The Ashes 2009

The Ashes series did have all the dramas and excitement it could have. Australia entered the series as favorites after their superb victory against South Africa & England entered series with lowly ranked West indies bashing. Surely it was not the ideal way for England to warm up for a big series like ashes but still there were lot of positives from WI series. The necessary hype for precious series like ashes was rightly created by English media. Although I felt, they gave too much of importance to 2005 victory & forgot that the almost same team got a royal bashing of 5-0 just few months after their biggest victory. But I can give that to media, when they were still living on 2005 victory.
By all means Australia was a far better team in the first match at Cardiff & should have sealed the match quite comfortably but Anderson & Panesar had other ideas. They played very solid cricket for the longest hour they might have felt in their cricketing career. Full credit to them for hanging out on a pitch against rampaging aussie team gunning for your blood. The draw never would have felt like a win before for the England team. It served perfectly for them when they entered Lords. The happy hunting ground for Aussies was having a different script for the visitors. They went on with massive confidence in the Lords test, only to see it being shattered by Flintoff. But more than the accurate & precise bowling of Anderson & Flintoff throughout the test match, it was strong Aussie batting line up that had failed to negotiate. All of their batsman failed to grind it and paid a very heavy price for it. I believe the most defining moment in Lords match was the opening session where Johnson struggled to maintain his line and length. English opener capitalized on it like never before. Not only Johnson’s bowling figure was taking a beating but more worriedly it was his confidence. It took a while for him to recover from that kind of shock treatment. Great players are defined as great only when they perform under searing pressure & surely Johnson failed at it in lords.
Then came a tame draw a match all affected by weather. But Aussies were on their way back of finding rhythm & form; the batting line up suddenly looking confident with Watson at top holding good. But Aussies would definitely consider themselves lucky to escape with a draw in that match. Clarke & North decided to stay put, which paid rich dividends to their team. Had there not been this partnership, Aussies were certainly going to find it hard to come back into the series after 2-0 lead, but they stuck to the task & came out with flying colors.
Then came the Headingley test match. It was a superb & true Aussie style performance killing the opposition in the very first session. England was never in the game after the first session, where they opted to bat first. Australia’s gamble of playing all pace attack was proved the correct one & master stroke as it turned out to be. Aussies ramped home with just about 3 days of test match cricket. Series all set for classic finish after the 1-1 score line with one match to play. Aussies certainly played good cricket for long period of time but it was more of England loosing the match. Their inept batting came under lot of criticism where the media blaming the middle order comprising of Bopara, Bell & Collingwood scoring the lowest combined total in the history of test match cricket. Certainly some heads were to roll. Bopara had to be taken away from the firing line & Bell had to be promoted to No.3. This was followed by most ridiculous speculation, of fielding in players like Mark Ramprakash or Marcus Trescothick. Now, seriously how paranoid one can get to field a batsman who has not played test cricket in last seven years. Fortunately the wise men of England, the selectors, decided not to buckle under the pressure & pursue with Jonathan Trot for the deciding test match. A lot was said about the pressure & all kinds of things with deciding test match. Surely everybody would have picked Aussies to retain the ashes before the start of the final match.
England’s moment of glory was still in the making. The final test match started with first day total of 300 odd & Aussies who again fielded an all pace attack, which I felt was right move at that time. They did manage to get England out quickly after the start of second day. So till that point of time decision of all pace attack in a crucial match was surely fine. What followed on day 2 was the mad bad session for Australia. Always-promising-but-hardly-delivered Broad decided to step up & what a day he chose to step up the plate. He delivered the killer blow to the Aussies. He was so well supported by Swann who contributed with four precious wickets. They bowled well in tandem & always asked questions to the Aussies, rendering them clueless. Batsmen went on to play their strokes & did not read the situation correctly. It just went against them and before they realized their shocking mistake, it was too late.
With 160 in the first innings Aussies were always chasing the game. This is when everybody started talking about four prong pace attack but truth is batsman failed to apply themselves in the middle & handed over the ashes. England should have extended their lead which they eventually did through an excellent century by Jonathan Trott, a rock solid innings full of grit & determination. He made mockery of all the talks of pressure, hype, comments by opposition. Australia was set a record breaking total of 546 were never in the game really. Although their openers laid a solid foundation to start their improbable chase, it was hardly a matter of wicket or two before they implode. Briefly Hussey & resolute Ponting attempted the brave run chase but it was not meant to be. The series after lot of swings from one side to the other went to England. England team won the crucial moments & went on to clinch the series. Aussies in spite of being superior in all three departments of the game could not latch on to the big moments & surrendered the ashes.
By distance Michael Clark was the best batsman of the series. He showed excellent temperament & sound technique while playing. He had all the shots & more importantly he was well aware of his off-stump. Runs were coming with great ease to him until the last crucial test match. Marcus North was very close to Clark in terms of both technique and temperament. But still early days for him in test cricket. Whenever he scored he went big else he was out very cheaply. Ponting was struggling with lot to worry on his mind. It certainly gave an impression that he was under pressure & rightly so. It did affect the great man’s batting. Johnson & young Phil Hughes were a big let-down & could not live up to the expectation or hype which surrounded them. Aussies still going through a transition period but certainly Michael Clark is the man for future with North taking his position sooner the better. Bowling wise, they still need some consistent results to show for. Definitely they must have world class spinner.
For England only Andrew Strauss was the main man otherwise with batting line up in absence of Kevin Pietersen comprising of Bells, Boparas and Collingwoods could not win the ashes for you. This tough game really separates boys from the men. Big plus for England is definitely Jonathan Trott & new found hero Stuart Broad. Rest of the guys did not do much to enhance their reputation; they just managed to sustain it. England bowling was pretty neat but lacked the sting. Apart from two blown-out sessions, Aussies managed everything all right. But in a game like test cricket, even one mad session can cost a series & unfortunately Aussies had two sessions like this.
Had this quality of cricket has been played against current teams of South Africa or for that matter India, it’s pretty certain that the result would have been comprehensive victory for South Africa or India. Overall it was pale in comparison to the quality of cricket in 2005 Ashes but still worth more than anything else.
It’s a good sign for cricket as its oldest coveted trophy is exchanging hands after every series.