As soon as Broad hit that 6 I was like "what the hell is be doing?".
The plan was to keep Aus in the field, put overs in their legs etc but looks like Broad didn't get the memo...
I went to bed after he threw his wicket away. I don't blame him for the defeat, England simply didn't make enough runs 1st innings and I noticed that FIVE of the England batting line up made their highest score of the series when the game was already lost.
Decent bit of batting practice, but nonetheless you need to score runs when they matter. Prior got a bit of form, but will he take it into the next Test?
Broad's throwaway wicket was most annoying because it was irresponsible, England were never going to win it with four wickets and that many runs to get, but if he'd seen off the first hour then it might have brought rain into play.
That said England shouldn't really be hoping for rain to save their rears, but other sides will take it and I think the one art that has been lost as pitches get flatter is the leave. How many batsmen get out playing shots that they could have left or ducked out of the way of?
I think England have better players than in the 90s, but otherwise there's not as big a gap as people think in terms of fight etc, even results at times. Don't forget England have only beaten a full strength, top of their game, aussie side once (2005), the windies are nothing these days, India are stronger but still beatable away from fortress subcontinent so the major differences are better mercenaries, slightly better players overall, flatter pitches, better if not perfect selection policies and weaker opposition.
And of course arguably England's three best bowlers of the 90s in Caddick, Cork and Gough, how often did all three play together despite making their debuts in consecutive years?
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Ultimately this is a worse performance (so far) than the series where we lost 5-0.
It's ironic that so many call Flintoff's declaration a huge mistake, the aussies did much the same here except England didn't make most of their chances and fell apart batting in the 2nd innings after establishing a 1st innings lead
And of course the aussies of 06/07 had Gilchrist, Warne and McGrath not to mention Ponting, Langer, Hayden, Hussey, Symonds and Lee. Their four bowlers all took 20+ wickets, EIGHT batsmen made 43+ averages, while Hoggard took 13 wickets @ 37.38, the rest 10-11 wickets and only two batsmen averaged more than 35 thanks in no small part to single/double hundreds
Most noteably SEVEN England players averaged under 12 including GoJo and Wead who replaced GoJo. We're well on course to match the five totals under 200
