I stayed up till 1 30 (lunch) to see how England fared. We were 50 odd for 0. Carberry had looked a little shaky, but he was still at the crease, and Cook had been fluent and positive in his start. Even with England's soft batting underbelly in the series, I expected to wake up in the morning to find out that we had set the Australians at least 300 to win as a minimum. How wrong was I? 179 all out. My hopes had been dashed.
The aussies made light work of the run chase. A second batting collapse was no option for Michael Clarke's men, and England were 4-0 down. Slack fielding in the shape of dropped catches didn't help England's cause, although even if they would have been taken I would have backed Australia to get over the line.
So with one test match to go, the ashes already lost, and a 5-0 series whitewash looking inevitable for Cook and co, where has it all gone wrong?
Firstly, England's batting has not been good enough. Ben Stokes is the only player to score a century, and this highlights why England find themselves 4-0 down. Too many good starts for players, not enough conversions into high scores. Carberry is a prime example. 40 in his first innings of the series at Brisbane, 60 at Adelaide, 43 and 31 at Perth and 38 at the MCG. He's looked decent, played some nice strokes, and for the majority of his time spent at the crease he's looked relatively comfortable. But he has yet to hit that big score that changes the game in England's favour and cements his place in the team. Granted he's had some bad luck with dismissals but this can't totally be blamed for his lack of a game changing total. The same goes for captain Cook, Pietersen and Bell. As for the lower order, they've been blown away nearly every time with little resistance. They've almost looked scared to face Mitchell Johnson at times, and while I think James Anderson and Monty Panesar can be excused for not scoring, Broad, Swann, Bresnan, and Prior/Bairstow have got to hit some vital runs lower down the order.
The bowling is the next reason why we've failed. The conditions don't suit James Anderson, Broad has been good in patches, Bresnan doesn't quite cut the mustard for my money and Stokes has got potential but isn't the full product yet. Swann earlier in the series was targeted by the Australians and didn't cause too many problems. So what is the solution to our bowling woes? Although it isn't a big a problem as our batting, there's still a lot of room for improvement. Firstly, I think we should have brought either Tremlett/Rankin in from the start of the series. They can bang the ball in, and I think would be able to blow the tail away in a similar way to Mitchell Johnson. Finn can do this too, but personally I think he leaks too many runs. And secondly, the core bowlers, Anderson and Broad, need to regain their best form if we have any chance of preventing a 5-0 scoreline.
Lastly, a huge amount of credit needs to be given to our Australian opponents. Beaten 3-0 in the summer (a closer scoreline would have been fairer), they have played exceptionally well. Harris and Siddle have kept things very tight, plugging away ball after ball while Johnson has been the one grabbing the headlines. As for the batting, Watson and Rogers have given the Aussies more good starts than bad, while Haddin has come in late to hit some match changing runs towards the later of the innings. Smith, a player I don't particularly rate, has hit a couple of good scores, while Clarke is just world class. The batting performances of the tail, for me, has optimised the difference between the sides. The English tail looks weak and easily dismantled, while the aussie tail have been resilient and tough to dismiss.
In conclusion, England will definitely have some regrets after this series. I think the decision to leave out a genuine quick bowler, loose shots by batsman and some bad luck with Clarke winning every toss. However, Australia have been outstanding. Their batting solid, their bowling consistent. Johnson has blown away our team at times, I don't think he's a world class bowler by any means, but he's been good enough to make England crumble. Well played Australia, lets hope England regroup and bounce back in 2015.
