While Ricky Ponting and Mike Hussey were together in the middle, gamely chipping away at England’s monumental lead, there was a glimmer of hope — a small chance of a miraculous victory. But when Ponting was run out after attempting an adventurous single, that hope quickly faded. Getting out to a brilliantly unplayable ball is bad enough, but getting needlessly run out at a crucial moment wins the “suckiest method of dismissal” prize (oh, except that time that Steve Waugh caught the cricket ball of his own bat… that was pretty sucky too).
With the departure of Ponting, the Aussie’s quickly crumbled, and a previously subdued England finally started to believe that — this time — they would not grasp defeat from the jaws of victory. That they would in fact, win.
Is England a better side? Statistically speaking, not really. With the exception of the leading run scorer, Andrew Strauss, six of the top seven batsmen with the most runs were Australians. The English team only scored two centuries, while the Australian’s scored eight. Again, with the bowling, the top three bowlers with the most wickets, were Australian’s and eight of the ten biggest batting partnerships were by the Australian team.
On paper, Australia looked like the better team. They have some very good players, who one could imagine, will turn into very good and consistent crickets over the next few years. But England were none the less, prevalent, despite their timid middle order and general inconsistency with the bat and ball. They will no double feel a little lucky to have one this one, given the debilitating injuries to two of their best players.
Australia’s biggest problem is the perception that they should still be a great team. Nevermind the fact that some of Australia’s best ever players have retired in recent years. The likes of Shane Warne, Glen McGrath, Adam Gilchrist, Matthew Hayden, Steve Waugh, Justin Langer, Jason Gillespie and Damien Martyn can’t easily be replaced. Australia aren’t a great team anymore, they are simply a good team — and good teams don’t win 16 consecutive Test matches. Good teams are vincible.
This series defeat will hit Ponting and the Australia team hard, since they most likely think that they were the better team, but calls for Ponting to resign as Captain are reactionary and absurd. It’d be like a tired and fading marathon runner shooing themselves in the foot, in the hope that it would give them an extra burst of energy to get to the finish line. It just doesn’t make sense. He is still Australia’s best batsmen and most experienced player and using him as a scapegoat would just illustrate the Australian cricket teams decline from great to good.
The key for Australia is to realize that they are no longer invincible and that when they lose, it isn’t simply an aberration, soon to be brutally rectified with a crushing return to form in the following match, it’s a sign that maybe some batsmen or bowlers aren’t performing as well as they should and that more of a horses for courses approach needs to be taken since Australia no longer has a well rounded bowling attack that can bowl unchanged in any conditions, no matter how green or dusty.