The Ashes Blog

1. Australia regains the Ashes
It was only 15 months ago that England was celebrating, but the Aussies took just 1 ball from Steve Harmison to get the Ashes back.

2. England’s injuries
Several of England’s top players were injured during the year, including Michael Vaughan, Simon Jones, Freddie Flintoff, Ashley Giles, and James Anderson. In a double blow for England, Giles and Anderson recovered in time for the first Test in Brisbane.

3. Shane Warne bags 700
The world’s greatest leg spinner finally made it to 700. He also took his 700th wicket.

4. England crumble in Adelaide
The England team declared at 6 for 551 in the first innings, the entire cricket world was anticipating a draw, but mighty England managed to pull off an unlikely loss.

5. Monty Panesar takes 8 on debut
English spinning sensation Monty Panesar grabbed 8 wickets in his first Test against Australia, prompting Ian Thorpe to say that “Monty is fully Sikh!”
(Local Aussie humour … click here for an explanation, or just move on to the next one.)

6. Australia wins 10 out 10
In stark contrast to last year’s Ashes result, Australia won all 10 Tests this year, whilst England won just 4 out of 14 (it becomes 5 out of 14 if you include the match Darrell Hair forfeited on Pakistan’s behalf).

7. The defection of Troy
When Troy Cooley moved back to Australia, England’s bowling squad promptly fell to pieces, Australia benefited, and there was something about a big wooden horse. Or maybe that was just in the movie.

8. The blame game
Apparently England’s poor form was due to Duncan Fletcher, the ECB, the wives and girlfriends of the England players, and David Beckham. The players themselves had nothing to do with it.

9. The end of an era
Cricket legends Warne and McGrath announced their retirement from Test Match cricket, prompting wild celebrations from England fans and Stuart MacGill.

10. Australia’s one-day win at the Champions Trophy
It was only a one-dayer, but Australia’s 6 wicket win over England in October gave the Australians extra confidence, and planted the seeds of doubt in the minds of the England players, especially Mr Harmison.

Are there any other big Ashes moments that you’d like to add to this list?

Ashley Giles had to fly home to England mid-December after his wife Stine was diagnosed with a brain tumour. The benign tumour was successfully removed by surgeons last week, and Stine is said to be recovering well in hospital.

This is great news, and we wish Ashley and his family the very best throughout the recovery process.

In the Book of Matthew, Jesus Christ outlined a form of prayer that we know as The Lord’s Prayer. He said that this was a good place to start as a model for how we should pray. Here, then, is a Prayer for England:

Our Father, who art in heaven,
Hallowed be Thy Name.
Duncan came, his will was done,
Getting Giles and Jones in the team.
Give us this day our daily rumour about Michael Vaughan returning soon,
And lead KP not into temptation,
But deliver him from Warnie.
For Pietersen thinks he is the greatest player who has ever lived,
And Simon Jones seems to be injured for ever and ever.
Amen.

Graham Thorpe wants Ashley Giles to retire from international cricket:

“I’ve been consistent in calling for Monty Panesar to play in this series, but I’d go one further than that and say it’s time for Ashley Giles to quit.”
- Graham Thorpe

I think that’s going too far. Ashley Giles needs to keep his place in the England team, for Australia’s sake. Monty Panesar hasn’t yet shown all that much on his brief tour of Australia, but what if the young Sikh can actually take wickets? And even worse, what if Panesar defies the critics and holds onto a catch? Not just any old catch, but a significant, series-changing catch?

Back in 2005 Shane Warne was being told that he dropped the Ashes, allowing the Poms to hold on for a draw in the fifth Test and regain the Ashes for the first time in 5,000 years. Now it’s Ashley Giles’ turn, even though we’re only up to the second Test and, mathematically speaking, England can still fight back and win this series. At the end of the third day, Simon Briggs had this to say in the Telegraph:

“… the feeling persisted that Giles’s aberration could end up being the decisive moment in this match, as emblematic in its own way as Steve Harmison’s first-ball wide at Brisbane.
… If this Test should end up as a stalemate, Giles’s drop will join a long list of infamous missed chances over the course of Ashes history.”

If only Simon Briggs knew then that this Test would not merely “end up as a stalemate”, but would go on to become one of the most demoralising defeats ever faced by an England XI. If only Giles knew how significant that moment would become. If only.

I would like to welcome you to the launch of the official “Keep Ashley Giles Playing” campaign. Sure, he might have taken 1 for 103 in Adelaide, and 1 for 113 in Brisbane, he still deserves to play, against Australia, at the very top of world cricket. Sure, there’s this young Indian kid called Panesar in the England squad, but when compared with Ashley Giles, all others merely look like potential world beaters.

England needs Giles – the King of Spain – in the team for the following reasons:

1. He makes James Anderson look threatening.

2. His bowling average is almost as good as Matthew Hayden’s batting average.

3. As the Personal Life Coach for Ricky Ponting, Ashley Giles felt that the Australian captain was in desperate need of a bit of encouragement, so he sacrificially dropped that catch on the boundary. But that’s just the sort of kind, generous guy that he is.

4. His Royal Highness brings a certain amount of class and dignity into the England team. Well, they need to make up for Kevin Pietersen’s presence somehow.

So please, keep Ashley playing, and make benefit glorious King of Spain.

Australia: 5/312

Following the example of Pietersen and Collingwood, the Aussie pair of Ponting and Hussey put on a batting show with a 192 run partnership. The Australian captain knocked up his 33rd Test century, and is now Australia’s most prolific century-maker. It was his 7th for 2006, and he can thank Ashley Giles for giving him the opportunity. The English spinner dropped a fairly easy chance on the deep square leg boundary when Ponting was just 35 and the Australians were already 3 wickets down with just 78 runs on the board. Did Ashley Giles drop England’s chance at victory?

Hayden and Martyn were both dismissed cheaply early on in the day, and both will be under pressure to keep their spot in the team. Hayden will probably be ok for a little while yet, though Martyn may have to make room for the return of Shane Watson for the Perth Test.

At the close of play it was Michael Clarke and Adam Gilchrist at the crease, and is as nor the norm with England, the Aussie keeper was under attack from the start with the English quicks coming at him from around the wicket. So far Gilly has been able to hold them at bay and look almost comfortable. He’ll need to stay in there for quite a while on day four if he’s to help his side close in on England’s formidable total.

As for England, today was a pretty good effort from (almost) all of them. Hoggard was brilliant with the ball, taking 4 wickets, Harmison looked to be in control, and Flintoff led well with some effective bowling changes and field placements. They’ll be feeling pretty good about themselves, but they haven’t yet won this Test. Apart from the first hour or so with the new ball, it’s pretty difficult to get a wicket on this deck, so they’ll need to do well if they want to grab another 15 Aussie wickets before the end of the day on Tuesday. Frankly, I don’t think they can do it.

It seems certain now that England will play Ashley Giles and Monty Panesar in the second Test. Panesar had a private 15 minute workout in front of Duncan Fletcher yesterday, and it looks like that might have been enough to get him back into the team.

Panesar looks like the sort of spinner who could succeed in Australia. The current Australian team has struggled in the past against quality spin bowling, although Matty Hayden reckons they don’t have too much to fear from the England duo:

“It wouldn’t surprise me (if England played two spinners) but I don’t think the Australian batting line-up sees a lot of threat in either of those two players. It’s not something we’re overly concerned about.”
- Matt Hayden

I wouldn’t be so sure. Giles and Panesar will both need to bowl out of their skins, and they’ll need to show a lot of character and guile, but I think it’s possible that they could put a lot of pressure on Australia, especially on an Adelaide pitch that should favour the spinners from day 3 onwards.

But then if the England boys are able to extract a fair amount of bounce and turn out of the Adelaide track, what will Shane Warne be able to do? According to coach Fletcher, the Englishmen are happy with the way they played Warne in Brisbane, but Adelaide could offer something entirely different … for both sides.

Australia 3/346

Let’s face it, it couldn’t have been much worse for England. Well, they could have had a series-ending injury to a key player, but aside from that, pretty much everything else made this Black Thursday for the England cricket team.

The bus trip from their hotel to the Gabba was, according to Ashley Giles, “a quiet place this morning”. The enormity of the task ahead had made them all nervous. It showed.

So often the very first ball of the first Test sets the tone … it makes a statement. Stephen Harmison’s first delivery certainly did that, as he sent it wide and into the hands of his captain standing at second slip. The nerves were showing. The pressure, that overpowering, confidence-draining pressure, was hanging all over Harmison, and he couldn’t cope. Apparently that gave the Australians “a bit of a lift“. After two overs Harmison was taken off. What a contrast to last year.

As for the other bowlers, all 7 of them, they all had brief moments of greatness, though the general quality of bowling on offer was pretty low. Will Luke and the Cricinfo commentary team were scathing:

“Hoggard is not doing much and at around 80mph, Ponting and Martyn will have been more tested in the pre-match nets …”

“That had “hit me, please” all over it”

However, Patrick Kidd at The Times suggests 10 reasons why England should remain positive, including:

Mike Dickson at The Daily Mail reckons England could be looking at an innings defeat, although I wouldn’t be so despondent just yet if I were an English fan.

For the Australians, Hayden and Langer got them off to a great start. Langer was at his attacking best, obviously keen to silence those who were calling for his departure. But the star of the Aussie innings was Captain Ponting, who scored his 32nd Test match hundred. He was superb all day, and I think he looks determined enough to make a double hundred at the Gabba. Unless England’s bowling improves, there won’t be much to stop him except himself.

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 »

Apparently Duncan Fletcher reckons Capt’n Flintoff isn’t quite ready for the demands of Test match bowling, so he’s thinking about playing 5 bowlers in the Gabba Test. It’s not a bad idea, as it will give their bowling extra depth and variety, and will not place such a heavy burden on their bowlers. However, that creates a long tail of rather ordinary batsmen, with Read coming in at 7, then a possible lineup of Mahmood, Hoggard, Harmison and Panesar.

Then again, Ashley Giles may get back into the squad as a result of the quality of his batting. Fletcher has said that “you have to bat in depth”. So the King of Spain is going to provide England with that batting depth, giving the side a balance and quality that it would not otherwise have? Honestly, I think that’s nuts. Ok, so he might score 20 or so runs more than Panesar, but I don’t think he’s the wicket-taking, match-winning, future star that Monty Panesar is. If England do play Giles ahead of Panesar purely because he can add a few extra runs, then I think they’ve effectively raised the white flag and surrendered.