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“Quite apart from his admirable stint with the willow, shout-out to Zac Crawley for his excellent post-match interview yesterday.” Writes Sarah Benton. “Even this Aussie-in-Ingerland can see him doing well on the after-dinner circuit in the future.”
“Until the last man is out, there is still hope for England.” Writes Andrew Benton. “And what next? Maybe England will win the next two and it’ll be a respectable 3:2 scoreline. Maybe heads will roll on Monday. But it’s all over far too soon.”
Would a 3-2 scoreline be more frustrating for England fans? If they suddenly start playing like we know they can when the pressure is off and the series is gone it’ll make what we’ve seen so far even more galling I reckon.
Geoff Lemon penned an ode to the magnificent Pat Cummins:
“England supporters will spend four years until their team’s next visit pondering explanations for this poor showing, inevitably including much examination of the lack of chances for their bowlers to adjust to Australian conditions. Cummins spent five months in the gym and the nets without once seeing the middle of a ground, latterly powering through what might have been a few months of rehab in the space of a few weeks, then hit the pitch for a Test match like he had never been away.”
“We’re staring down the barrel, so it’s disappointing. But we’ll never give up.”
Zak Crawley spoke honestly last evening:
“At which point, enter Brook, who is deep in it, an entire Test career played out around this regime, and who appears to be still fighting the second world war from inside a small copse. Brook and Crawley were putting pressure on the bowlers simply by surviving. The end of the day had begun to loom. This was England’s best batting of the series. At which point Brook did the thing.”
Barney Ronay lamented the latest brain fade from Harry Brook:
“There was a time when England players threw around phrases like “the more runs, the better” such was their confidence in the chase. But tasked with knocking off a world record 435 runs to stop Australia winning this Ashes series at the earliest opportunity, one suspects it was not said on Saturday.
Instead, having picked up six cheap wickets first thing to set up an unlikely five-session challenge, it was about seeing where they could get to by stumps on day four. The upshot was 207 for six from 63 overs which, while progress of sorts on this malfunctioning tour, means Australia will go into the final day of the third Test on the verge of an unassailable 3-0 lead.”
Catch up with Ali Martin’s report from yesterday:
Preamble
James Wallace
And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make result you get is equal to the way you perform on the pitch when it really matters. In the eye of the storm and in the heat of the pressure, against well drilled and ruthless opponents who don’t give you an inch. In the end, it took just 11 days.
Australia will win the Ashes today in Adelaide. It might take a few minutes, it might take a few hours, but it will happen. They’ve been magnificent, England have been a lot of things but mainly thunderingly, shatteringly, crushingly disappointing.
There has been rain around in Adelaide but the covers are off and the players are out in the middle going through their motions. England will resume on 207-6 and require a notional 228 more runs from the four wickets they have left to keep their Ashes hopes alive. That ain’t happening folks. With respect and apologies to Will Jacks, Jamie Smith and the rest of the lower order, I’ll swallow this laptop whole if they get within 100 runs of the 435 target.
Plenty to get stuck in to, do drop me a line if you are tuning in to these last rites. Play begins in just under 30 minutes. The End is nigh, the urn is Australia’s (almost).
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