The Ashes 2013 -14: 14 days of tormention and battering

Australians celebrating

5-0 - Yes, that’s the score line every cricket fan is looking forward to, particularly, after the how the Ashes series has panned out in the last 14 days. Australia have already regained the Ashes, after 4 years, and will surely aim for a 5-0 whitewash of England.

England won the series in 2010, the last time they were in Australia, but this series has totally been a different challenge to them. Probably they never expected such a turnaround from the Australians. It seems as if Australia have got the new team that can rebuild their Test cricket legacy. The Aussies badly wanted to win this series after failures in India and England. After winning today, Michael Clarke’s bad phase is over and the spotlight has turned over to Alastair Cook.

Cook’s batting form has really been a cause of concern for the past few months. From his point of view, the 2010-11 series and this present series are the two sides of the same coin. He was at the form of his life in the previous series, scoring over 500 runs in 7 innings, and with Andrew Strauss, he laid the platform for the middle order batsmen to take the attack to the Aussies. But in this series he has not been able to score and when he had some starts, he failed to convert it into some really big ones.

The English bowlers did a very good job in the 1^st innings of the Gabba Test to restrict Australia but the tide turned when they were at the crease. They had to face a renewed and resurgent Mitchell Johnson who was intelligently used (in spells of 5 or 6 overs) by captain Clarke. He provided some nasty ones and made sure that the batsmen were uncomfortable against him. He had his opponents on their toes by his ferocious pace and accurate bouncers.

Short pitch bowling was used to its full effect against Kevin Pieterson and Jonathan Trott. The latter bowed out of the Ashes series because of stressed related illness and Pieterson too was never given the opportunity to attack as he usually did.

The strong message was sent to the Englishmen particularly when their tail-enders were batting. Johnson’s bouncers completely rattled Anderson, Swann and Broad. Not only Johnson, but Peter Siddle and Ryan Harris were also ordered to attack the tail. When England came to field in the 2^nd innings, their shoulders were already dropped as mentally they were damaged. Australia faced no difficulty in batting in the 2^nd innings as all the English bowlers were demoralized. Stuart Broad, occasionally, tried to pitch short but he didn’t produce such pace as Johnson did and thus was attacked by David Warner and Michael Clarke. England, at this point, had already lost the match and the series.

Mitchell Johnson has proved to be the vital difference between the two teams. He has made a great comeback to test cricket and had some tears in his eyes after winning the 3^rd test. Every time he steamed into the batsmen, the crowd began to get behind him in anticipation of something to happen.

The Barmy army enjoyed their tour, 3 years back, but this time they were completely quiet. Seeing their team being tormented, they were just happy to be silent.

The Adelaide Test will be known for some brilliant fast bowling performance by Mitchell Johnson. He ripped the batting order in the 1^st innings by taking 7 wickets and was, deservingly, awarded the Man of the Match award.

The 3^rd Test was even more demoralizing for England as their captain was dismissed for a golden duck off an unplayable delivery from Harris. Stuart Broad suffered a minor injury from an in swinging yorker from Johnson. James Anderson, who was being considered as one of the best swinging bowlers before the start of this series, was thrashed for a whooping 28 runs by George Bailey.

Graeme Swann got much help from the pitches in England but here, Nathan Lyon grabbed that opportunity. He got the turn and bounce which he is so well used to. This trick was used for dismissing Ian Bell and Matt Prior in the 1^st innings.

It is said that whenever you travel to Australia for a series, you should be prepared to get battered on field and to be damaged mentally. That’s what England team have faced on this tour. If Australia continue to play like this, they will pose a serious threat to all the cricket playing nations as they did 7 years back and it will be just a matter of time when they will again stamp their authority in Test cricket.