Although this is the most exciting and enthralling test series I remember. I can't help thinking that some of the cricket has been pretty average to below par.
There is certainly a good argument that both sides are putting tremendous pressure on one another causing mistakes, but I'm referring to the high level of no-balls (from both sides), the incredible amount of relatively easy dropped catches, (Pietersen 6 or so on his own). The inconsistency and lack of swing by the Australian bowlers. The lower order batsmen showing up the top order on several occasions.
Hey I'm not complaining, because I've never been so engrossed in a test series, but wonder if anyone else shares this view
It's what happens in a tight series. Sides put pressure on each other so that players you'd ordinarily expect to do really well fail and the pressure does make sides drop catches too. Certainly the fielding hasn't been the greatest this series but the batting from England has been excellent and the bowling from both sides (excepting Gillespie and Kasper) has been world-class. It's the high-standard and high-pressure which has caused it. Gillespie may have been able to get away with bowling like he has against other teams nad may well have eventually bowled himself back into form but the standard of batting against them has meant they look like second-rate plodders. McGrath and Warne have shown just how very good they are and the English bowling has been, well, outstanding in a word. It has been so good, in fact, that I don't think they'll ever again bowl as well as a team. There's just been no let-up for the Aussie batsmen and they haven't liked it!
I think it's been a high standard series, but not on the same level as Australia in the West Indies 94/95, which had a West Indies side in decline but with a new generation like Lara, Ambrose and Walsh at their peak, and an awesome Australian side that fought tooth & nail to beat them. Steve Waugh's performances in that series rank alongside anything I've ever seen with the bat, and Ambrose and McGrath were simply awesome with the ball.
I distinctly remember Lara coming into the series in fantastic form and having a fairly average series because the Aussie bowlers bowled so well to him. He came so close to really getting away a few times (especially the 88 he made in the second Test - THAT was a great knock and he was only undone by a freakish catch by Boonie at short mid-off) but because of the high-standard of bowling by Reiffel, Julian and McGrath, he just couldn't make the break-through.
I also remember Ambi was well below par and was probably past his peak by that point. He really went missing for the first two Tests and only really got going in the Test you mentioned on a nasty green-top. Then in the final Test, again he went missing and from what I remember of the Australian innings of 531, bowled absolute tripe when his team really needed him. His average for the series was around 20 but in reality, that third Test where he took 5/45 and 4/20 (9 wickets in the match out of a series tally of 13) flattered the rest of his series. He didn't really bowl that well at all. Kenny Benjamin was more threatening on a consistent basis.
Walsh, on the other hand, was who kept the WI in it. 20 wickets at 21 and he bowled almost 50 more overs for the series than Ambi did. He was amazing, even on the rather flat deck the second Test was played on where he took a bag.
Steve Waugh; 429 runs at 107 with one hundred and three 50's. 'nuff said. Was the reason Australia won. Reiffel and McGrath were definitely the most threatening Aussie bowlers all series too. I remember thinking about McGrath that if he didn't deliver in that series, after a pretty average summer in Australia against England, that his place in the side would be under threat. Boy, did he bowl well in a pretty tight series.
As for the decks, only the third Test was a genuinely nasty deck. The 2nd and 4th Tests were roads and the first Test was a decent pitch but good bowling got rewards.
), but my point was just that it was a close series with very high standard cricket between two excellent teams. Nobody was putting down 7 catches in a day or bowling spells like Lee at Edgbaston, both sides bowled brilliantly and usually got some help from the conditions and largely the batting was good too, with Waugh obviously the stand-out.
