England, Squashed

So the Aussies have whitewashed their way back to possession of the Ashes. I expected the result, but not the margin of victory

Image from Drive Cricket

There's no worse winner than the English, and after the 3-0 home series and the first day of the first test they'd gotten positively insufferable. As things turned out, that was their last good day of the series. As Mark Nicholas puts it, that was the last English gloat of the summer.

Now I enjoy watching England getting beaten as much as the next guy, and no one can say that they didn't have it coming, but by the end it was like watching a vicious boy kicking a paralysed dog. Even the Aussies were glad when it was all over. I don't know how the wheels came off the English machine so completely, but the only way from here is up. After all they're still a decent side.

For England Stokes' debut was the only hightlight. He's young and keen and checks two important boxes in (1) being non-English and (2) having a single-syllable surname. I predict a bright future for him in team England.

For Australia, the coming together of Johnson, Harris and Siddle as an attack is no doubt the high point. I'm looking forward to seeing them in a month here in the Republic. If they all stay fit and in form it'll be a feast of a series for fans of fast bowling. Whoever is replacing Kallis in the lineup (and my money is on Elgar or McLaren) had better pack the chest protector and forearm guards and start cranking the bowling machine up to max.