Hooray for the Ashes

By Tom Mallows

The last time I wrote for this blog it was in the wake of a morale sapping defeat at Headingley and I have to admit I feared the worst when the Ashes bandwagon moved to the Oval for the final hurrah.

I have never claimed to be an expert in England team selection and a good job I didn’t as my predictions for the final test were completely wrong! I thought Bell would be out with Key in at number three. As it was Bell was promoted to three (a case of no one else around?) with Jonathan Trott coming in for his debut instead of the struggling Bopara.

Trott is, of course, South African but we were kindly informed before the test that he wouldn’t be good enough for the South African batting line up so they obviously aren’t missing out!

A test debut in a deciding Ashes clash is a big ask for any player so for Trott to do as well as he did is credit to his temperament and ability. With Pietersen on his way back England’s batting line up suddenly looks more robust. However Collingwood and Bell must be looking over their shoulder, I expect Bopara to return to the fold at some point making it a safe England cricket bet that one, or both of them, will have to make way.

The Aussies, ever graceful in defeat, seemed to think the pitch had been doctored to force a result. Well ‘doctored’ is a strong word, after all no one knew the outcome of the toss so it wouldn’t be in the groundman’s interest to create a dodgy wicket that would deteriorate after day one. Plus all the doctored claims on Friday night, after the Aussies were skittled out for 160, were made to look a little silly when England comfortably massed a lead of more than 550 the following day.

The deciding factor in this test, indeed this series, was that England won the crucial sessions and took full advantage when they were on top. Yes Australia had more century makers and more wicket takers but what’s the use of amassing over 600 runs, like at Cardiff, if they can’t bowl the other side out?

The Saturday afternoon at Lord’s and the Friday at the Oval proved decisive in swinging those tests in England’s direction. But given a draw would have been good enough to retain the Ashes for Australia the contribution of Anderson and Panesar on that dramatic afternoon in Cardiff should not be overstated.

Overall it was a contest between two average sides – this wasn’t the Aussie side of McGrath/Warne/Langer fame.

But considering the mess England found themselves in, with the West Indies at the start of the year, the turn around is remarkable. They do not, of course, want to lose focus like in 2005 - we don’t want another 5-0 whitewash down under.

But that’s for the future, for now I’m going to savour the moment as we once more have that famous little urn back in our possession.