Ashes 5th Test

[ak47]

the cricket honeymoon couldnt continue much longer

when they won in 2005 - it was the best thing to happen to TEST cricket in australia since Warnes inception

everyone aged under 26 has never had to fight for the ashes - they had all seen Aussie dominance since the 80's

Losing in 2005 brought the 2006-7 series to life

As much as people thought i would be close - it was never going to be close

We just lost in 2005.....the 2nd test was won by poms by minimal margin, and McGrath was injured the remainder of series.

I never thought we'd lose in 2005 until McGrath got hurt - thats when i got worried

I never thought this year would be close......pending massive injuries to strike players

It was a let down in 2006-7, but the moment of that last day in adelaide, and Warnes 700, and 3 big retirements did bring some substance to the series

and all the under 26yr olds finally saw australia fully lockdown on cricketing ability and play flawless test cricket

IMO i have never seen a better team play TEST cricket for one series.........we wont see that again...it was relentless unforgiving cricket, and on the last day we saw that take its toll, with Langer dropping 3 in a row.....u cant play flawless cricket for that long without any kinks

There are positives for England

A good young crop of talent coming thru, which if nurtured correctly can win the Ashes in 2009.

Unless australia produce more great bowlers (batting line-up wont change much thru to 2009), it will be like 2005.....i reckon they'll have a better team in 2009 (compared to today), and we'll have a worse team in 2009 (compared to today) - pending no injuries

Cook, Monty, Peitersen - have the world cricket elite at their feet...if they find it, i wont be rushing to bet on australia in 2009

 

[An Tarbh]

Not too sure about Cook, he has a lot of technical issues to sort out in his game before he can claim to be a decent opening batsman, but should be given ample opportunity to address that by 2009 as Trescothick's head doesn't seem to be in the right place.

Agree though on Monty and Pietersen.

It'll certainly be an ageing Aussie lineup if many of the non retired faces are still around.

This series has shown how far ahead of the pack Australia are and also showed that when Australia played so badly and Ponting captained so poorly that they only lost by a minimal margin at Edgbaston and England were struggling with that small run chase at Nottingham. So England may have won but it was never going to be by a commanding margin, still doesn't take away from it though.

England couldn't afford to lose any key players for this series to even be a contest, they lost 3 for the whole series and various players throughout, that just compounded the margin of defeat.

Nothing like a defeat though to spur a team on and no team has done that better than this current Australian outfit and worryingly for England the defeat in England might spur them on again in 2009.