what you don't seem to get about cricket though is the human aspect of the game. Pressure builds, an atmosphere is created by a load of little things happening. The 2020 game in 2005 was important, it sent out a message. As an Australian supporter, that made my heart beat a bit faster. The game itself wasnt important, the message England gave out was.
Suggesting Jonathan Lewis (the biggest reason behind England's victory in that game, along with Darren Gough and Paul Collingwood) played any real part in the Ashes victory, to me, is ludicrous, sorry.
Aside from the fact, this is, that the Australians were - sometimes overwhelmingly - the better side on all bar 1 occasion (the Headingley ODI) from that Twenty20 game onwards. I indeed had a high heartbeat in that 20-over game (the one and only time in my life that I have had from such a game) but it soon went down again, and did not rise in a like manner until that morning at Edgbaston.
To suggest that pressure built because of that Twenty20 game is crazy. Corey (Top_Cat) summed it up best at the time - the Australians weren't worried, they were bemused. The attitude after said game was best summed-up as "cripes, they took that seriously didn't they?
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Things like Harmison cutting Pontings face!!! Its a tone setter.
A tone-setter for a 239-run defeat?
Honestly, people get too hyped-up about there being blood. Had the blow been at a slightly different angle and no blood appeared, no-one would have talked much about it.
Unfortunatley, until you accept these types of things in cricket, you will never have a good understanding of the game. Everything about that series WAS important, more than any series I have ever watched. It was so fast moving, the momentum of the games could swing to the other team in minutes (and frequently did). Psychological battles were being won and lost all through that summer.
Yes, indeed, and until Edgbaston the Australians were winning virtually the lot. The momentum shifted, completely, on that opening morning of the second Test. The Australians had dominated most of the last 16 years. But from that moment to the end of the series, England dominated the vast majority.
Re: Harmisons slower ball to Clarke. Yeah Clarke did read the wrong line, but it was because it was a slower ball.
I don't think so. Why would speed make a batsman misread the line?