Things We Have Learnt from the Ashes So Far

• Cook's place is probably not under threat: an average of 310 in the 2010 Ashes to date will do wonders for a batsman's self-confidence.
• Trott is yet to play an Ashes test without making a hundred: statistics never lie. Ok, so it's a fairly small sample, but it's the sort of thing to get up the collective nose of an Ozzie attack. Speaking of which...
• Doherty and Johnson are no Warne and McGrath: with combined match figures of 90.5-15-318-2 (an amalgam that actually does Xavier Doherty a disservice, as both the wickets were his), these two are unlikely to give England's batsmen any sleepless nights. I'd say Doherty's place is safe for now (Smith's single wicket against WA is unlikely to have XD [isn't that a smiley face of some sort?] quaking in his boots), but Harris and Bollinger are breathing down Johnson's neck -- I'd expect at least one of them to come in (with, possibly, Hilfenhaus making way as well).
• An England series win is still a possibility: ok, so that was hardly going to be overturned by a single test, but I'll take any opportunity to put a positive spin on things -- my prediciton is still on. (I'm going for 2-1.)

EDIT: Cook's average is 302, not 310, not that it matters much...

Why I Want Ricky Ponting to Win the Ashes...Maybe

Don't get me wrong.

Come midnight tonight -- well, that's if I can be bothered to stay up into the night for a contest between the teams world-ranked, as Andy Zaltzman puts it, fourth [and] fifth. Out of, basically, 8 -- I'll be cheering Strauss & Co. on like your next cricket-obsessed English loon. (Incidentally, doesn't 'Strauss & Co.' sound like a gentlemen's outfitters from the late 19th century?)

And if there's one figure in world cricket I truly despise, it is Ricky 'sour grapes' Ponting, with his face like a constipated bulldog chewing a wasp wrapped in a cow-pat. (Actually, maybe that's what he has been chewing, all these years. Would explain a lot.)

The fact is, though, that Ricky Ponting, loath him or dislike him, is one of the greatest cricketers to walk the face of the earth. Yes, he whinges a fair bit, but he's second only to The Don in the batting rankings of a country that has produced a fair few good cricketers; ok, so he has a slight weakness on the legside, now that his flexibility and footwork aren't what they used to be, but he scored so many runs at under-13 level club cricket (507 in 7 innings, with an average of 507) that they had to change the rules governing when a batter should retire.* And he may not appear to be the most dazzling of Ozzie captains -- his propensity to bat when winning the toss is reaching near-pathological levels -- he is still, as David Boots argues, one of the most successful skippers ever.

I don't particularly want to see such greatness -- the word is overused, but not, I believe, in this case -- trashed because Punter happens to be only the third Australian captain in history to lose 3 Ashes series. Firstly, given the current ICC standings, does The Ashes really matter all that much? And secondly, it's not like Australia were trounced in either of the other two: in 2005, England were handed a giant stroke of luck when a cricket ball, for once, didn't do what Glenn McGrath wanted it to; in 2009, Australia were not so much beaten into submission as bored into it by a dogged 10/11 partnership.

So it is with mixed emotions that I predict an England series win this time around.** It will be great if we do inflict another defeat on a faltering long-term adversary; I just wish the losing captain had scored a few fewer than 12,250 Test runs.





*Sorry, you're relying on my memory for this, as I can't find a link to the article -- it was in one of the UK national broadsheets at the weekend, though.

**Given the success of my last prediction, in which I failed to even predict the number of players England would take on tour, let alone their names, I'd take this with a huge lump of salt.