England: 147
Australia: 0/46
Australia wins by 10 wickets

It is finished. Australia has won the Ashes in the most convincing fashion possible, with a 5-0 rout of what really is a pretty decent England team.

I previously mentioned the need for KP to bat through to the end of the England innings. Well, he lasted 3 balls, and with England’s leading batsman back in the pavilion, the match was all but over. Chris Read looked out of his depth, scoring just the one boundary before being beautifully caught by Ponting in the slips. Harmison and Anderson delayed the inevitable with some solid defensive work, but a lead of just 45 was never going to provide a challenge for the opposition. Appropriately, it was Glenn McGrath who took the 10th wicket with his final ball in Test match cricket.

When the Australians came out to bat, the England team admirably formed a guard of honour for the retiring Langer. Ironically, the English bowling to the Australians in the second innings was amongst the finest we’ve seen all summer. Anderson and Harmison were bowling well, and Hayden and Langer had to tread carefully to avoid some good line and length stuff. They survived, and the emotion of the occasion was almost becoming too much for Langer. With 7 runs needed, he asked Haydos for a quick finish. His good mate obliged, hitting a mammoth six over mid-on to bring the scores level. The two batsmen had another brief chat in the middle of the pitch, with the Queenslander perhaps asking the retiring Langer if he would like to hit the winning runs. Langer obviously wasn’t too fussed, as Hayden flicked the next ball for four and Australia had won by 10 wickets.

For Ponting, this was a significant and emotional time:

“Even when we took the last wicket, to think that would be the last time we’d be walking off with Glenn and Shane …
I was hoping to get a chance to bat with Lang. To realise that was the last opportunity I was going to have, it’s a pretty emotional time.

I grabbed hold of Michael Clarke on the way around the ground and had a word about the next era. For the next few years, hopefully it’s he and I and Michael Hussey being able to be the leaders and win games for our country.

I told him to sit back and have a look around. It’s 80-something years since its happened and it’s a moment we should all savour.”
- Ricky Ponting

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.

Another of Australia’s greats will retire at the end of the Sydney Test, with Justin Langer saying that the timing’s right for him to hang up his boots. Speaking about Australia’s unexpected win in Adelaide, he said:

“I just wonder how it can get better than that? Everyone keeps saying ‘you’ll know when it’s time’. Well, at one o’clock two days ago I knew it was time - it just came to me.”

Langer is Australia’s warrior, and that gritty, hard-nosed determination will certainly be missed. He scored 3 double hundreds in his career, 23 centuries, and together with his good mate Matt Hayden was one of the most potent opening partnerships the game has ever known. He contemplated retirement after copping a heavy blow to the head from Makhaya Ntini last February, but, like Shane Warne, the desire to win back the Ashes was so strong that he had to continue on until the precious urn was back in Australian hands.

With so much determination flowing through this Australian team, is it any wonder that England have been blown away?

We’re about to witness the retirement of Shane Warne, and there’s talk about other players like McGrath, Langer, and Hayden following close behind. Apparently there aren’t any Tests for Australia until next November when we host Sri Lanka for a couple of games, but from then on it’s a pretty busy schedule:

(Note: this schedule includes Test matches only, and does not include all of those meaningless little one day international tournaments that seem to fill the calendar)

2007
November: Australia v Sri Lanka (2 Tests)
December to January: Australia v India (4 Tests)

2008
February to March: Pakistan v Australia (3 Tests)
April to May: West Indies v Australia (4 Tests)
July to August: Australia v Bangladesh (2 Tests)
October: India v Australia (4 Tests)
November: Australia v New Zealand (2 Tests)
December to January: Australia v South Africa (3 Tests)

2009
February to March: South Africa v Australia (3 Tests)
July to September: England v Australia (5 Tests)

Click here for a diary of all international Tests and one day internationals until 2012.

With so much cricket coming up, does that mean that now is a good time to bring in some significant changes, or should we phase out the players gradually? […]

England: 6/551 dec.
Australia: 1/28

In the Australian Football League, the Collingwood Football Club has a theme song - “Good old Collingwood forever … we know how to play the game.” If he knows that song, I reckon Paul Collingwood, England’s emergency fill-in, will be singing that number well into the night.

It certainly was Collingwood’s day, as he scored only the fifth double century by an Englishman in Australia. He was finally dismissed with a lazy swing outside off, but it didn’t matter by then as he and Kevin Pietersen had shared in a record 314 run fourth wicket stand. Pietersen himself was dismissed for the third time on 158 (he made exactly the same score in the final Test of 2005’s epic series against Australia).

Flintoff and Giles came together at the end to slowly take the score along to 6 for 551, at which point Freddie made a smart declaration. This gave the Australians 9 overs to survive, and Langer didn’t make it, as he was dismissed by a brute of a delivery from the England captain. However, Ponting and Hayden were able to knock up a few boundaries, and despite the pressure being mounted by the tourists, took the total to 28 without further loss.

So what will tomorrow hold? Well, if Adelaide really is a repeat of the Edgbaston 2005 Test, then I would expect the Aussies to be dismissed for a hundred or so runs short of the Poms. Ponting will top score, and Adam Gilchrist will actually get a few runs on the board. But I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.

I was at the Gabba myself today, and although it wasn’t a terribly memorable day’s play, it was an interesting one. Australia declared early … the only thing holding them back was Justin Langer’s century. With that milestone knocked over, it was back into the sheds with the score at 1/202. That gave them a total for the match of 10 wickets for 804 runs. Not too shabby, really.

Andrew Strauss was once again the first to go, as Stuart Clark got him out hooking, caught by super-sub Ryan Broad. Cook played well for his 43, but the big partnership of the day was between Collingwood and Pietersen. Australia didn’t quite know how to pin them down, and the runs flowed. The crowd were fairly quiet, though the England fans slowly upped the volume as their two stoic batsmen showed a bit of grit. Unfortunately for Mr Collingwood the pressure was too much for him, as he had a brain explosion on 96 and was stumped by Gilchrist off the bowling of Warne. However, he was still happy with how it all went:

“We wanted to fight today because we haven’t played as well as we can. It was about fighting and pride and a bit of passion, and not just talking about it but going out there and showing it.”

That’s the one thing that really came out of day four - England’s recovery. Some people had written England off for the entire tour, but I’ve known all along that they would eventually fight back. Day four at the Gabba was the beginning of that epic climb back up the hill of competitiveness.

What do others say?

The Age: England become Lions

The Corridor: England fight back, and some thoughts on coaches

The Guardian: Odd couple lift English spirits

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’ve loved this Test series more than any. I would play it again and
again and again over any of the series we’ve played over the last few
years …
Some of the guys are enjoying this and some aren’t because the results
aren’t quite there but we’ll be better for it, individually and as a
team, no doubt about that."
- Justin Langer

I think the Australian cricket team will gain a lot from this Ashes series, even if they lose it. They’ve been out-played and out-thought, and when they get back home again they’ll need to put a lot of work into figuring why things went so wrong for them. Australian cricket doesn’t look as powerful as it used to, but hopefully the current struggles will help to create stronger teams in the future.

Yesterday’s action was amazing … let’s see what today will bring!  Can England fight back?  How will Australia respond when they get a chance to bat in their second innings? Will the batting be any easier today, or will it remain tricky?

Update - the England tail has done a terrific job, but England are all out for 155. Pietersen bashed the ball around for a while for 57, but Warne got him after a few overs, brilliantly caught by Martyn in the deep. This game could still go either way.

Update - Australia is going along quite well now. It’s tea on the second day, and Australia is 140 for 3, with Clarke on 22 and Martyn on 24. Kevin Pietersen dropped a simple catch in the last over before tea … that’s the way it’ll be with KP - sometimes the hero, sometimes the villain.

Earlier, Justin Langer tried to take one too many quick singles and was run out by KP … see photo (what’s with this photo?)

Stumps - England: all out for 155 (Pietersen 57). Australia: 279 for 7 (Clarke 91)
Australia has a handy lead of 314, which might be enough to win them the game. However, England have a couple of match winners who could turn it on … they’ll just need to survive the probing line of Glenn McGrath and the spin of Warne.