''CAPITULATION'' AN ANALYSIS OF THE ASHES
England were the champions; Australia were the pretenders. England were the calm and consistent side; Australia didn't know their best eleven. England were the favourites; Australia were the outsiders.
That was the majority view held on the eve of the first Test of this Ashes series, all the way back on the 21st of November in Brisbane. By the time the concluding Test had reached its end on the 5th of January in Sydney, the balance had shifted alarmingly.
Now; England are the team that never settle; Australia are the team that never change. England are the losers; Australia are the winners. England are the team humiliated; Australia are the team redeemed.
In short, Australia have whitewashed England. Even the most optimistic Australian cricket fan, in his wildest, Foster-fuelled fantasy, couldn’t have predicted such a turn-around in such a short space of time from the 3-0 defeat in England just a few months before. And if you were English, it really was a case of pulling the duvet over your head and praying for it to all be over soon.
The five Tests in this series all seemed to go along with the same narrative. Australia would usually bat first, England's bowlers would briefly trouble them before an Australian resurgence. Then England would bat and, more often than not, there would be a collapse of epic proportions, sparked by one of the three Australian seamers, regularly it was Mitchell Johnson. Australia would then pile on the misery in the second innings with the bat, before winning at a canter. The only Test that differed widely from this seemingly set template was the Boxing Day Test at Melbourne. In that game England actually managed to attain a first innings lead after batting first, before unravelling once more, and being embarrassed once again.
This was not a contest built on individuals; like Flintoff v Gilchrist in 2005. Rather, the contest that shaped the destiny of this series was between two key components of each side - English batting against Australian seam bowling. In the days of yore, more specifically the 2010/11 Ashes, England's batting completely dominated the Australian bowling attack and they surpassed 500 runs in a single innings four times. That was the perfect foundation upon which England's 3-1 success was built.
Flash-forward to today and it's a complete role reversal. English Batsmen were like rabbits in the headlights. It was a pathetic, shambolic and tired display by the English top-order against an Australian bowling attack that never stopped nibbling, biting and intimidating.
Only one English batsman made a century this series - the young all-rounder Ben Stokes in just his second Test match, a valiant yet ultimately futile act. Contrast that one English century with the Australian effort, which was a tenfold increase. In terms of averages, only one English player managed to keep his above 30 and that was Ben Stokes. It was a pitiful return for a team that boasts the likes of Alastair Cook, Kevin Pietersen and Ian Bell.
BY JOSHUA PEARCE