As per VN, I can't recall a more vociferous, parochial, almost blood-thirsty Australian public before in my time. We've always wanted to win the Ashes, but never has it been like this. We've done a number on them, but the signs were there in England. We did expose England's frail top-order, but Bell papered over those cracks with some brilliant innings at five. Mitchell Johnson roughed up a few, most notably Trott, in the ODI series that followed the Tests, and you just thought if Mitch could get it right that his pace would trouble them on Australian pitches, but I didn't expect what transpired at all. 37 wickets at 14 is just insane, but the damage he did psychologically to England's batsmen, the rough stuff against the tail, general hostility and aggression, it unsettled the Poms to a point where after Brisbane there was only one result this series. Harris, Lyon and Siddle deserve credit for the grunt work they put in, almost as holding/containment bowlers, which sounds a little disrespectful but they were tidy, bowled dry lines, made it difficult to score and hold up an end whilst Mitch blew them away at the other. Watson also bowled some important spells during the series.
The other hatchet job was to make Swann a non-factor, to the point where he quit mid-series. Aside from the openers, the rest of the top seven were all right-handed and good players of spin. It doesn't turn as much over here, the wickets are harder and flatter, they went at him and hit him out of the attack. He didn't take bags of wickets and was also expensive. Anderson too was useless, as he is when it doesn't swing or move off the pitch, and the 3rd seamer was a horror show. Tremlett bowled medium pace, Bresnan was not physically ready given his injury issues, Rankin was wayward and Finn, what happened to him? All up it was a comprehensive annihilation, the nature of all the defeats morale shattering.
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Topic: The pink test (Sydney) (Read 102262 times)