To describe this in cliches...
England had "hit the ground running" until they came to a screeching halt at Perth and now Australia "have the momentum" but are possibly without a captain. So we are uncertain as to who has the psychological advantage.
But we did relearn a couple of lessons. Never rule Australia out. And never really bank on England.
Its like England's batsmen had accounted for their quota of runs for the series, in the first 2 Tests and thought that those runs will carry over. Well they don't.
Ponting will, perhaps stubbornly, give himself every chance of playing in Melbourne, but I am sure there will be many who might think of this injury to Ponting as; to use another cliche; a "blessing in disguise".Although Ponting not playing at Melbourne is as likely as Sehwag learning to respect spin bowlers.
Swann; if fit; will likely give England an edge at Sydney; which makes Melbourne a must win for Australia
Is this a case of a talented team on the rise, having a bad Test or just that England were never real?
Is this a case of a team in decline willing itself to to play beyond their means or just that we were all idiots to question Australia's decline?
Or is it; to use another cliche...."Its a bit of everything"....
I say its the former in both cases. In their prime, Australia used to play with this intensity against Bangladesh Board President's XI. Now it takes the indignity of the prospect losing an Ashes series for the 2nd straight time.
This really doesn't change anything.
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4 comments:
melbourne will show if this was match was an aberration..
Australia's batting needs to do a little better. They can't expect to win test matches without putting up lower than 300 runs every time.
latb, "aberration" probably the word I was looking for!
vidoo, good point. My fear is England will tweak too much in response to this loss and Pontings absence will help the Australian cause. He has become too grumpy...like Tendulkar when he was captain.
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