Cricket lovers today reminisce the golden age of Australian
cricket and realize that today’s Aussie line up doesn’t have the same vigour as
it was a few years ago. Certainly, the 3rd test match was washed out
and along with that the Australian hope of the Urn on English soil this year
was also flooded away. But certainly Australian batting line up looked
completely different from what it had been in Trentbridge and Lords. A firing
Rogers, a prolific young talent Steven Smith and a master class Clarke showed
the critics that good things if not classic can still be expected from this
current Australian cricket team.
Australia had received an English drubbing in the first two
matches of this Ashes series and talks of a 5-0 whitewash was in the air, which
was quite a result of two abject performances from the Aussies. But Clarke and
his men had decided to turn around things. Their urgency to salvage pride out
of this tour was quite conspicuous from the kind of start Rogers provided;
later Smith and Clarke added 214 for the fourth wicket showed that the Aussies
had no intentions of making things any more easier for the Englishmen to
humiliate them.
Thanks to a mesmerizing 187 by Clarke and a brilliant 89 by
Smith Australia managed to put up a mammoth 537 on board before calling on
England to take on the proceedings. Though both Clarke and Smith would be
disappointed for missing out on their double century and century respectively,
they has done enough as far as batting was concerned. The rest was ensured by a
fiery Australian pace battery to keep the first innings under their belt. 4 for
Siddle, 3 for Starc and 2 for Harris in the first innings checked the English
line up at 368 despite of Pietersen’s heroics with a ton and handy knocks of 60+
scores by Cook and Bell.
While the Australians came back to bat for second innings
Warner who failed to make his mark in the first innings scored a sweet 41, while
Clarke looked to continue with his good form and looked to provide the
necessary impetus for Australia to post a good target for Australia. Australia
were 331 runs ahead, after scoring 172/7 in the second innings, thanks to the
169 run deficit that England faced because of a faltering batting line up,
events started changing course. Due to bad light which was later accompanied by
heavy showers, play for the fourth day wasting one complete session after tea.
The last day of the 3rd test was supposed to be
the most dramatic day in this Ashes test series. Australia declared its innings
before the start of play thus leaving England a target of 332 to clinch a 3rd
straight victory. For the first time in this series England was under the pump,
and it could be easily seen when Captain Cook was trapped of a beautiful
inswinging delivery by Ryan Harris who had previously set him up with three
outswinging balls, and the result was LBW! England was soon left in the fringes
once Trott and Pietersen followed suit and were dismissed cheaply to leave
England reeling at 37/3.
But before Australia could enjoy anymore rain intervened and
the play couldn’t continue anymore. The result was a draw. And with that
Australia’s hopes of regaining the Urn was washed off. As per the rules even if
Australia manage to win the next two matches and draw the series the Urn will
still be retained by England as they were the winners of the previous Ashes
series.
But we have another Ashes coming up later this year in
Australia, which has been done so that Australia gets ample amount of time to
prepare for 2015 Cricket World Cup. As such if Australia can even manage to win
one of the next two matches and draw another or at least don’t concede another
victory to England, in my view should suffice. They are going through a
transitional phase and can train hard and take lessons from the current Ashes
series. There are plenty of good signs for Australia, Clarke found his form
back, Rogers is trying hard, Warner is looking good, their bowling line up can
deliver and of all Steven Smith has been a revelation. English players often
joke that Smith finds a place in the Aussie test side because of his ability to
crack humourous jokes but Smith is proving them all wrong. He hasn’t yet played
any big innings but the omens look good. He has a lot of talent and intent. He
is handy with the ball. Smith is definitely an exciting prospect for Australia.
The only concern for Australia now is Watson’s batting. He has been good with
the ball, but if somehow he can find some runs with his bat it would boost
Australia’s performances too.
On the flipside England were ordinary in the 3rd
test match. They were kept under the pump in all the three departments of the
game and Australians showed the English side that they are yet to achieve
greatness. England’s complacency was visible, and their invincibility was
called into question. Trott’s bad run in this series continues and the
faltering tail of English batting caused by the early exits of Bell will add to
their woes. To add to their problem, no one in the English side has been
consistent enough except Bell. Root who stole the spotlight for his 180 in the
second test looked to have left his form at Lords, Cook’s failure to play big
innings is certainly affecting the whole team. They will definitely need to reassess
their shortcomings and start afresh in the next match. They can’t take
Australia lightly, not anymore.
