Monday, August 24, 2009

England Win the Ashes - Unbelievable!

I said England did not stand a chance.

I said their bowling was shit.


Not only did England win the Ashes, Stuart Broad played an instrumental role in taking them to that series win.

I don't have an egg, I have a full omelette on my face!

Broad and Swann, whom I always expected to have an impact during the Ashes, took the game away on the 2nd day itself when they had Australia bending over after being bowled out for 160.

The game was always going in only one direction after that.

Not even the most optimistic Australians would have thought they stood a chance.

It is an unbelievable result because I really did not think England had it in them to win the Ashes this year.

Looking back at the series, I really don't know how they managed it.

As many as 8 centuries came from the blades of Australians; as compared to only 2 from the English.

The highest batting average (besides Jonathan Trott) belonged to an Australian.

The most number of wickets belonged to an Australian.

In fact the top 3 wicket takers in the series were Australians!

The best bowling average belonged to an Australian.

Yet, through some freak act of nature or something, England won the series 2-1.

How the hell that happened, I will never understand.

Ricky Ponting got booed for pointing out how looking at the stats no one will be able to say that Australia did not win the series, but if I was in his place, I would have said the same damn thing.

As for England. Wow. Second Ashes series win in as many Ashes series at home. Achievement that is!

And Stuart Broad. He ended as the highest wicket taker on the England side.

Probably he ain't shit any more.

Ricky Ponting, though, is.

Poor guy; I feel for him. I really do.

Two series in England as captain and two series losses; he's in the company of not many Australia captains.

At the end all I can say is - Unbelievable!

Make your pitch on this post...



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11 Pitched:

  1. Leg Break said...
     

    When you think about it Australia had 2 bas sessions over 5 tests and no spinner.

    And that cost them the Ashes.

  2. Swapnil Shah said...
     

    Like Andrew Strauss said: "When they were bad, they were very bad, and when we were good they managed to be good enough."
    Also, this was a battle between two middle of the line teams (as reflected by the ICC Rankings) not No 1 and No 2 like in 2005.

  3. yaseen ch said...
     

    yes,England has kept the Michael Waughan glory alive and its becoming a tradition now to win Ashes on their respective grounds.

  4. raj said...
     

    Well, Q, we did it, man. Remember the Oval prediction I forced you into making after the 4th test? :-)

    Remember this, and always predict a Aussie win or draw :-)

  5. vijayanand said...
     

    Andrew Flintoff considered to be one among the best all rounder of all times has reiterated his earlier stand on retirement decision. With Australia dominating the fifth Ashes Test which will be a deciding game, there were rumors that Flint off may reconsider his decision.
    Flintoff had earlier made up his mind to retire from Test cricket after the current Ashes series, citing the frequent injuries as the reason is firm in his stand. He however did not rule out the possibility of playing four day cricket at national level as a part of Lancashire team. However the eminent all rounder will be continuing playing cricket as far as fifty over game and twenty-twenty version are concerned. Flintoff is a part of IPL Chennai Super Kings team.

  6. Rayden said...
     

    Full credit to England the way they came back after the 4th test. Before the series started, I predicted England would win. But the way they lost the 4th test, I thought Australia would be the winner now.

    Well done England. They showed a lot of character by coming back the way they did. Surprisingly its Australia who is collapsing in key moments of test cricket nowadays.

  7. vijayanand said...
     

    Shane Warne – The best bowler Australia has ever produced has opened up his mind to the media. He exposed his discontent regarding umpires. According to the ace spinner barring a few exceptions like Simon Tauter and ASAP Rauf other umpires went awry in terms of performance .Expressing disappointment that the standard of umpiring has deteriorated to the worst extent in the past twenty years of time he opined that though umpiring was a hard job, the performances of the umpires in the Ashes series had been consistently so ordinary. As far as Warne is concerned umpire Billy Bowden whom he expected to deliver correct judgments was also not consistent in performing his duty.
    The spinner repents that there are too many instances of such bad judgments, which is increasingly becoming a cause of concern. He directly made a mention of names of umpires Daryl Harper and Billy Bowden, accusing them to be adamant in not confessing their wrong judgments. He also tried to strengthen his claim by mentioning that several players were not having a good opinion about those umpires in their minds. Warne insisted that the umpires should maintain a friendly attitude towards the players by shedding their high-handed attitude Warne also expressed his view repetitively that fifty over match should be withdrawn once for all as if such a change is brought about it would enable the players to spend more time with their families and relieve them from exhaustion.

  8. The Binocular said...
     

    The margins were thin.

    What if Ponting had won the toss in the last test match?

    England did come up with the goods when it was most required though.


    The Mike Hussey Problem

  9. SM said...
     

    Hi Q ,


    How are you doing .. Reading your blog after a long time cos I have moved and had limited access to the net ..

    Well I am happy that australians have been shown the floor .. well SP had predicted that the Ashes is going the England way but most of all S Broad did surprise all isnt it ?

  10. Pakistani Blogger said...
     

    I wonder whether "weather reports" were involved in Australia's defeat.

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