The Ashes Blog

This is fantastic! And yes, there is a cricket connection … right near the end.

Music by Boy Mongoose.

Enjoy!

Australia: 5/527 dec.
England: 1/19

What a day! Michael Clarke scored his second century in as many Tests, Mike Hussey continued his Ashes run feast with another hundred, and then Adam Gilchrist came on and took 57 balls to score the second fastest century in Test match history (Vic Richards put on a century against England in 1986 in just 56 balls). I was having dinner with my wife and my parents at the time, so I didn’t get to see much of it. Gilchrist scored so quickly that when we started our meal he was just 12 years old and captain of the Deniliquin South Primary School team. When we tuned in 30 minutes later he’d knocked up a hundred against England, and quite possibly sealed the Ashes for Australia. You can see a ‘wagon wheel’ of his scoring shots here. Will over at The Corridor called it “an umissable horror show”. For the Australian fans it was like watching a Hollywood feel-good movie, only better because there was no Meg Ryan.

I thought England’s bowling was generally pretty good, especially Panesar early in the day. However, England just couldn’t make the most of their opportunities, with Jones making a mess of what should have been an easy stumping when Clarke was on 2. No big deal … the Aussie number 5 only went on to make 135 not out. And then there were a couple of dropped catches – Jones (again!!) had to almost push Kevin Pietersen out of the way to get to a skied hook from Hussey, and the ball promptly went to ground. Then Strauss dropped one at first slip, and watched the ball race away to the boundary. Then there were the dropped catches in the crowd from Gilly’s sixes – all four of them.

What now for England? Well, they basically need to try and bat for as long as possible. That shouldn’t be too difficult on this track, as it has flattened out a fair bit. If they can keep their heads on, they should be able to put a few decent partnerships together. Although an England victory seems about as close to impossible as you can get, if they bat smart they should be able to take the match into the fifth day, and then who knows, maybe they can hold on for a draw. Then again, it could all be over by tea on Sunday.

I thought it would be interesting to do a statistical comparison of the two sides to see how they will fare against each other, statistically speaking. What I’ve done is add up the batting averages for all 11 players in each side to give a team batting average. I’ve then added up the bowling averages for Australia and England, and this gives us a team bowling average. To the Australian batting averages I added the England team bowling average to give a final total (and vice versa for England). So if a side has a very good, and therefore low, bowling average then they won’t be adding too many runs to the oppositions total team average, so it seems to me like a fair comparison: Read the rest of this entry »

This is an interesting review from the Telegraph’s Simon Hughes. He profiles England’s success against Australia’s left handed batsmen, especially Adam Gilchrist, and also includes an interview with Captain Freddie. You can find the original video here at the Telegraph’s website.

I know that it’s only a one day tournament, and that Test Match cricket is a different kettle of fish, but I reckon we can still learn a little about Australia’s pre-series form. First up, Damien Martyn is back in touch, with a superb series. He finished with the second highest batting average in the competition (behind Bangladesh’s Shahriar Nafees), consistently scoring half centuries when they were needed. Martyn is a key player in Australia’s middle order, as we saw in Australia’s last tour of India when Martyn was Australia’s leading Test run scorer. If his good form carries through into the Ashes series, he’s going to be causing a few headaches for England. Read the rest of this entry »