Ashes to Ashes

[Sweder]

Rollercoaster time

England appeared to have missed a trick first up, making barely 300 on what 'experts' extolled as a flat track. Then Timber! Aussie wickets going down like Rainforest in the Amazon basin. Now, day three, the track looks benign with England ticking along at a gentle rate. Approaching halfway through this match the Crims will need to pull a raft of rabbits out of their baggy green caps if they are to retain the urn.

A fun if slightly frivolous farewell from Fred, taking the fight to the bowlers but ultimately perishing in what some might see as a poor attempt to underline his legacy in the long game. Flintoff's final test batting average is a modest 31.77. As we know stats rarely tell the full story. This applies doubly so in Freddie's case, yet I can't help but look on his career as having fallen short. Hampered by niggling injury, plagued by human foibles and too often failing to lay off the hi-jinks, Flintoff may be a media darling but in my eyes, in the modern Ashes anthology, he plays poor second fiddle to the mighty Botham. Flintoff is a likeable man, a loveable rogue and an undoubted talisman in a side desperate for heroes, yet I feel the cold hand of hyperbole has elevated his resputation to a false position. Thankfully young Broad has the look of a man ready to step into the all-rounders over-sized boots even as Fred limps into history, and he's doing so without the distracting shennanigans.

This series has been something of a curate's egg, lacking the close-balanced intensity of the magical 2005 episode. Perhaps it's the dearth of larger-than-life characters - Ponting stands alone as our favorite Panto villain - though some for the future like Broad, Swann, Strauss and, for sheer guts, Mitchell Johnson, have emerged. I've missed Haden - who has blossomed into a consumate radio summeriser - Warne, Lee and yes, even McGgrath.

Compelling none the less.
I think they're coming home ...