Australia captain Pat Cummins looks more tired the longer the streak goes on. Photo: Getty Images/Stu Forster < p>As they prepared for Bazball's latest attack, Australia looked like a team without inspiration. It wasn't that their cricket was inept, it was that it was depressingly monochromatic. They started the day by letting Zach Crowley steal 13 from the first rep and ended it by giving Joe Root and Johnny Bairstow all the space to smash 169 between them. In six and a half hours of play between them, Pat Cummins offered no trick to stop England from reaching 130 points in a session. Where one side embodied enterprise and courage, the other offered only suffocating rigidity.
A target of at least 378 will be set for Australia to win this fifth Test, in a land where the highest number of successful runs is 263. That's an unlikely prospect given how decisive the momentum has become in this series. After six Tests in seven weeks, the Australians are exhausted, weighed down by England's ruthless aggression. There is no prejudice in suggesting that if it wasn't for the damn weather in Manchester, they would have returned home as the first team in their country to let Ashes' 2-0 lead turn into a 3-2 defeat.
Past captains struggled to bite their tongues. «Australia is everywhere,» Ricky Ponting grimaced. «These two play like it's a T20 game,» Crowley and Ben Duckett's Mark Taylor said as the former drove Mitchell Stark around the Oval. «And the Australians didn't adapt quickly enough.» You can bet that the late, mourned Shane Warne would have been even harsher in his verdict. He was a close friend of England's managing director, Rob Key, and just as he would have found much to admire at the Bazballers, he would have found much to question his countrymen's tactics.Why didn't Cummins use Marnus Labuschagne, a perfectly capable spinner, to confuse the attack? Why wasn't he a little more frightened by his pitches to confuse the batsmen's mindset? The deeper we went into the summer, the more the doctrinal differences between these parties became exposed. While the English players responded in bewilderment to anyone who dared question their desire to have fun at all costs, the Australians sank deeper into their shells, holding on to the orthodox belief that Test cricket should be based on patience and stubbornness.
< p>It took England just 24 minutes to accumulate more runs than Australia had in an entire morning. Rarely has there been a better display of Stokes' hawkish rhetoric before Ash, when he said: «We want everyone who paid their money to watch England to leave the stadium saying, 'Wow, what a good day it was'.» the case when not a single soul that flew onto the streets of Kennington could accuse the captain of being untrue.
Zach Crowley epitomizes England's attacking approach, which contrasts sharply with Australia's. Photo: Action Images via Reuters/Andrew Boyers
Seriously, 389 runs a day? It was wonderful theatre, in a grim contrast to the 234 Australia played in the same time slot 24 hours earlier. More recently, England crawled up to 158 points in a full day at Headingley in 1998 to draw with South Africa. But now that Stokes has ignored the very concept of a draw, these icy bets have become a disservice to a paying client. Fan expectations have changed beyond recognition in this era of white ball cricket. Where once purists could find a certain amount of joy in endless blocks and forward defense, many now crave the thrill that this new model of England provides. And the cold reality is that Australia seems balanced by comparison.
«Boring, boring Australians» became one of the refrains of the summer. This was often heard on the second day at The Oval, where those who admired Crowley's catching the ball on the run were not pleased that Labuchagne scored nine of 82. England produced an adrenaline rush far from the snail-like approach of their opponents . Get on the pints, the message on the screen pleaded, as the cacophony in the stands grew louder. «Let's move on to soft drinks.» There is little chance of this, given the determination of England to leave no one behind.
As the shadows lengthened in southwest London, one well-fed fan raced across the outfield, dodging guards by jumping over billboards. For all the sadness about how Australia saved the Ashes thanks to the rain at Old Trafford, the mood around this team remains exuberant. There is appreciation for the style they played, gratitude for what they gave. Although there will be no open-top bus parade like in 2005, now that the number of participants can only be in the 2-2 square, this last test was like a celebration.
Common sense dictates that only winners in sports are remembered. But perhaps it's time to rethink that way of thinking. For can anyone but the most myopic observers in green and gold really say that this Australian team will be remembered for a long time, even if they kept the urn? They were tenacious, yes, stubborn to the end. But in terms of stardom, they pale in comparison to the team that lost 18 years ago. Warne famously took 40 wickets in the series. Stark, the best Australian wicket taker this time, took 23.
The captain is obviously exhausted. But this alone cannot serve as a defense for his uninspired choice. After the barrage of bouncers that Australia unleashed on Lord, they haven't invented anything new. At times during this test, they were simply blinded by the English kaleidoscope of shots. Mitch Marsh's most memorable contribution was poking fun at fans on the fencing line. Yes, he and his teammates will be flying home with guaranteed Ashes holder status for another two and a half years. But in terms of pure chic, they have never looked so much like yesterday's men.
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