2021-22 Ashes - English Test Cricket’s Grave

MiracleOfO2704

not AWOL
SoSH Member
Jul 12, 2005
9,528
The Island
I haven’t had time to pay much attention to this series, and Sydney Sox clearly wasn’t up for bragging, but an Ashes series in Australia without the usual WACA test ends up being perfectly typical. The scorecard from the Boxing Day Test at the MCG reads:

England 185 & 68
Australia 267
Yup, Australia won by an innings despite being bowled out for a modest score.

Pick at the carcass as you will.
 

streeter88

Member
SoSH Member
Apr 2, 2006
1,807
Melbourne, Australia
Series now concluded. Australia came within 1 wicket of a 5-0 series whitewash, instead winning 4-0, with only the Sydney test being remotely competitive and ending in a draw.

There were some fantastic highlights and in fact most of them were from Australia’s dominant bowling attack.
* Starc bowling Burns first ball of the series at the Gabba
* Travis Head scoring 152 first test to set up an innings win
* Captain Cummings missing the 2nd test in Adelaide due to a close contact COVID scare and it not mattering to the bowling attack - or strategy frankly as Smith filled in admirably and Australia’s top order bludgeoned England (Labuschagne, Warner, Smith all with 90+)
* Boxing Day Test was the Scott Boland show - how could you not be amused by his 6/7 figures in the 2nd innings? And his compelling story - journeyman bowler, never picked until this test, only the second Indigenous player ever, wins the inaugural Man of the Match medal named after Johnny Marr an heroic indigenous test player from the 1880s. How good is that?!?
* Sydney Test was the only one where England showed up in the end - and Australia nearly bowled them out there too
* Usman Khawaja was the batting star - with twin tons and a redemption story of getting back into the side and excelling after he was demoted
* Broad and Anderson strong bowling for England, and Bairstow and Stokes fought hard to help England secure the draw. Only compelling match of the series… until tonight.
* Last test an historic one at Hobart, where England bowled extremely well the 2nd innings to hold Australia close, but then couldn’t manage to extend on a fine opening start losing all 10 wickets for 56 after racing out to 0-68 in the 2nd session this evening. And this time the hero was Green, who took out the top 3 batsmen- two by bowling them!

Pretty fun to watch if you’re Australian, lots of questions will be asked back in England though. Like why England’s openers were so crap (Australia’s 10th wicket pair averaged better than England’s openers 14 - 12 until this innings just concluded!). Or why was Jimmy Anderson not in the attack in the first Test? Why was England’s pace so inferior to Australia until this fifth test?

Looking over my summaries above they’re pretty one sided.

But England has a few bright spots. I thought Root and Malan batted well together. The fight and lion hearts of Stokes and Bairstow were as we have come to expect. Wood bowled well as did Broad and Anderson - not sorry to see the back of that one. And the openers stood up and played positively tonight, but they were let down by the rest of the batsmen after they departed.

Farewell England. See you over there in 2024. Hope you fix your batting woes, and look forward to a stronger contest.