Ashes 2013
England snatch defeat from the jaws of
victory
January 17th 2014
For 97 overs today England had
the match under control. However, despite 99% of fans seeing the mistake,
Alistair Cook committed a scarcely believable error and insisted on bowling Ben
Stokes, his most expensive bowler, who had already started to come in for some
serious punishment, when he still had overs from Jordan (who put in another
excellent new ball spell), Rankin (who had a much better game today, beginning
to look more like the threatening bowler seen in the summer ODIs), Bresnan,
Bopara and Root (England’s most economical bowler on the day). It was like watching
a train racing to disaster when everyone except the driver is screaming for the
brakes to be applied. Stokes is developing into a fine player and came out of
the Tests with great credit, but came in for such fearful punishment that a
target that appeared well out of Australia’s reach, became easy. James Faulkner
was brilliant, but Alistair Cook made it far easier for him than it should have
been.
It was a pity because, for once,
England had done things right. A reasonable opening partnership at a
respectable pace set the base for a massive late innings charge with Morgan,
Bopara and Buttler hitting eight sixes between them and Morgan showing the sort
of confidence and amazing innovation that makes fans wonder why he barely
averages 30 in sixteen Tests, with a third of his Test runs coming in just two
innings. At 244-9, with just 6 overs left, Australia needed 51 off 36 balls. It
should have been a comfortable win for England. When Tim Bresnan went for just
3 in the 46th over, the equation was 41 from 24 balls.
Stoke’s last 3 overs went for
13, 11 & 13. He could have been a hero because he did have Faulkner
brilliantly caught by Joe Root on the run, but Root’s momentum carried him over
the boundary: ironically, if Root had deliberately dropped the ball, he
probably would have saved England four runs: it was symptomatic of England’s
luck all tour.
After this sickening defeat, a
whitewash in the ODIs now looks sadly inevitable too.
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