Perth : Day 3 : Gilchrist wins the Ashes
Any lingering hope that England might have had of somehow retaining the Ashes all but disappeared today thanks to some masterful batting from the Australians. Hussey, Clarke and Gilchrist all hit hundreds, though in Gilchrist’s case, hit is a bit of an understatement. If you could roll the words “smashed”, “thumped”, “walloped” and “blasted” all in to one, it would still only describe a fraction of the force that Gilchrist used in hitting the 2nd fastest Test century – off just 57 balls. He scored 24 off one Monty Panesar over, and the first ball of that over was a dot. Yikes. It was nothing more than an assault on England’s bowlers, fielders and supporters as he repeatedly put the Kookaburra in to the stands.
England are already 1 wicket down and need to score either 557 to win or bat for 2 whole days. The chances of that happening are about the same as my finding a massive stool of rocking horse poo outside my front door. And in continuing the metaphor, I’m beginning to hope that I don’t find the poo. England simply didn’t turn up to this Ashes series. I’m remembering back to Brisbane after Australia started the series in full flow. You could almost sense that there was no way back for England, heck, not just no way back, but simply no way at all. England have never looked like making an impact on this series and that’s not forgetting the 550 they posted in the first innings at Adelaide.
I’m fed up of reading the press and seeing the like of Fletcher saying that they can still save the series. They know what they have to do. Blah blah blah. We have heard it all before and it’s growing tiresome. Sure, I’d love to wake up tomorrow morning and find Cook and Bell each not out on 150, but I’m not holding my breath.
About the only thing I can say with any certainty is that Australia have regained the Ashes and that 5-0 is not looking unlikely. Although typical England style would be to end the series by winning the remaining two matches. A 3-2 scoreline would be an insult to cricket fans everywhere. At least we have seen some good cricket in the series, albeit predominantly from the Australians.
one of the aussie comentators said today:
“I can’t see Enland drawing this test – but I could see them winning it.”
I think he’s right – a draw would be next to impossible now as they’d have to become very defensive (which means slow scoring). but if they play their natural game and have some luck they’ll score at a reasonable rate and if (by chance) they can do that for two days I think they’d win it.
Of course history shows that they won’t be able to bat for two days without losing wickets – but I guess we’ll find that out today (it’s just started here).
Well it’s 293 in a day or lose the Ashes. In 90 overs that a little over 4 an over which is gettable, but with 5 down it will be a lot of work, especially as Flintoff and Jones are badly out of form.