Review: Ashes 2015 - England vs. Australia 5th Test, The Kia Oval, 20- 23 August 2015

Review: Ashes 2015 - England vs. Australia 5th Test, The Kia Oval, 20- 23 August 2015

Ashes-winning England crumble as captain Clarke bows out with final win

Fifth Test review: Australia won by and innings and 46 runs.  England won the 5-match series 3-2

I don't want to overly dwell on the fifth test too much - it's been well covered elsewhere (see the many links I've provided in this post) and from an England perspective, after the series was already won, was a bit of an anti-climax!

England wasted a golden opportunity to give leg spinner Adil Rashid some extra experience before going out on their UAE tour. Instead they stuck with the same team, yet still succumbed to Australia by an innings thanks to some dodgy batting, especially in their first innings. Forced to follow on by outgoing Australian captain Michael Clarke, England made a better effort in the second innings but just failed to make Australia bat again, finally losing by an innings and 46 runs.

The Ashes were already won, but it felt slightly strange to parade the Urn round the Kia Oval having just lost the match so decisively. The celebrations should have ideally taken place at Trent Bridge after the last Test. It was a great series in many ways, but also an unusual one. Each side performed either very well, or very poorly in spells. England just had more very good spells than Australia. The victory was unexpected, but it may be telling for England going forward that the only 2 games that were played on good, flat batting wickets (Lord's and the Oval), Australia won comfortably.

Links:

Scorecard
http://www.espncricinfo.com/the-ashes-2015/engine/match/743971.html
 
ESPNCricinfo review
http://www.espncricinfo.com/the-ashes-2015/content/story/912791.html
 
Nicholas: High Drama, low tension
http://www.espncricinfo.com/the-ashes-2015/content/story/913043.html
 
Overall series ratings - Swanny
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cricket/34034006
 
Preview going forward
http://www.alloutcricket.com/cricket/blogs/tougher-tests-ahead-for-englands-ashes-winners
 
BBC TMS podcast
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p030hgyf
 

Match ratings

Ratings Explained: 1-3 very poor, 4 poor, 5 average, 6 OK, 7 good, 8 very good, 9 excellent, 10 unbelievable

England - Overall rating: 5
Cook*- 7
Lyth - 4.5
Bell - 4
Root - 4.5
Bairstow - 5
Stokes - 5.5
Buttler+ - 6
Moeen Ali - 7
Broad - 5
Finn - 7
Wood- 6

Australia team rating - 8
 
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Overall series ratings (all 5 Tests)

England Team Average - 7.2
Australia Team Average - 5.9

Average Player ratings (ordered with top first):

Finn - 7.8 (only 3 matches)
Broad - 7.7
Anderson - 7.5
Cook*- 7,4
Root - 7.3
Moeen Ali - 7.2
Stokes - 7.0
Wood- 7.0
Buttler+ - 6.3
Bairstow - 6.3
Bell - 6.1
Ballance - 5.8
Lyth - 5.3

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Going forward:

Here is a brief summary of the England fixtures up to and including next summer. We have a couple of long winter tours ahead of us, followed by the excitement of the iT20 world cup next spring. Sri Lanka and Pakistan will be the visiting teams next year. The life of an international cricketer is sure a busy and hard one!

2015-16
Oct-Nov: PAKISTAN (in UAE) - 3 Tests, 4 ODIs, 3 iT20s

Dec-Feb: SOUTH AFRICA - 4 Tests, 5 ODIs, 2 iT20s
 
2016
Mar-Apr: ICC iT20 World Cup (India) 

May-Jun (in ENG now): SRI LANKA - 3 Tests, 5 ODIs and 1 iT20

Jul-Sep: PAKISTAN - 4 Tests, 5 ODIs and 1 iT20
...