If certain people, mainly journalists and exclusively Australians, had had their way in the 1990s, the Ashes of 2009 would already be over, with England triumphant. They were the members of a noisy lobby who campaigned through their columns for Australia and England to settle their cricket differences over three rather than five Tests, on the grounds that the older country was no longer strong enough to give the younger country a decent game.
With the teams closer to parity, they must be thankful that the Ashes has kept its five-instalment structure, for it not only provides an opportunity for Australia to fight back from its 0–1 series deficit, but the chance to see two further intriguing Tests between rivals able only briefly to get the better of one another.
A curiosity is that Australia leads this series in every sense but the scoreline. Australian batsmen have scored six centuries and eight half-centuries; Hilfenhaus, Siddle, Hauritz and even Johnson have at least ten wickets each. For England, only Strauss has passed three figures, while eleven half-centuries have ended as such, and only Anderson has taken more than ten wickets, at a cost of 31.5. Flintoff, man of the match at Lord’s, has managed one wicket for 221 elsewhere.
While distorted by Australia’s batting beanfeast at Sophia Gardens, the statistics demonstrate why these next two Tests are such a blessing. Which is the better team needs to be determined by cricket’s longest haul, a haul already exacting a toll: Pietersen petered out, Lee never started; Haddin is no certainty to play at Headingley, and Flintoff almost a certainty not to. It should not be settled by two sessions of swing bowling in favourable conditions.
There is a feeling that the continuation of the series favours Australia, ever so slightly, apart than for the obvious reason that it offers the chance of clawing back. It’s probable we have seen the best of England, twice, when the weather was to their advantage. But we may not yet have seen the best of Australia, insofar as Mitchell Johnson only began turning the corner at Edgbaston, and neither Lee nor Clark have yet bowled an international ball in anger.
With the exception of their captain, England’s top six sans Pietersen pose more questions than answers. Australia’s batsmen, meanwhile, will arrive at Headingley with the lead back in their pencils after the second innings of the Third Test. Clarke is in irrepressible form; North and Watson have made good; Hussey’s half-century was a curate’s egg, but as the curate did not mind, nor probably will the selectors. The captain has averaged 21 since Cardiff, but will have fond memories of Leeds for the fine hundred he made there eight years ago.
There are now all sorts of reasons to anticipate drama in the Fourth Test. Strauss’ approval for Australia’s twelfth-hour selection of Graham Manou in Birmingham has made everyone a little less liverish, but back-to-back Test matches inevitably stretch endurance and patience. The Sydney Test in Australia, for instance, has become a flashpoint over the years because the players, umpires and even media are tired and cranky so soon after the Melbourne Test.
England used to boast of having a Headingley hoodoo on Australia—that is, until their rivals reamed them out there in 1989, 1993 and 1997. So stay tuned for a confrontation between two teams trying to sound a little more confident than they actually are—a confrontation for which we can already be thankful, and for which in the future we should be even more so.