Adelaide: This team was supposed to be Australia’s weakest Ashes side since 2010-11. This team has repeatedly been referred to as “not the strongest Australian side”, “not vintage” or “not as good as earlier teams”. This team has at times been called too old, too outspoken, too injury-affected and even, bizarrely, too woke.
What a load of bulldust. This team is bloody good.
The Australians celebrate their series win.Credit: Getty Images
About 2.10pm local time in Adelaide, they sealed the destiny of the Ashes in the space of three matches, or, by another measure, just 11 days. It was emphatic. England did their best to provide a Rorke’s Drift rearguard, helped by a hamstring injury to Nathan Lyon, but Australia still found a way through.
After Lyon and captain Pat Cummins had scythed through the top six on day four, Mitchell Starc reminded the 20,643 spectators present why he is surely a lock for man of the series, claiming Jamie Smith, Will Jacks and Jofra Archer before Scott Boland hammered in the final nail.
Fittingly, Marnus Labuschagne clasped the last catch from Josh Tongue, having epitomised what has been a sublime Australian fielding display all series. To further that point, the match award was rightly handed to Alex Carey for a century, a 70 and seven dismissals.
In the closing celebrations, Cummins hugged and lifted deputy Steve Smith with particular affection. Cummins’ back, Josh Hazlewood’s hamstring, Usman Khawaja’s spasms, Smith’s vertigo, Lyon’s hamstring: Australia have overcome plenty to get here.
Fittingly, Alex Carey was man of the match in his home town Test match.Credit: AP
Jacks and Smith began under overcast skies, with only the vaguest thoughts of getting close. Cummins started with Lyon and Cameron Green, seemingly eager to get to the second new ball as quickly as possible, although he might have also handed the ball to Scott Boland.
While Jacks played steadily, rotating strike and reprising his Gabba innings, Smith occasionally unfurled a big shot, swinging Lyon for six over square leg. Much to the enjoyment of the Barmy Army, a passing shower chose to hang around for long enough to delay play.
When the contest resumed, the new ball soon fell due, and Smith had begun to accelerate, getting on a run of four consecutive boundaries. Just when England fans had started to hope, Smith tried to smear Starc for six, and succeeded only in looping a simple catch to Cummins. Many a head was shaken at that sequence.
Brydon Carse was easy prey for Boland in the first innings, but he can bat, and played sensibly alongside Jack for another pesky stand either side of the break. Australia were by this time reckoning with the fact that Lyon was out of the match and probably the series with a jagged hamstring, and Cummins resorted to Travis Head’s spin.
At the scoreboard end, Cummins tried a yorker and won an lbw verdict against Carse, but the striker’s review showed a delivery fading down the leg side: this has not been a good week for the umpires.
With Head unthreatening, Cummins brought back Starc, this time from the River End for the first time in the match. Finally Jacks was tempted into an edge, and Labuschagne flew in front of Carey for his second stunning one-hander of the innings. It was probably Carey’s catch, but amid the celebrations nobody cared.
In the next over a Carse edge flashed past Green at a wide slip. Number 10 Jofra Archer, a willing ally for Stokes in the first innings, also edged Boland, but with Carey up to the stumps, the deflection hit the wicketkeeper’s arm. It really now did feel like a matter of time.
Starc persisted, and he eventually got Archer in unconventional fashion – a booming cut shot sliced in the air all the way to a deep backward point position, where Jake Weatherald held it safely. Archer and England supporters were crestfallen, Starc exultant. Labuschagne’s last catch brought a tight team huddle and an acknowledgement of defeat from Ben Stokes.
Rival Ashes captains Ben Stokes and Pat Cummins shake hands at the end of the Adelaide Test.Credit: Getty Images
“The dream we came here with is now over,” he said. “We’ve not been consistent or relentless enough.”
Australia may be missing Cummins on Boxing Day, but they are far from done. As Lisa Sthalekar related on SEN Radio, an overnight text message asking if he wanted to catch-up was met with a telling reply from Starc: “44 wickets to go”. Australia’ resolve, then, is not merely to retain the urn, but to get to 5-0. For motivation, they need only look as far as some of the English opinions trotted out in the months leading up to the series.
Here was one, from the former England batter Mark Ramprakash: “If Australia have ever been there for the taking, it is now. Looking at how the two sides are shaping up before the opening game I feel punchy about England’s chances: the team are strong, settled, and I think that if Ben Stokes plays all five Tests they will win the Ashes and win them comfortably. I can’t remember ever being so confident before an away Ashes.”
And, of course, let’s not forget Stuart Broad: “You wouldn’t be outlandish in thinking – it’s actually not an opinion, it’s a fact – it’s probably the worst Australian team since 2010 when England last won, and it’s the best English team since 2010. England have a great chance of being very good and Australia have a decent chance of being bad. I don’t think anyone could argue that it’s their weakest team since 2010 … it’s just a fact.”
The only fact that matters now, of course, is that Australia will now have held the Ashes for over a decade by the time the next battle is fought in 2027. If that isn’t proof of a “vintage” era for Australian cricket, then nothing much can be.
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Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: www.smh.com.au
