A Taste Of Our Own Medicine

The Australians apply a lot of mind in their game which comes with thorough planning and preparation. Somewhere, in the current series, all of that went missing against a definitely better-planned England side. Due credit should be given to every individual in the English team for the way they have gone about in this series. Never did they let themselves down on confidence and so far — we must admit — have given us a taste of our own medicine.

But all is not over yet. All the matches have been very closely contested and we almost came close to snatching victories in the last three games. So, somewhere it’s been a balanced series that now boils down to this one last match. The Oval will decide which team has the ability to sustain that last bit of mental and physical pressure.

For all the talk, it is finally up to the playing eleven to walk out on the field and perform. Both the teams are now so hardened by the last couple of matches that no sort of mental disintegration will apply. The team that plays better cricket on the given day will take home the honours. To the joy of an unusually entertaining English crowd, it will be a direct contest between two highly competitive sides.

Regardless of whether or not we manage to retain the Ashes, we’d like this spirit of Australian cricket to stay alive. The freedom of mind and the skills that the Australians have managed to apply in their game are two main reasons why they have been so successful.

Coming back to The Oval, we are yet to finalise the kind of changes — if any — that we’d like to make for the last match. For the English, I can assure you that Simon Jones will be missed a lot if he doesn’t play at The Oval. He has been very good in the last few occasions with the kind of swing and pace that he was able to generate. Jones has a lot of control over his bowling that makes him all the more dangerous.

I would also like to say, once again, that Australia were very unhappy with the regular substitutions that England made on the field. As Ricky has already pointed out, we first brought up this issue at the end of the ODIs. It may be within the rules but not within the spirit of the game and every cricket-playing country will admit that the game should be played in the right spirit.

That apart, whether we win or lose or draw, all of that will be a part of a very good Ashes series. We will analyse what England have done in the recent past to bring about this change and try and pick the good points in it.

Until then, just this one game is on the top of everybody’s mind. It will have to be a tremendous effort to succeed.