marc71178 said:
Well what I'm getting fed up is seeing the same excuses being brought out after every game, and modified with no credit for the way England have performed.
Prior to the series I always said the ashes would be close and have said throughout the series that England have played well.
Prior to this series most people either felt the same way or else thought it would be another cakewalk for Australia. Even the England team stated they wanted to 'compete' and hoped they might do ok.
But most people agreed that if England were to win the ashes the following had to take place:
England had to play out of their skin.........................they did
Australia had to be below par...................................they were
England had to somehow find 20 wickets a match.....they did easily
England had to have some luck................................they did
England had to remain injury free..............................they mostly did (moreso than Australia anyway)
As such they won the Ashes 2-1 by the narrowest of margins and deserved to. Those 2 runs at Edgbaston made all the difference.
The series went down to the wire and England were only comfortable after tea on the final day of the final test.
As for Australia - the only reason they would make wholesale changes is if they are planning for the future. If they want to pick the best XI for the super series and the next ashes series they would more or less put the current side on the park as they are still more or less the best players in the country.
You wouldn't drop Hayden (who will always play well in Australia) or Martyn (who hit 8 centuries in the last 18 months and is by no means past it) or Clarke (Australia's player of the year and future star) or probably even Katich. And you definitely wouldn't drop Gilchrist, Langer or Ponting. As for the bowlers - Warne, McGrath and Lee walk straight in and are still performing. Lee bowled a hell of a lot better than his Ashes stats suggest.
It all depends if the selectors believe now is the time to sacrifice some current results for the sake of the future.
As far as I'm concerned this series and the result is the best thing that could have happened for Australian cricket. For the last decade test cricket, in most Australians minds, has been absolutely dead because of the gulf between Australia and the rest of the world. The Ashes has been a joke and the Australian public, whilst enjoying the side belting everybody, has no doubt craved some decent competition.
Australia lost the ashes by the narrowest of margins to a top side, dying for each other on their home soil, with a home crowd (and nation) lifting them to the peak of their abilities in the greatest and most thrilling sustained sporting competition I can ever remember .
I hardly believe it's panic stations for Australia just yet.
