Aussies get the shades of real Australia!

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 3^rd 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 3^rd 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 3^rd 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 3^rd 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.