Super Over 49
13 January 2025
Ball 1
So that is it. The Ashes series is over and already receding into the distance.
How will it be remembered?
Sadly, as a series that did not live up to expectations.
It could have been very different. Had England, leading by 100-odd and with 9 wickets in hand at lunch on day 2 in Perth, kicked on and got a decent total they might have won - and suddenly (assuming everything else remained the same) we’d have had a decider in Sydney.
And if the MCG curator had not made the rather silly decision to leave too much grass on the pitch, the total crowd for the series would have broken a million - for the first time in the history of cricket.
Even so, there was much to celebrate. The average daily crowd was a record - by miles (see Ball 3), the television ratings were huge and the cricket was damned entertaining. I posted on social media that if you removed context and just considered how entertaining the cricket itself was, this series would surpass all other Ashes series I have seen except 2005.
Finally, it also saw the farewell Test of Usman Khawaja, one of Australia’s finest players. He finishes with an excellent average of 42.95 and the final chapter of his career must be such a joy to him. In 2022, with his final Test nearly 30 months before, it looked as though he was done.
Instead, he got picked for the SCG Test of the 2021/22 Ashes and never looked back: only Steve Smith has averaged more for Australia since.
Ball 2
After Australia took a 3-0 lead, I made a video facetiously congratulating England for being the second-best England side in Australia this century.
I say ‘facetious’ but, objectively, it was true. In 2010/11 - by far England’s best tour this century - it was 1-1 after 3 Tests: in every other tour England were down 3-0. But at least in this one, the ratio of Australia’s average runs per wicket to that of England was the lowest.
Well, now that the series is over, does that still hold true? Here are the numbers:
Yes it does!
In 2010/11, England were on top - and averaged 1.77 times as many runs per wicket as Australia (incidentally, for the maths purists, the ratio if you put Australia in the numerator is 0.57).
In every other series, Australia is on top but in the one just gone they had the slenderest margin: scoring ‘only’ 1.26 as many runs on average per wicket as England. It falls away quickly after that - down to 2006/07 when, in the course of their 5-0 whitewash Australia scored double the runs per wicket that England did.
Dare I say it, this means England have had a moral victory? A trip to Noosa could be in order?
Ball 3
Talk about burying the ‘lede’ (sic) as the Americans say!
This was the greatest series of all time! Well, at least as far as average daily crowds.
47,754 was the daily average.
47,754!
Can you believe that? I remember in 1993, being amongst 37,000-odd at the SCG for the first day of the Test versus South Africa. It felt massive - and it was. It was proof of Test cricket’s rise in popularity in Australia after the ODI domination of the 1980s.
At the time, if you were to tell me that three decades later, the average daily crowd for a series would be 10,000 more - I would have been gobsmacked.
Last summer against India is in second place and, after about 9 decades of being on top, Bradman’s glorious summer of 1936/37 is now in third place.
And the individual Test match figures are no less remarkable. I’ve covered other venues in earlier newsletters - so here are the MCG crowds. It might have been a pity and a disaster that the Test only lasted two days … the consolation is they were the biggest two Test crowds in Australian history!
Indeed, they may well be the two biggest Test crowds of all time. Crowds of 100,000 are claimed for an India-Pakistan Test in the 1990s at Eden Gardens but I don’t believe official crowd numbers were kept. Suffice it to say that days 1 and 2 of this Boxing Day Test were the highest audited crowds in Test history.
And for good measure, the SCG aggregate crowd belted its previous best.
In 1946, starved of Test cricket for literally 10 years, 195,000 turned up to see Bradman and Sid Barnes each make scores of 234. That Test match has stood on top for eight decades - only to be smacked out of the record books by about 16,000 last week.
Special mention to the Barmy Army - whose numbers made such a mighty contribution to these records. I love everything about them (except their booing of Steve Smith) and look forward to them coming back in similar force in the future!
Ball 4
Staying on the SCG and what a triumph for curator Adam Lewis.
That was the best SCG pitch I have seen in ages - and he produced it under considerable pressure. In general, SCG pitches have been too slow and dead in recent years (although last summer against India was an exception).
No doubt Lewis had been working hard in the lead-up to ensure that this pitch had as much life as possible … only for the MCG debacle to occur!
‘Make it last five days!’ screamed the Aussie cricket public. ‘But also, make it full of life and produce attractive cricket!’
‘Oh - and it had better spin, or you’re in big trouble!’
Well, as it turned out - Lewis did it all. Good on him. I have often been quite critical of SCG Test, Shield and Big Bash pitches during his tenure, so it is only fair that I say this one was superb.
Ball 5
After a series, it’s always a pleasure - and instructive - to mull over the averages. Let’s start with the batting.
Head was the obvious standout and note his strike rate of 87! Bazball does work … well, Travball does anyway!
Smith was excellent despite relatively limited opportunities. Bethell proved he was indeed worth selecting (silly me on Twitter had questioned this!), Carey was brilliant (and so was his keeping) and Root was very solid, and now has two centuries in Australia.
But in a bowler-dominated series it falls away after that. Brook was actually okay, averaging 40, but for a player who came here with such promise it was disappointing. Not as disappointing as Duckett though - another who came here with such a big reputation - and averaged only 20.
Crawley was not the worst, but an average of 27 is just about what you would expect of him. Mark Waugh said often how Crawley’s low career average (it now sits at 31.2) belied his talent. Given he’s played 117 Test innings at this average (and 251 innings in all first class cricket for an average of 32.0) I disagree - I think it reflects his talent perfectly.
Jamie Smith and Ollie Pope had disastrous tours and despite talk from Michael Vaughan and others at how excellent Will Jacks’ technique is and how they loved his application, an average of 20.7 from 7 innings isn’t much to get excited about.
The standout figures in some ways are those of Ben Stokes: 184 runs at an average of 18 and a strike rate of 37. It is a far cry from the player who began the Bazball era with such irrepressible aggression - slogging everyone in the nets to let the team know he was all in on the approach. It’s hard not to feel a bit sorry for him.
As for the other Aussies, Khawaja has timed his retirement well and - call me biased and/or crazy but I would still be persisting with Labuschagne and Green despite their modest series. I should hasten to add, Green would not be at the expense of Webster - I would pick both. But as for Jake Weatherald, it is hard to see him playing Test cricket again.
Note that I limited it to 4 innings or more. Two specialist batters batted fewer than 4 times: Josh Inglis averaged 21.7 from his 3 innings and mighty Beau Webster scored 71 not out in his only innings.
Ball 6
Now to the bowling:
Plus those who only bowled a little:
Starc was superb and, not forgetting his fine batting, was a worthy player of the series.
What a triumph the series was for Neser - for so long on the fringes of Test selection and, before this season, looking like his brief Test career was over. His success is yet further proof that the supposedly crucial need for ‘airspeed’ in Australia is a myth.
I have always liked Boland but, by the start of the series he had become my very favourite player and so I watched on like he was a family member, fretting badly when he got dismantled on that first day in Perth - doesn’t that seem like a long time ago!
I needn’t have worried. Carey’s fine glovework up to the stumps was important and stopped the English players running at him. I actually don’t think Boland was quite the bowler he was last summer but, with 20 wickets at an average slightly better than Shane Warne’s career average, I can’t complain!
Webster’s spin in Sydney was excellent. We could probably just make him our specialist spinner instead of Lyon going forward and strengthen the team in doing so. (I know that is an illegal statement but, there, I’ve said it!)
Green bowled a whole lot of short rubbish. The Aussies’ persistence in getting him to bang it in short just because he’s tall continues to baffle me. He should bowl a maximum of one bouncer per spell and otherwise just bowl a McGrath length - I think he would instantly transform into a fine Test bowler.
As for the English, Tongue was magnificent. Stokes and Archer looked good but needed to bowl more to make an impact. Atkinson was disappointing and as for Carse - I think it was one of the strangest performances I’ve ever seen.
He bowled some good balls and took no fewer than 22 wickets. Yet his default setting seems to be short and wide rubbish and he went at 4.8 runs per over. He’s another one who would be well advised to leave aside all nonsense about aggression and intimidation and just hit the top of off!
And so that is it for England-Australia Tests … for just over a year anyway. The 150-year MCG anniversary Test looms. Hopefully Australia win by 22.5 runs!
As a Pom who went out for only the first test, I want to very sincerely thank you for all of your excellent coverage throughout the entire series, Paul. The statistics work was particularly brilliant, and I've enjoyed reading it all.
It's always good to have some objective analysis, combatting what we think we've seen with our eyes!
Curious to hear your opinion on the omission of Todd Murphy for the Sydney Test, I reckon he was snubbed. Likewise, I think Renshaw was a shoo-in for Weatherald for the 5th Test, given his recent form. Loved the article, keep up the good work, mate.