![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
athersgeoWell, it's now, officially, close of play (yes, I know, I'm late - but meh, I've only just been able to watch the highlights [though I did get to see the presentations at the gym while I absentmindedly peddled myself into the ground!]) and I think Botham's quote (which is a mis-quote of a mis-quote of Steve Waugh's*!) rather sums it up.
It's been a fabulous series.
The funny thing is, most of the pundits said the scoreline would be 2-1 - but no-one was giving England a prayer.
You can talk about luck, but you often make your own. It's something that England have learned over the last 16 years and Warne dropping KP on 15 rather highlights it. You can also talk about umpiring, but realistically, the bad/dodgy decisions did go to both teams pretty evenly, it's more the Australian dodgy decisions are higher profile. You can also talk about the weather - but it's fair to say that if the weather did England a favour here in London, it did Australia a big favour in Manchester.
Overall, Ricky Ponting said it best: We were outplayed in four out of five tests. And Australia were. None of the victories were hammerings - but, to be fair to Australia, that's because they fought tooth and nail at Edgbaston, Old Trafford and Trent Bridge. In particular, Shane Warne and Brett Lee can look back at their series and say "I have nothing to be ashemed of; I genuinely did my best" - and who knows; Brett Lee just may be the next Andrew Flintoff if he keeps up his batting! Of the rest of the Aussie team, Langer and Ponting had pretty good series, Michael Clarke and Shaun Tait look promising (though Tait needs to work on his batting in an even worse way than Glenn McGrath did when HE first started out!) and Glenn McGrath did an honest job between his injuries. The rest...maybe need to do some rethinking. Particularly the other bowlers.
For England, nevermind the new Botham. Andy Flintoff is, as he rather neatly put it a couple of years ago, the FIRST Andrew Flintoff. Marcus Trescothick and Andrew Strauss are heading towards being the next Gooch/Atherton opening pair (had Atherton and Gooch ever played on speed, that is!). Michael Vaughan is as good a captain as England have had in a long while (possibly since Brearley? Certainly, he's better at man management than Stewart, Atherton and Gooch) and better yet, when he needs to, he can produce the runs. The bowling...when one fails, the next guy steps up to the plate. I think the only England bowler not to be super effective was Harmison - and it's probably fair to say that he helped whoever he was bowling with to take a wicket because the Australian batsmen weren't too keen on facing him and preferred to take their chances with Jones, Hoggard, Flintoff or Giles! The worry for England must be Simon Jones. Is he going to be another sick-note, injury prone fast bowler?
*During the 1999 World Cup, Steve Waugh was reputed to have said to Hershelle Gibbs (after Gibbs had dropped Waugh during a crucial Super Six match) "How does it feel to know you've dropped the cup?". Waugh insists what he actually said was "How does it feel to know you've cost your team the match?", but even he agrees the former version sounds better!
It's been a fabulous series.
The funny thing is, most of the pundits said the scoreline would be 2-1 - but no-one was giving England a prayer.
You can talk about luck, but you often make your own. It's something that England have learned over the last 16 years and Warne dropping KP on 15 rather highlights it. You can also talk about umpiring, but realistically, the bad/dodgy decisions did go to both teams pretty evenly, it's more the Australian dodgy decisions are higher profile. You can also talk about the weather - but it's fair to say that if the weather did England a favour here in London, it did Australia a big favour in Manchester.
Overall, Ricky Ponting said it best: We were outplayed in four out of five tests. And Australia were. None of the victories were hammerings - but, to be fair to Australia, that's because they fought tooth and nail at Edgbaston, Old Trafford and Trent Bridge. In particular, Shane Warne and Brett Lee can look back at their series and say "I have nothing to be ashemed of; I genuinely did my best" - and who knows; Brett Lee just may be the next Andrew Flintoff if he keeps up his batting! Of the rest of the Aussie team, Langer and Ponting had pretty good series, Michael Clarke and Shaun Tait look promising (though Tait needs to work on his batting in an even worse way than Glenn McGrath did when HE first started out!) and Glenn McGrath did an honest job between his injuries. The rest...maybe need to do some rethinking. Particularly the other bowlers.
For England, nevermind the new Botham. Andy Flintoff is, as he rather neatly put it a couple of years ago, the FIRST Andrew Flintoff. Marcus Trescothick and Andrew Strauss are heading towards being the next Gooch/Atherton opening pair (had Atherton and Gooch ever played on speed, that is!). Michael Vaughan is as good a captain as England have had in a long while (possibly since Brearley? Certainly, he's better at man management than Stewart, Atherton and Gooch) and better yet, when he needs to, he can produce the runs. The bowling...when one fails, the next guy steps up to the plate. I think the only England bowler not to be super effective was Harmison - and it's probably fair to say that he helped whoever he was bowling with to take a wicket because the Australian batsmen weren't too keen on facing him and preferred to take their chances with Jones, Hoggard, Flintoff or Giles! The worry for England must be Simon Jones. Is he going to be another sick-note, injury prone fast bowler?
*During the 1999 World Cup, Steve Waugh was reputed to have said to Hershelle Gibbs (after Gibbs had dropped Waugh during a crucial Super Six match) "How does it feel to know you've dropped the cup?". Waugh insists what he actually said was "How does it feel to know you've cost your team the match?", but even he agrees the former version sounds better!
(no subject)
Date: 2005-09-16 03:36 pm (UTC)As an English girl to the pundits, a bit fat 'ha, ha, ha, ha, ha' along with I hope you love the English weather ^^
(no subject)
Date: 2005-09-16 03:39 pm (UTC)