Australia average 507 this century and rattle along at 3.8 an over, rather than the new template struck for Ashes matches in 2005, when Australia didn’t reach 400.
Full postThe first hour from hell
England have just had the first hour from hell
Tim de Lisle
25-Feb-2013
England have just had the first hour from hell.
First they dropped the man who was their best bowler over the summer. The man Duncan Fletcher recently called “the best finger-spinner in the world” was no longer, apparently, the best finger spinner in this squad. It was the most depressing selection since England went to India 14 years ago without David Gower.
Full postToo old - but also too good
This is it
Tim de Lisle
25-Feb-2013
This is it. This is when all the words, all the quotes, all the expectations, all the hype, all the memories vanish, and what is left is the blank page, the next chapter. Cricket’s oldest saga is about to resume.
Australia may no longer be the holders of the Ashes, but they are still the favourites. They have more experience, more local knowledge, more batting depth, more bowling genius. They had the edge in some of those departments last year too, but there are crucial differences this time: Australia have fewer injuries, they have home advantage, and they surely have a greater hunger.
Full postWho's in the composite team?
It's time to pick the old composite team
Tim de Lisle
25-Feb-2013
It’s time to pick the old composite team. If England and Australia were to bury the hatchet after 129 years and join forces, who would make the joint XI? Warning: as in real life, not all these players will still be there at the end of the series.
1 Andrew Strauss
Justin Langer could have one last fling in him, but Strauss is a similar model, only younger. A taste of captaincy did him good: after only 30-odd Tests, he has the presence of someone with twice as many. Has two Ashes hundreds already and power to add with his neat back-foot game.
2 Matthew Hayden
Could have been dropped for the Oval 2005, but instead he survived, made a watchful hundred, and was soon back to his old bullying ways. Alastair Cook, on the other hand, has his work cut out not to be this year’s Ian Bell.
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