4-0 A FAIR REFLECTION..

Only a handful of people would have thought that England will turn the tide in the final test of what has been a brutal Ashes series for them. Root won the toss for the fourth time in the series and chose to bat. Root batted brilliantly for his 83 before leg glancing one off Mitchell Starc straight into the hands Mitchell Marsh at square leg. Dawid Malan again showed tremendous character to get another half century. Lower middle order helped England post 346 which was not a bad score but wasn't enough by any means. As soon as England took the field it was all about Australian batting might. Khawaja smashed his first ever ashes hundred and went on to make it a big one. Shaun Marsh had a series to savour as he scored another hundred complemented by his brother Mitchell Marsh who also smashed his way to another scintillating knock. Steven Smith declared the innings with a lead of 303 which was clearly way beyond England's capacity. Australia's bowling chart was dominated by Pat Cummins in the second innings who took 8 wickets in the match. Joe Root grinded out another fifty but he was badly affected by dehydration and so couldn't continue. England lost comfortably by an innings and 123 runs to lose the urn and the series by a humiliating margin of 4-0.
Half the battle was won even before a ball was bowled in the series because of what happened to Ben Stokes. As soon as Ben Stokes did what he did it was very clear that he was going to struggle to be in Australia. I didn't think that England would have any chance of competing in Australia without Ben Stokes. Role of the specialist spinner was played by Moeen Ali who really is a batsman who bowls a bit. He had a terrible series. If England had any plans to play Mason Crane in Sydney then why didn't he play in any of the matches last summer? I think he should have played against the West Indies because for a 20 year old leggie to make his Ashes debut at Sydney in front of 50000 people with England already trailing 3-0 is a massive task. But I am delighted that he handled it pretty well. Actually him bowling to Mitchell Marsh late on day 3 and going past the outside edge consistently was one of the moments of the summer to me. Steven Smith has to get mentioned because of what he has done to England with his gritty batting display. He is almost into his eighth year of test cricket and bowlers around the world are still searching for the potential weakness in his technique. Smith scored 683 runs at an average of over 130 which is quite remarkable in itself. He definitely was the difference with the bat but test matches can not be won unless you take 20 wickets and Australian bowling line up lived up to the expectations. I don't know who's idea it was but to have Starc-Hazlewood-Cummins-Lyon playing for New South Wales in a couple of shield games was a masterstroke. The fact that all four of them hadn't played a single game together made it even more special because eventually that extra speed of 10-15 kilometers per hour made a huge difference. All in all it was a one sided Ashes series with a few interesting passages of play. It is very clear that Australia are much closer to winning in England than England are to winning in Australia because the gulf between the two countries in this part of the world is massive.

ENGLAND'S BATTLE FOR PRIDE...

England go into the fifth test with a bit of relief as there is no possibility of a white wash after they successfully managed to draw the last test match at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. Though they were in a healthy position to try and have a crack at an unlikely win after a very emotional double hundred from Alastair Cook. After rain wiped off the last two sessions of day 4 there was only one result possible and Steven Smith stamped his authority again by scoring a patient hundred in the second innings. Warner's first innings hundred had given the Australians a great head start to set up the match and go into the pink test at Sydney with a 4-0 lead.
   There will be at least one change in both the sides. Mitchell Starc will come back in place of Jackson Bird while young Hampshire leg spinner Mason Crane is set to make his test match debut. He has a bit of experience playing at the Sydney Cricket Ground as he has played for New South Wales during the last season under Stuart McGill. I don't think England will drop moeen Ali as the Sydney pitch is generally conducive to spinners. Chris Woakes is not fully fit and therefore Mason Crane will be likely included in place of Chris Woakes. It will be very interesting to look at England approach. For all the hard work that they have put in, they will be desperate to sign off with a win and have something to show for when they go back home.