Ashes to Ashes

[Sweder]

Good call on Hussey MLCMan - he fought tooth and nail till the bitter end.

And, sadly it was a rather bitter end. Ponting stood tall (not easy for him), held his hands up and congratulated his enemy with only the slightest jibe about the state of the pitch (which he conceded was the same for both teams. I'd go further and say it was a pretty good test wicket; England scored 700 runs on it and Aussie only 200 fewer). But then, to paraphrase Sinatra, he had to spoil it all by saying something stupid like ... if you look at the stats it's hard to work out how this result came about.

Eh? I've looked at the stats every which-way; upside down, sober, slightly squiffy through the bottom of a champagne glass, in the reflection of the mirror, mirror on the wall, fed in and spit out by a thousand frantic, jabbering computers and they always come back the same: 2 - 1

BBC radio 5 Live played some excerpts from Aussie radio news stations this morning. Crikey you'd think the world had ended; calls for Ponting to fall on his sword are ridiculous. The man is still one of the finest batsmen in world cricket and a pretty good captain. As he might say, just look at the stats.

Andrew Strauss: an apology.
I may have given the impression in an earlier tirade that current England Captain Andrew Strauss might not have been fit to lace the boots of Micheal Vaughan. Now, I stand by my assertion that Vaughan is the better tactician, but given that Strauss has lead from the front like the stoutest, most hardened battle commander, weilding his bat like the sword of Damaclese and laying waste all outlanders before him, all without Pietersen and with only the shadow of Flintoff (glorious execution of Ponting aside) I am forced to concede that Mr Strauss has shown himself to be a leader of fortitude and substance. Unlike those cavorting merrymakers of four years past he and a good part of his team may well go on to better things.

I'm almost happier (than with victory itself) that the powers that be have eschewed the open-top bus triumphalism of 2005. That lead to an overwhelming avalanche of hubris and the 5-0 shellacking Down Under in 06/07. Instead a measured if exuberant lap of honour followed by some modest imbibing behind closed doors is the right response to a good win against the best test side in the world. Not a sniff of an MBE as yet, and neither should there be in my view.

Now, as the bright blue skies of Monday greet bleary eyes and foggy heads, the bells of selection doom start to toll.
And Collingwood, Bell, Bopara, Harmison? They toll for thee.