On day five in Adelaide, England fans let out their biggest cheer of this Ashes series. The Barmy Army sang; a man in a Watford shirt danced.
Rain had stopped play.
The irony was, on the last day of this match, Ben Stokes’ side actually finally put in a performance worth commending. But the first four days were so abysmal – following England capitulations in each of the first two Tests – that fans who had paid thousands to be there would rather sit inside and watch the rain fall.
It couldn’t last forever, and the half-hour delay couldn’t keep the tourists alive. Before the tea break, Marnus Labuschagne took his fourth catch of the innings to bludgeon the nail into England’s coffin and seal the Ashes for Australia once more – this time in just eleven days of cricket.
It speaks to how dire the first ten of those days were, that I felt some sort of pride knowing we had only lost by 82 runs. In fact, facing a mammoth target of 435, England delivered undoubtedly their best innings of the series. Six batters reached thirty. Two fifties, no hundreds.
But there was grit, determination, and defiance. Will Jacks and Jamie Smith faced 30 overs for the 91 runs they added, and genuinely looked capable of taking it to the wire before Smith lost the plot on 60 looking for a fifth consecutive boundary.
Still, it was a vastly improved performance from the wicketkeeper. His Surrey teammate Jacks, meanwhile, faced 137 balls for 47 – on top of the 92 he held out for in support of his captain in Brisbane. While he is no frontline spinner, he can be proud of his efforts, and might find himself batting at three on Boxing Day.
Ollie Pope is probably at the end of the line for now, and this time even I’m not arguing with that. He just looks permanently unsure of himself – but he has always been a good player, and has time left in his career to return.
A man often spoken about in the same breath is Zak Crawley – but his 85 looked assured, and made it two half-centuries for the series. In England’s top-order right now, he looks like Sir Alastair Cook.
In the spirit of giving Australia a paragraph, I’m happy to say that Mitchell Starc didn’t do it all himself this time. The returning Pat Cummins led his troops well, with a suffocating all-round bowling display and six wickets of his own. Travis Head, meanwhile, scored a fourth consecutive century at Adelaide; his state teammate Alex Carey made 106 and 72.
It wasn’t all good news for the victors, as the irreplaceable Nathan Lyon went off on crutches on day five. Irreplaceable is the right word – even if he only bowled two overs in the first Test, was dropped for the second, and Australia still won both.
England will see that as an opening – after all, losing 4-1 sounds a bit better than losing 5-0. All they really have to salvage from this nightmare, beyond several players’ careers, is that elusive victory down under. Not winning a series – winning a single game. It’s evaded us for 14 years. Maybe it was stupid to think we could get three.
