To the victor go the spoils. The 2010/11 England Ashes team have written their names into history.Today was the day when the suffering ended.
Much like a terminally ill patient on life support, the Australians flatlined and England rejoiced along with their travelling band of supporters the Barmy Army and their camp followers dancing on the grave that is Australian cricket.
To England, yet again I congratulate you on a splended series in all aspects of the game. From daring batting, to fantastic bowling and sure handed fielding, you were a class above in all departments - and who other than the most supremely optimistic English supporter could have predicted that England would so comprehensively outplay Australia in every facet of the game and record three crushing victories to break and then set all kinds of astonishing records?
Celebrate hard - you all deserved it.
As for Australia, other than a little cameo partnership between Steve Smith and Peter Siddle which merely added to the English carnival atmosphere, today provided nothing more than being the fall guy to the main act. Siddle made an entertaining forty three, Beer was bowled by Tremlett for two and Steve Smith was stranded, unbeaten on fifty three.
A third innings loss made this the worst Ashes series loss Australia has ever experienced in terms of being hammered from pillar to post.
Many Australian players played their last test today, or at the very least their last Ashes test as the team that will take on England in England in 2013 will be vastly different in composition.
Ricky Ponting had his worst series with the bat in many a year and calls for his retirement grow louder by the day. Even if Ponting plays on, it is very hard seeing him around in 2013. Simon Katich has been an honourable servant, but his time is up too. Form is not his worry, but age is in this new era.
What of Mike Hussey? This series turned out to be Hussey's finest hour in terms of trying to hold a faltering batting order together in the face of insurmountable odds. Hussey's heroics cannot conceal the fact that his previous two years were mediocre at best. Was this Hussey back in vintage form - or merely one last golden summer to say goodbye to an adoring public in the only way he knows how?
One senses that Hussey's baggy green would have to be prized from his dead hand, such is his fanaticism to the cause. Honourable warrior that he might be, even Hussey is not immune to father time. May play on, but another year may be one year too long.
Ben Hilfenhaus was the bowler of the series in the 2009 edition of the Ashes when he took 22 wickets at 27.45. In this series, his career has probably been ended by the battering he took with his paltry 7 wickets costing 59.28 runs apeace. Very hard to see Hilfy coming back from that.
Peter Siddle was like a pack horse; prepared to carry the load and bowl long spells, but not a genuine strike bowler. Two six wicket hauls in the series; the first containing a spectacular Ashes hattrick in Brisbane and the second a vain effort in a losing cause in Melbourne in the fourth test - but nothing much in between. 20 wickets at 30.80 in the 2009 Ashes was a reasonable return for a bowler of his type, but 14 wickets at 34.57 in this series was simply not good enough when you consider twelve of those wickets came in two innings. Will be persisted with in light of the fact that there is not exactly a conga line of fast bowlers in the country pushing for selection.
Now we come to Mitchell Johnson...where does one start? A saggy shouldered performance in Brisbane led to his axing, missing the Adelaide debacle perhaps fortuitously. Came back like a man possessed in Perth where he almost won the test single handedly. Johnson then returned to type and only took wickets when batsmen got careless rather than any trick of the hand.
For all his prodigious talents, Johnson has damaged his brand, probably perminantly. For a player who feeds on confidence like no other Australian fast bowler in memory, he is almost totally devoid of the stuff. Can he be resurrected? It does not look promising.
The real ace in the pack however is Doug "the rug" Bollinger. Australia's one true strike bowler since the retirements of McGrath, Lee and the sulking reticence of Shaun Tait who prefers the IPL rupee over representing his country. Doug Bollinger's career test bowling average of 25.92 with a strike rate of a wicket every 48 balls is world class - but an IPL injury exacerbated in India meant an enforced lay off where Bollinger lost all his match fitness and when he was brought back in Adelaide, he looked but a shadow of the bowler of twelve months ago.
Much discussion has taken place in the media and on talk back radio as to what has caused Australian batsmen who hitherto had been technically reliable to suddenly be suspect to anything outside off stump. ABC commentator Kerry O'Keefe suggested that Australian batsmen are addicted to the bowling machine which he believes encourages flashy drives.
Utter tripe on a number of fronts.
Firstly, the English batsmen would spend just as much time practicing on bowling machinesnas their Australian counter parts and secondly, the late Bob Woolmer stated that practice with a bowling machine is the best method to groove shots.
The real reason was pin pointed by Steve Waugh and Geoffrey Boycott. Both stated unequivocally that Twenty20 has ruined the techniques of Australian batsmen.
Steve Waugh has remained respectfully silent on Australian cricket matters since he retired seven years ago. He broke his silence to slam the Twenty20 infused techniques of Australian batsmen who feel a need to play at every ball rather than leave balls outside offstump well alone. In Twenty20, a batsman must play at every ball, especially those wide of off stump as an edge will usually fly through the vacant slips area for a boundary. In test cricket, it is inviting disaster.
Geoffrey Boycott echoed those sentiments as well during an interview on ABC radio. He stated that he was always stunned when he walks past net sessions these days and he observes batsmen playing Harlem Globetrotter strokes in the air. He recalled his Yorkshire beginnings where an old hand would admonish him if he ever played a shot in the air in the nets with "you'll only get out that way son, keep it along the ground". Boycott was certain that Twenty20 had ruined the techniques of many of the Australian top order batsmen - and it is impossible to disagree.
Phil Hughes is a case in point. When Hughes made his debut against South Africa, he did not flash indescriminately at every ball outside off stump from Steyn, Morkel, Ntini and Kallis. Hughes technique was still anything but copybook, but he chose his moments well. The player we see today is fighting the demons of Twenty20 and no longer has any discretion of when to play and when to leave. Even allowing for the fact that he was already horribly out of form and should not have been brought back, Hughes will need to do alot of remedial work if he is to ever recapture his early career form where he looked a world beater.
Michael Clarke is another that the curse of Twenty20 has claimed with his formerly safe technique totally destroyed by the shortest form of the game. Batting is very much an instinctive trigger movement discipline where the "flash at every ball outside off" mentality is a habit that cannot easily be broken unless you have the monastic abstinence of a Mike Hussey.
It is no surprise that neither Cook, Strauss nor Trott bother with Twenty20. It is also no surprise that Michael Clarke has suddenly announced his retirement from Twenty20. Whether he was pushed or he volunteered is irrelevent, Clarke must rebuild his technique back to what it once was, not just if he aspires to be captain, but simply to hold his place in the team.
I could go on and on and on as to what needs to happen for Australia to regain their position in the top echelon, but today is neither the time, nor the place and also that would only be detracting on a wonderful achievement by England - and today is rightfully their day.
Congratulations.
Much like a terminally ill patient on life support, the Australians flatlined and England rejoiced along with their travelling band of supporters the Barmy Army and their camp followers dancing on the grave that is Australian cricket.
To England, yet again I congratulate you on a splended series in all aspects of the game. From daring batting, to fantastic bowling and sure handed fielding, you were a class above in all departments - and who other than the most supremely optimistic English supporter could have predicted that England would so comprehensively outplay Australia in every facet of the game and record three crushing victories to break and then set all kinds of astonishing records?
Celebrate hard - you all deserved it.
As for Australia, other than a little cameo partnership between Steve Smith and Peter Siddle which merely added to the English carnival atmosphere, today provided nothing more than being the fall guy to the main act. Siddle made an entertaining forty three, Beer was bowled by Tremlett for two and Steve Smith was stranded, unbeaten on fifty three.
A third innings loss made this the worst Ashes series loss Australia has ever experienced in terms of being hammered from pillar to post.
Many Australian players played their last test today, or at the very least their last Ashes test as the team that will take on England in England in 2013 will be vastly different in composition.
Ricky Ponting had his worst series with the bat in many a year and calls for his retirement grow louder by the day. Even if Ponting plays on, it is very hard seeing him around in 2013. Simon Katich has been an honourable servant, but his time is up too. Form is not his worry, but age is in this new era.
What of Mike Hussey? This series turned out to be Hussey's finest hour in terms of trying to hold a faltering batting order together in the face of insurmountable odds. Hussey's heroics cannot conceal the fact that his previous two years were mediocre at best. Was this Hussey back in vintage form - or merely one last golden summer to say goodbye to an adoring public in the only way he knows how?
One senses that Hussey's baggy green would have to be prized from his dead hand, such is his fanaticism to the cause. Honourable warrior that he might be, even Hussey is not immune to father time. May play on, but another year may be one year too long.
Ben Hilfenhaus was the bowler of the series in the 2009 edition of the Ashes when he took 22 wickets at 27.45. In this series, his career has probably been ended by the battering he took with his paltry 7 wickets costing 59.28 runs apeace. Very hard to see Hilfy coming back from that.
Peter Siddle was like a pack horse; prepared to carry the load and bowl long spells, but not a genuine strike bowler. Two six wicket hauls in the series; the first containing a spectacular Ashes hattrick in Brisbane and the second a vain effort in a losing cause in Melbourne in the fourth test - but nothing much in between. 20 wickets at 30.80 in the 2009 Ashes was a reasonable return for a bowler of his type, but 14 wickets at 34.57 in this series was simply not good enough when you consider twelve of those wickets came in two innings. Will be persisted with in light of the fact that there is not exactly a conga line of fast bowlers in the country pushing for selection.
Now we come to Mitchell Johnson...where does one start? A saggy shouldered performance in Brisbane led to his axing, missing the Adelaide debacle perhaps fortuitously. Came back like a man possessed in Perth where he almost won the test single handedly. Johnson then returned to type and only took wickets when batsmen got careless rather than any trick of the hand.
For all his prodigious talents, Johnson has damaged his brand, probably perminantly. For a player who feeds on confidence like no other Australian fast bowler in memory, he is almost totally devoid of the stuff. Can he be resurrected? It does not look promising.
The real ace in the pack however is Doug "the rug" Bollinger. Australia's one true strike bowler since the retirements of McGrath, Lee and the sulking reticence of Shaun Tait who prefers the IPL rupee over representing his country. Doug Bollinger's career test bowling average of 25.92 with a strike rate of a wicket every 48 balls is world class - but an IPL injury exacerbated in India meant an enforced lay off where Bollinger lost all his match fitness and when he was brought back in Adelaide, he looked but a shadow of the bowler of twelve months ago.
Much discussion has taken place in the media and on talk back radio as to what has caused Australian batsmen who hitherto had been technically reliable to suddenly be suspect to anything outside off stump. ABC commentator Kerry O'Keefe suggested that Australian batsmen are addicted to the bowling machine which he believes encourages flashy drives.
Utter tripe on a number of fronts.
Firstly, the English batsmen would spend just as much time practicing on bowling machinesnas their Australian counter parts and secondly, the late Bob Woolmer stated that practice with a bowling machine is the best method to groove shots.
The real reason was pin pointed by Steve Waugh and Geoffrey Boycott. Both stated unequivocally that Twenty20 has ruined the techniques of Australian batsmen.
Steve Waugh has remained respectfully silent on Australian cricket matters since he retired seven years ago. He broke his silence to slam the Twenty20 infused techniques of Australian batsmen who feel a need to play at every ball rather than leave balls outside offstump well alone. In Twenty20, a batsman must play at every ball, especially those wide of off stump as an edge will usually fly through the vacant slips area for a boundary. In test cricket, it is inviting disaster.
Geoffrey Boycott echoed those sentiments as well during an interview on ABC radio. He stated that he was always stunned when he walks past net sessions these days and he observes batsmen playing Harlem Globetrotter strokes in the air. He recalled his Yorkshire beginnings where an old hand would admonish him if he ever played a shot in the air in the nets with "you'll only get out that way son, keep it along the ground". Boycott was certain that Twenty20 had ruined the techniques of many of the Australian top order batsmen - and it is impossible to disagree.
Phil Hughes is a case in point. When Hughes made his debut against South Africa, he did not flash indescriminately at every ball outside off stump from Steyn, Morkel, Ntini and Kallis. Hughes technique was still anything but copybook, but he chose his moments well. The player we see today is fighting the demons of Twenty20 and no longer has any discretion of when to play and when to leave. Even allowing for the fact that he was already horribly out of form and should not have been brought back, Hughes will need to do alot of remedial work if he is to ever recapture his early career form where he looked a world beater.
Michael Clarke is another that the curse of Twenty20 has claimed with his formerly safe technique totally destroyed by the shortest form of the game. Batting is very much an instinctive trigger movement discipline where the "flash at every ball outside off" mentality is a habit that cannot easily be broken unless you have the monastic abstinence of a Mike Hussey.
It is no surprise that neither Cook, Strauss nor Trott bother with Twenty20. It is also no surprise that Michael Clarke has suddenly announced his retirement from Twenty20. Whether he was pushed or he volunteered is irrelevent, Clarke must rebuild his technique back to what it once was, not just if he aspires to be captain, but simply to hold his place in the team.
I could go on and on and on as to what needs to happen for Australia to regain their position in the top echelon, but today is neither the time, nor the place and also that would only be detracting on a wonderful achievement by England - and today is rightfully their day.
Congratulations.
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