The Ashes Blog

Kevin Pietersen has had surgery on his dodgy Achilles tendon, and is out for the rest of the 2009 Ashes series.

So we say goodbye to KP, and England will miss him greatly. Australian fans like myself, on the other hand, are delighted! We won’t miss him at all!  He’s easily England’s best, most dangerous batsman, and for him to be out for the final three Tests is a little bit of luck in an otherwise unlucky series. Granted, it is unfortunate that England can’t be at full strength, as it’s always better to defeat a side that is offering its best players. But I won’t be losing sleep over that one.

KP is to be replaced by Ian Bell, a guy who is potentially very good but who just can’t seem to get it right when he plays against Australia. Apparently he’s been in reasonable touch for his county, and he’s always looked like a very classy player, but he’s no Kevin Pietersen. However, it’ll be interesting to see how he goes.

If you’re an England fan, do you think KP’s absence will be a significant loss?

And if you’re an Australian fan, do you think this helps our chances of winning the 2009 Ashes?

Note: Original painting: “Fury of Achilles” by Coypel. Digitally altered by The Ashes Blog

England: 291
Australia: 4/188

It really was one of those days. England started off the day in a pretty strong position, then completely fell apart, but fought back really well to be on top once again, before allowing Australia to go slightly ahead by stumps.

Australia bowled pretty well in the morning session, with the final 6 English wickets falling for just 57 runs, which is almost as bad as their disastrous 2nd innings in Adelaide where the final 6 added just 56 runs to the total. This 2nd day Sydney wicket is a pretty decent place to bat. All of England’s recognised batsmen made a start, but only Bell (71) and Flintoff (89) were able to knock up half centuries. It shouldn’t have been that bad.

Or so it seemed.

Like England, Australia’s batsmen all put runs on the board, and seemed settled at the crease. Yet somehow the bowlers were able to strike back, and so far, none of the Australians have managed to get past 50. That may change on day three, with Hussey and Symonds looking to stick around for a while and give Australia at least a bit of a lead. However, as we saw today, there is enough in the pitch for the bowlers to trouble the willow wielders, so anything could happen.

England: 4/234

Neither side can really claim victory after the first day at the SCG. England won the toss, but they lost Matthew Hoggard with a side strain. He was replaced by the once rejected James Anderson, and the Aussie batsmen were smiling.

The Australians were led out onto the field by their 3 retirees – Warne, McGrath, and Langer. McGrath bowled the first over of the day, but Strauss and Cook survived to put on their most successful opening partnership of the summer. It didn’t last long, as they were both out caught behind.

In stepped Bell and Pietersen and they put on a useful 108 run partnership. Pietersen was trying all sorts of fancy footwork as he waltzed his way down the pitch to the bowlers, and looks a strong contender for the next season of Dancing With The Stars. Perhaps he had Skyhooks on his mind, because that’s exactly what happened when he didn’t quite get onto one and a nice catch was taken by Mr Cricket at midwicket.

Ian Bell followed KP back to the pavilion a few minutes later, but then Captain Freddie came in and whacked the ball around, taking England safely through to stumps. England will be hoping for more of the same this morning, and would be disappointed with anything less than 400. It’s a pretty decent batting strip, and I reckon the locals will be confident of putting on a large total themselves, so England will need to perform well. However, the Australians will have the new ball this morning and, if Clark and McGrath can get it to move around, they might pick up a couple of early wickets and then they can have a crack at this long England tail.

England: 5/265

I always thought it would be a tough day for Australia’s bowlers, and they actually performed better than I expected. I thought they might only be able to pull off the one wicket today, but they were eventually able to get 4 of them, the final 2 in the third last over of the day. Pietersen looks pretty determined, and could be there for a while yet. Not wanting to be outdone, I actually thought The Ego might try and replicate the hitting of Adam Gilchrist. Maybe that will come on the final day.

For the first session and a half, Alastair Cook and Ian Bell were in control. The two of them batted really well, putting on 170 for the second wicket. With his first Ashes century out of the way, Cook possibly had just the slightest drop in concentration a short time later, and was dismissed for 116:

“I’ll sit back tonight and think, ‘Yeah I got a hundred’, but I wouldn’t be human if I didn’t have that nagging thing I could be walking out tomorrow and posting a bigger one and getting us closer to our target.”
- Alastair Cook

Matthew Hoggard came in as nightwatchman, but survived just 2 balls. Then in stepped captain Flintoff, and it didn’t take long to see that the Australians no longer feared the batting of the great Lancastrian. When Pietersen came on strike, the field would spread to encourage the single and allow the Aussies to have a crack at the England captain, who has been notoriously short on runs all series. Pietersen obliged, though at the time I wondered if Pietersen might actually deny the runs on offer in order to maintain the strike. With Flintoff batting, the field came in and the pressure was mounted. He survived the torment yesterday, and will need to survive for at least 40 overs today if England hope to hang on.

Day five will be interesting. Morning showers and storms are expected, which could throw a whole number of things into the mix. You can see a rainfall radar image of any rain around Perth here. Provided we get enough overs in, I can’t see England surviving a full day with only 5 wickets in hand. Flintoff and Giles will both need a vastly improved performance, and although Harmison and Panesar have shown that they know how to throw a bat around, they aren’t the sort to last for a session or more. So it’s all up to Pietersen and Flintoff.

What are others saying?

“And Saturday was probably the day we handed back the Ashes as well, as their batsmen scored 400 runs on a wicket we should have been still batting on.
Once again, there was an opportunity to get back in the series and it slipped through our fingers.
We will fight all the way but it is becoming increasingly clear that our best is not good enough against this great Aussie side.”
- Kevin Pietersen

“In the past 20 years Ashes series have been career-defining moments for many England captains and coaches, but this tour has been weighed down more than most with misfortunes, mishaps and misjudgments. The debate about where it leaves Duncan Fletcher as coach and Andrew Flintoff as captain will probably rage until the end.”
- Sunday Times

“We have been outplayed by the aussies. It has been painful to watch and it seems we have gone backwards. We need a change of leadership.”
- nonuffin’s blog

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 »

Here’s a brief overview of England’s recognised batsmen. Most of the input is from Mike Atherton, with a little bit of help from his good mate Steve Waugh:

Andrew Strauss: Loves to cut and pull off the back foot, so get him playing forward and force him to hit down the ground – Mike Atherton

Alastair Cook: Tends to fall across his crease, so pitch it up and look to trap him LBW – Mike Atherton

Ian Bell: Doesn’t play the horizontal bat shots too well, so may struggle to score – Mike Atherton

Paul Collingwood: Likes to drive, but isn’t good with the cut or pull, and tends to hook in the air – Mike Atherton

Kevin Pietersen: Loves to drive off the front foot, but doesn’t always get hold of the hook, so look to have him caught in the deep. – Mike Atherton. Don’t talk to him, block off his boundaries with an in-out field setting, and bring Warne on as he may find the leg spinner’s extra bounce on Australian pitches difficult – Steve Waugh.

Andrew Flintoff: Stop his boundary hitting by starving him of the strike and having in-out field placements – Steve Waugh.
Tends to hook in the air, so bounce him and place a couple of fielders in the deep – Mike Atherton