Ashes popular despite the cricket

It can be difficult to distinguish the reality from the hype in an Ashes series. Promoters, players and some media would have us believe an Ashes series is still the ultimate, the pinnacle of cricket, at least for the two teams concerned. Unfortunately, these aren't reliable sources, as it partially serves their interests for the series to continue to be perceived that way.

Nothing will ever detract from the history of the Ashes, but history alone doesn't keep its premiere status intact. The standing of any series is mostly determined by the form and fortunes of the combatants, which presently don't elevate the Ashes to particularly lofty heights. The same comments tend to be recycled each series, but they carry increasingly less meaning.

Nevertheless, the Ashes will and should remain a pre-eminent series as long as it continues to be well-supported by the public, which it definitely is. It's sometimes easy to forget that outside of Australia, England, India and the West Indies, people mostly don't give a damn about Test cricket, or at least aren't enthralled to such an extent as to attend matches in any great numbers. It would not make economic or sporting sense, therefore, to reduce one of the few remaining series that many do in fact support and want to see. Test cricket is not so strong as to be able to afford to sacrifice some of the support that keeps its culture alive.

A significant part of the support for the current series derives from the admirably committed English tourists. The first Test in Brisbane had an attendance of 81,277, the highest since Bodyline, which was seen as evidence of the series' enduring popularity among Australians, and Adelaide drew a healthy 20,000-plus across the first three days. However, it would not be surprising to learn that 5 to 8,000 of the spectators in attendance on each of those days were England supporters. You could hardly move around without being surrounded by various England shirts and hearing English accents. In the public tier of the Bradman stand, Australians were in a minority, and it did not appear too different in the Sir Edwin Smith. This excludes the Barmy Army on the hill. The level of support was remarkable.

Those travelling supporters had reason to be optimistic on day one, but as ever their caution was justified. How does a team go from 295/3 in the last over of the first day to losing by an innings inside four days? The answer is a long tail, weakened attack and opponents to exploit both to fullest advantage.

Despite being on the losing side, Michael Vaughan would arguably have been a more deserving man-of-the-match than Ricky Ponting, considering the respective quality of bowling they faced. Vaughan has the shots and, just as importantly, the attitude. Thanks largely to him, England outplayed Australia on a controversial day one.

It was Vaughan's non-dismissal on 19 rather than the magnificence of his innings, however, that drew prolonged comment. More people are gradually awakening to the inadequacies of using TV pictures to determine catches, as the third umpire system continues to harm cricket. Palpably caught in the gully by Langer off Bichel, Vaughan refused to walk and was mysteriously reprieved. Evidently feeling 1-0 down in the poor decision stakes, Bichel then claimed a return catch off Trescothick that clearly bounced, and Key held his ground when caught by Ponting at silly point. The players are mostly to blame for this lack of trust, but they aren't helped by a system which allows them to profit from it.

The first session of day two irrevocably changed the course of the match, as England lost their last seven wickets for 47, including the last six in that session. Putting behind them the four dropped catches on the first day, Gillespie, Warne and McGrath created and sustained pressure in a superb display, highlighting one the differences between the sides on a good pitch. Whereas Australia could afford to drop difficult catches in the knowledge their bowlers would create more, England were under pressure to maximise every half-chance, knowing opportunities provided would be scarce.

England studied tapes of Hayden and the result was to install a short mid-wicket and short mid-off, with the apparent intention to bowl straight and cut off his airborne drives. Despite the tactic, the openers peeled off 80 in their first hour together against an ineffective Caddick and Hoggard, on the way to another 100-run partnership.

It eventually worked, though, as Hayden sliced a catch to mid off, unnecessarily attempting a glory shot over the top to reach his fifty. White captured four wickets, including that one, but Harmison appeared most threatening. The huge 6"8 speedster harried the batsmen when others hadn't, generating awkward bounce that caused mistimed shots. With he and Jones together, England might have had an attack with some potential. As it was, their resources were thin -- with Ponting and Martyn consolidating, Hussain eschewed the aggressive pursuit of wickets in favour of containment, with a deep cover, third man and backward-square all allowing singles, which Ponting and Martyn sensibly accumulated.

Even after Martyn was dismissed, this tactic contentiously returned -- Ponting was deliberately 'walked' in order to get the once-feared Steve Waugh on strike. Hussain may have had the last laugh in this battle, but he dropped Waugh at leg gully on two. We haven't seen the last of this line of attack.

Australia declared their innings early after Bichel's tail-end entertainment, as well they might have with rain forecast -- England came closer to drawing the second Test than they probably realised. There would have been little, if any, play on day five, so had more wickets been preserved on the third evening and greater resolve shown in the drizzle on day four, the match could well have been saved.

Australia's victory push was hastened by one of the great outfield catches by Glenn McGrath. In what will undoubtedly be a fondly-recalled career highlight, the paceman sprinted from deep backward-square and dived full length to freakishly hold a skied Vaughan sweep leading up to lunch. Ecstatic and engulfed by team-mates, the effort drew a second round of amazed appreciation when replayed on the big screen.

Though Australia wrapped up the match before the rain set in to take a stranglehold on the series, the Barmy Army were among the few Englishmen not to concede the Ashes for another two years: "We're going to win 3-2, we're going to win 3-2... ."

Second Test - Day 4 report

Slide show - Images from day 4

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