3rd Ashes Test Reaction

Surprise of the day

The 11.30am start took just about everyone by surprise. While more than 17,000 tickets had been pre-sold for the final day, there were fewer than half that number of spectators in the ground when play began. Heavy overnight rain and an uncompromisingly awful weather forecast led most people to believe there would be little if any play and some England players delayed their arrival at the ground until just before 11am. But, somehow, while rain fell all around the north of England, there was a gap in the clouds that allowed play to begin after only a short delay at Old Trafford.

Review of the day I

 Another day, another DRS drama. This time it was Kevin Pietersen who was at the centre when he was given out caught behind off Peter Siddle. Pietersen looked unconvinced at Tony Hill's decision and signalled for a referral and while nothing showed on Hot Spot and there was no clear deviation off the bat, there was a noise. Kumar Dharmasena upheld Hill's call and Pietersen was unhappy, but Snicko - which is not available to the TV official - later suggested that he had in fact tickled the ball.

Review of the day II

Alastair Cook made a bid for 'worst review of the series' after he was adjudged leg-before to Ryan Harris in the third over of the day. Replays suggested the delivery, a fine ball that drew Cook forward and nipped in to beat a nervous forward prod, was going to hit the middle of middle and off and the TV umpire had little hesitation in upholding the on-field decision. To be fair to Cook, replays did show that he brushed his front pad with his bat in playing the stroke, which he may have mistaken for a thin edge on the ball. He also consulted with his opening partner, Joe Root, before asking for the review.

 

Close call of the day

Jonathan Trott, his head falling to the off side as he played across a straight one, was on 9 when umpire Hill turned down a strong leg-before appeal off the bowling of Harris. Australia called for a review, which showed that there was no bat on the ball and it had hit in line. But the ball tracking technology also suggested that, although the ball was likely to go on and hit leg stump, it was only going to do so by less than half a ball's width, so Trott survived on the basis of umpire's call. It made little difference, though, Trott was caught behind down the leg side just minutes later.


Michael Clarke is a man with a smile. Whether it's standing beside his wife on her wedding horse, in his tight underwear on a billboard or as he makes an iconic innings at his home ground, he lights up a picture. In real life, he seems to smile even more. He very rarely looks angry, or upset. He's composed, calm and happy.
 

None of those descriptions could be used as he barked and pleaded with Marais Erasmus to stay on the ground at the end of the fourth day at Old Trafford. Clarke had carried his team on day one and two. His bowlers had backed him up on day three. On day four they had put themselves in a position to win the Test. Clarke knew it as much as England did. All they needed was time. But when time was taken from Clarke, he exploded.

 

Clarke knew coming off the field that he couldn't regain the Ashes, and that Cricket Australia's #returntheurn hashtag would have discarded. It was a culmination of poor preparation, random cricket logic and a team that wasn't as good as the opposition. Australia were always going to lose this Ashes. A victory in this Test wouldn't change that. It would have prolonged it.

 

But just by winning this Test they could have proved something to themselves. That they could win a Test against England. That the incompetence of Lord's and the streakiness of Trent Bridge were only part of their story. That they could compete and beat England when it mattered. And they did everything they could to do it.

 

Chris Rogers' first innings was the sort of knock that not even Rogers would have expected to play at Test level. It surprised England as well, while setting the scene for Australia. He drove the ball like an eager teenager, not a crusty old opener. He scored freely against a quality attack. He handled Graeme Swann well. As a 34-year-old you only get so many chances, and he may not have cemented his spot, but he will get at least all five of this Ashes based on an innings of that quality.

 

The second innings situation was perfect for David Warner. No matter where he batted in the order, the need to score quickly and not have all the fielders up couldn't have been more perfect for him. His 41 was not a massive total, or one that will rock your world, but he did his job, looked comfortable doing so and looked like the David Warner Australia want him to be. With the press, Barmy Army and Aussie Fanatics he played with his new pantomime villain status. To use the lexicon, he is definitely a positive to be taken.

 

Steven Smith is a rough batsman. On skill and technique he is not in Australia's best six. On fight and confidence, he might be. He is a perfect flawed batsman for a flawed team. He scores quickly, believes in himself, and when he plays spin it's hard to believe he is really Australian. His wickets at Lord's were handy and his fielding is going to live with us forever on Youtube highlight reels. If this team was better, they wouldn't need him. He should have got a hundred in the first innings at Old Trafford. And a proper Test batsman would have converted it. Or at least got out in a nicer way. But as a No. 6, or even a seven, he is the sort of junkyard dog cricketer a team like the current Australia can really use.

	Ryan Harris' spell this morning proved yet again that he is one of the best Test bowlers on the planet. He's quick enough to hurry anyone. He's smart enough to out-think quality players

It some ways, Brad Haddin is not needed by Australia. His selection in this team was more about team bonding and attitude. Something that Warner's punch and Arthur's sacking fixed much quicker. His first innings hitting was exactly what Australia needed. Haddin saves his best cricket for the Ashes, and in two innings he has shown good form and timely runs.

 

His wicketkeeping is not going to get any better - keepers' hands and knees don't get better - and Mitchell Starc is not an easy man to keep too. Or on some occasions, even reach. But he's in form, and clearly is desperate to stay in this team. If nothing else, he'll force Matthew Wade to improve.

 

Ryan Harris' spell this morning proved yet again that he is one of the best Test bowlers on the planet. He's quick enough to hurry anyone. He's smart enough to out-think quality players. And he does enough with the ball beat anyone. At his best he's a carnivorous force that will stalk you until you are head. At his worst, he is injured. There is little Australia can do about that. When he is fit, he should be given the new ball and the best medical treatment they can afford.

 

Merv Hughes was a decent Test-quality bowler who helped keep the flame alive between Lillee and McGrath. Hughes' job was mostly to try hard, bowl the dog spells, bounce out batsmen on flat tracks and use the conditions when they suited him.

 

Peter Siddle also averages 28 and takes four wickets a match. In almost every Test he is used in a different way. He's bowled with the new ball, come on third change, and will bowl into the wind or with it. But no matter what you do with Siddle, he tries very hard, hits the pitch very hard and makes you beat him. It's hard to hate a man who went to Euro Disney between series and gave up bacon and steak to be a better player.

 

Starc is capable of amazing feats with the ball, and even the bat. Playing him is a chance that Australia sometimes likes to take. Shane Watson's comeback at the top of the order might already be over. He also only has one wicket. But his bowling has been very handy, and he deserves more. No cricketer in this series has the ability to improve more than Watson. Usman Khawaja doesn't look a Test No. 3 right now, but it's hard to believe a man who bats with that much time can't make runs at this level.

 

Nathan Lyon is not Graeme Swann. One is a fridge that cools things, and the other an American style fridge freezer that will give you water and ice on demand. Everyone wants the bigger fridge, but life doesn't work that way. Lyon bowls good dipping offspin outside off stump spun well toward the stumps. But Swann's straight ball is far more devious. Swann gets more spin. Swann is smarter. Swann is a top fielder and a handy slogger. In some ways, the difference between the two teams is summed up in the spinners. Lyon tries hard; Swann has 19 wickets in this series.

 

Every player in this team has something holding them back including age, consistency, injury and skill. Clarke is their best cricketer. But his back is a problem. When he fiddles with his back, takes a pain pill, or does a stretch, there is little smiling. And while he might have lost the anger he had when screaming at Erasmus, that won't be replaced with smiles knowing they have already lost their chance to retain the Ashes.

 

This team is not perfect, and it's not going to be for a while. But they came into this Test as gruesome victims on a hotel bathroom floor, and they outplayed a better opposition for the entire Test. It's not a win, but it is something to smile about.


This is not what retaining the Ashes is meant to feel like. A generation of England supporters, raised on hubris and weaned on disappointment, who, until 2005, went 16 years waiting for this moment, might have found this like a sip of warm champagne. Anti-climax hung over Old Trafford as tenaciously as the clouds.

It was not just that it rained. We expected that. It was that, before the rain, England were disconcertingly outplayed. Their three best batsmen were all dismissed in the brief window of play possible and, of the two that survived, Joe Root was dropped during a torturous innings that underlined the concerns about his readiness to face the new ball at this level and Ian Bell sustained a blow to his thumb that briefly provoked fears that it may end his involvement in the series. England did not so much cruise past the winning line as collapse on it.

 

As it was, the ECB confirmed that Bell is not seriously hurt and is not an injury doubt for the fourth Test on Friday. The squad for the game is the XI that played here, plus Graham Onions and Chris Tremlett. Steven Finn remains surplus to requirements and, with Kevin Pietersen having proved his fitness, James Taylor is not required. Both Tremlett and Onions will, perhaps surprisingly, play for their counties in the Friends Life t20 quarter-finals on Tuesday evening.

 

The pedantic might point out that the series is not decided. And it is true that Australia might yet leave the UK with a 2-2 draw. But they came to win back the urn, not share a series.

 

Perhaps England are the victims of their own expectations. They have, after all, retained the Ashes in the minimum number of games possible - a feat achieved only once before in a five-match series, in 1928-29 - and they were worthy winners of the first two Tests. There was a time when that would have been enough to warrant unstinting praise. Perhaps it still should be.

 

Certainly many England supporters will not care a jot how this result was achieved. After years of pain, retaining the Ashes in almost any manner is cause for celebration. To have held the Ashes after three successive series underlines the impression that this is a golden age for English cricket. No England side has achieved such a feat since the 1950s. Maybe it says everything about how far England have progressed in recent times that this result has not provoked caveat-free joy.

 

It would be wrong to diminish their success too. Series are decided across several weeks, not a few days, and England are not the first side to benefit from some assistance from the weather in such circumstances. It does not negate their achievement.

 

But England would be deluding themselves if they did not admit to some concerns after this game. The most obvious was the impression Australia's fast bowlers gained more from the pitch than England's. It is true that Australia won an important toss and first use of a good pitch but, even in Australia's second innings, England's seamers failed to find the bounce and movement available to the excellent Peter Siddle and Ryan Harris.

	"We have found ourselves in situations like this over the past couple of years. We knew we had experience to get through it and proving we are a hard side to beat." Alastair Cook

There are various reasons for that. One of them is simply that the Australian pair are stronger than their England counterparts and able to thump the ball into the pitch a little harder. Both attacks gained swing but Australia appeared to swing the ball later and gain more movement off the pitch.

 

 

The England attack also looked weary. Perhaps it was the nerves of appearing on his home ground, perhaps it was his workload - he has hardly looked the same since that 14-over spell at Trent Bridge - but James Anderson endured one of his least impressive displays of the last 18 months, while Stuart Broad is, albeit somewhat unfortunately, taking his wickets at a cost of 52.00 apiece so far this series. In the longer-term, Broad needs to strengthen himself considerably if he is to fulfil his potential. In the short-term, a case could be made to rest one or other of them from the team for the next couple of Tests.

 

The batting is also a worry. Jonathan Trott, in particular, and Cook, by their own high standards, look someway short of their best. Trott has fallen - almost literally - into an old habit of over balancing on to the off side when he plays to leg, while Pietersen should reflect more on his loose stroke, throwing his hands at a ball well outside off stump at a time when his side required him to resist throughout the day, far more than the reasonable umpiring decision that cost his wicket in the second innings. Jonny Bairstow might, in a different era, consider himself fortunate to retain his place.

 

England captains continue to be defined by their performance in Ashes series and Cook, in his first at the helm, has retained the Urn in the minimum amount of Tests possible. So you might have expected him to be in celebratory mood. Instead he appeared deflated and used a hardly euphoric phrase to describe the atmosphere in the England camp.

 

"The feeling in the dressing room is very pleasant," Cook said in the voice of a fellow on the phone to the Samaritans. "We wanted to keep the Ashes and we have done that. Now we want to go on and win them.

 

"It's a strange feeling. We've been behind the eight-ball in this game, but we've fought hard and if you had offered us this position 14 days ago, we would have snatched your hand off.

 

"We didn't play our best game here and were put under pressure by Australia. But we fought extremely hard, batting a long time. Avoiding the follow-on was crucial, so I can't complain how we have handled this week.

 

"We have found ourselves in situations like this over last couple of years: the last Test in New Zealand, when Matt Prior batted fantastically well, and in Nagpur, where the whole side batted well. We knew we had experience to get through it. We are proving we are a hard side to beat."

 

Indeed they are. But with Australia improving and England stuttering, the celebrations will be muted. Both sides head to Durham with something to prove.

As the supervillain Hank Scorpio sagely observed while counselling Homer Simpson in his under-siege bunker, you can't argue with the little things. "It's the little things that make up life," he says, while his headquarters burns and crumbles around him. It is tempting to look at the past year and think Australian cricket is a similar smouldering wreck. At Lord's and in India, the resemblance was uncanny. Elsewhere in the Investec Ashes, and against South Africa last summer, the little things have hurt.

A better forecast here, another wicket there - it could have been a pretty good year for Australia. Of course, hypotheticals change nothing. Australia didn't beat South Africa, were embarrassed in India and have now failed to regain the Ashes. Since the start of their last home summer, Australia have played 13 Tests against four teams and have not won a match against anyone but Sri Lanka. The statistic is damning, but also damn deceptive. It doesn't tell how close they have come.

 

Yes, this is a squad whose worst is woeful and has been for several years. From 47 all out in Cape Town to a historic loss to New Zealand in Hobart, from a series of humiliations in India to another debacle at Lord's, it is a side that finds ways to sink to new lows. It is a team that also finds ways to threaten the world's best. They outplayed South Africa in Brisbane and Adelaide, but turned neither into a victory, and with a weakened attack were crushed in Perth.

 

On this trip, they were a Brad Haddin tickle away from winning at Trent Bridge, and a few rainclouds from a victory push at Old Trafford. They travel to Durham at 0-2; had a few quirks of fate fallen differently it could have been 2-1 to Australia. But that would have been misleading, as misleading as if they'd lost in Manchester and become the first Australia team in 125 years to lose seven straight Tests. They are not that bad. But nor are they 2-1 good.

 

The best reflection of where Michael Clarke's team stands is the ICC Test rankings, where they sit fourth. There is no shame in that, but no pride either. And they cannot expect to rise beyond that while their batting relies so heavily on Clarke. He is the reason they can compete with the teams above them. It was no coincidence that Australia's most threatening performance so far on this tour came when Clarke scored big at Old Trafford.

 

At times, he takes other batsmen with him. Against South Africa at the Gabba, his 259 was accompanied by hundreds from Ed Cowan and Michael Hussey. In the next Test in Adelaide, his 230 was supported by another century from Hussey and one from David Warner. Here, his 187 came alongside contributions, though not tons, from Chris Rogers and Steven Smith.

 

During Clarke's captaincy the only batsmen outside Hussey to score Test tons in an innings when Clarke hasn't have been Warner, Matthew Wade and Shaun Marsh. Warner is the only one to have done so against top four opposition - India at the WACA. Until the rest of Australia's batsmen find ways to score big when Clarke doesn't, they will struggle to beat the best sides.

 

Clarke said after the Old Trafford draw that he felt the gap between Australia and England was minimal. In bowling, yes. In batting, no. Clarke remains Australia's only centurion; England have had two tons from Ian Bell and one each from Joe Root and Kevin Pietersen. That the most prolific scorer of centuries in their squad, Alastair Cook, is yet to make one in this series only highlights England's batting depth and quality.

 

Shane Watson is Australia's second most experienced batsman but his role remains fluid, and for some time has been more water than wine. Rogers and Smith showed signs of batting big in Manchester but could not go on. Usman Khawaja is yet to make a serious impression on Test cricket and Warner's role needs to be defined.

 

For now, the Ashes are gone, but the next series starts later this year. The next two Tests at Chester-le-Street and The Oval are a chance for Australia's batsmen to show they are Test quality, to prove that players beyond Clarke can bat big. To give England pause for thought ahead of the return series. Using the next two Tests to settle on a batting order would help, for that has been as changeable as the Manchester weather.

 

Australia move on to Durham without the Ashes, but at least they are not in a smouldering wreck.

 

The disappointment was writ large on everyone's face. Manchester's weather has behaved worse but rarely has it behaved so cynically. There was no joy for England, only relief. No joy for Australia, only a bitter taste. And there was no joy for the many media outlets that trade on tales of good and bad. There was just grey: damp and clinging grey.

The England players came to their dressing-room balcony and did a footbally thing, clapping their hands above their heads and smiling all cocksure. But there was barely a murmur in response because barely a person was left on the ground to respond. Just the workers and the anoraks and the anoraks don't even sing when they are winning. Damn the weather.

 

Joe Root and Johnny Bairstow will have dreamt for years of their Ashes moment: of easing a short ball past point or smashing a leg-break onto the second tier or simply playing forward defensively in the thou-shalt-not-pass mode that the first coach they ever knew insisted upon. Damn the weather. The match was a belter and deserved a conclusion. Damn the weather.

Yes, it had been a good toss to win last Thursday morning but then you must play well to take the advantage given and Australia did exactly that. Well enough to win, which they would pretty much certainly have done had the day run its course. Therefore we can say that, after the watershed at Lord's, a corner has been turned. Such defeats shock the system so deeply that the brain changes tack, subconsciously or otherwise. Nobody, and sportsmen lead the way here, likes to be humiliated. Thus, after wounds are licked, a better focus returns.

During the hour or so before play each day, the two big screens play highlights of the day before, volume and all. While the players warm up, they are subjected to the best and worst of the previous day and to the commentators' whim - thoughts and exclamations that fitted the moment of action. At 10 o'clock in the morning - coffee brewing, physio waiting, crowd queuing, coach hitting catches - the repeats look and sound out of context. The drama has lost its way and appears to point exaggerated fingers at both the worthy and unworthy in equal measure. The benefit is for the spectator, definitely not the player.

On the first day of the game, there are no highlights from the previous day so the screens show the previous match. As Shane Watson stretched his hamstrings and snaffled a few catches at 10.15am last Thursday morning, he got to see and hear again the two painful lbw dismissals from Lord's.

Hard as he must have worked to eradicate them from his memory for all time, the ground authority made sure they were shoved right back in his face. Forty five minutes later, he was taking guard once more to James Anderson. Indeed, Australia were at the wicket having just been shown an X-rated package of the worst match of their lives. This used to happen to England in Australia. Bill Lawry screaming blue murder at masterpieces created by Adam Gilchrist and Shane Warne, just as Andrew Flintoff's browbeaten men were preparing to cross the divide.

It takes a certain type of person to truly ignore all this and not many of us are that person. You can't help but look and blush, or listen and cringe. Or just get angry at the injustice. This is the mind in the wringer. You could almost see it doing its worst to Watson, who near bursts out of his kit in desperation for success. 'Why me', he seems to say. 'I am better than this showreel suggests'. And the more tense he becomes, the harder it becomes, to be the cricketer he knows he can be. Few men look so condemned by unkind fate as Watson.

Thankfully, others responded a lighter sense of being and benefited from the release. Chris Rogers positively twinkled at the wicket, a hitherto unseen approach from an earnest cricketer. Michael Clarke simply played like he can, which is not so easy when the reponsibilty of humiliation is yours. Steven Smith played like the amazing dancing bear in the song of that ilk - though Simon is the fellow in the song, not Steve - and Brad Haddin gave it some 'umpty, which is the best way when you are an all or nothing sort of chap.

Later Ryan Harris and Peter Siddle ran in to make proud the people of the Great Southern Land: no airs and graces just sleeves-up stuff that keeps batsmen honest. It was this pair who would have seen their country home on the dry and worn pitch before turning to beer and meat pies in celebration. (A metaphorical assumption, for Siddle is vegan nowadays - more replacement fluid and bananas than beer and pie one imagines).

 

Nathan Lyon might have chipped in, Mitchell Starc and Smith too and off they could have gone to Durham on the team bus, singing about the jolly swagman and old Matilda, pride intact and with no fear of the replay screen on Friday morning.

But it wasn't to be. England were saved their own ingloriousness and are now the wounded cat with claws sharpening. Forget the million dollar smile, Alastair Cook is more ruthless than you might care to think. He hated the anti-climax and the fact that he, the England captain on the day the Ashes were retained, had to answer questions on how the rain had saved him, how the batsmen were vulnerable and how the balance of power had shifted. He hated it.

So be certain that England will watch that big screen come Friday and use it to further fire their ambition. Cook has dreamt of a whitewash, something so extreme that history would record and remember in full and glorious detail. He suffered such a thing in 2006-07 and wanted to hand it back on behalf of all those who were with him then and are with him now.

His desire and Australia's regeneration promises us real flavour in the two Tests to come. The urn may have had its home decided for now but the best, and perhaps most unforgiving, cricket might still to come.