Well, I'm posting my match report that I wrote on ESPNSTAR and PakPassion here, even though most won't be able to understand it.
First up, full credit to England for taking the contest into after lunch on Day 5. Yesterday was a great fightback, but OZ were just too good today. The fall of Cook's wicket was the beginning of the end and even though Flintoff showed some great defiance today it was really just one wicket away from the tail. Once Freddy fell after his fifty it was just a matter of time.
I think the series has been closer than the 3-0 scoreline suggests: England were walloped in the first Test, but were very competitive in the 2nd and 3rd Tests. They just couldn't win the key moments to swing those matches their way - a collapse in the 2nd Test which said more about their mindset than their talent and they failed to seize the moment in the 1st innings of this Test. I think that's what differentiates very good teams (which England are) from great teams (which is what this OZ team is) - the ability to compete for all 15 sessions of a match, then to seize the moment when it comes and capitalise on it. England competed very hard in patches, but lost composure during some of the key moments and failed to seize the moment. At this level those moments come few and far between and you've really got to be prepared to take advantage of them when they come. But I think they'll improve. This was the first OZ tour for some of these blokes and there's a good core of young players there with Cook, KP, Monty and Bell - the important thing for them now is to see how they respond to this setback, and see if they can win the next two matches. It's how a team responds to adversity that tells you how good, or great, they are.
It's been a great performance from OZ, they worked really hard for this and you could tell from the tears and elation on the field what it meant to win this back. They took the 2005 loss as a humiliation and worked to "set things right", so to speak.
This series could also mean we've seen the end of the likes of Hayden, Langer and maybe McGrath, given that it's another year till the next Test series. Judging from Warney's comments after the match, I think he might play on, but the other three? There's nothing left for them to achieve. We could see a changing of the guard come January.
My five takeways from the series so far:
1. Self-belief. I think England were just missing a bit of it during the series. As mentioned above it led to their inability to seize the moments which could have brought victory for them in Adelaide and then here in Perth.
2. Michael Vaughan. England really missed his leadership. Freddie looked a broken man with all the pressure on him to bat well and shore up the middle order, and bowl well (particularly in the first two Tests).
3. It ain't over till the Fat Boy spins. Shane Warne typifies the never-say-die attitude of the Baggy Greens. It doesn't matter that he goes for 0-120 in one innings, he has the ability to put all that in the back of his mind. He really does believe that every ball he bowls, every spell he bowls, has the chance of taking a wicket. One day he'll get banned for overappealing but geez he's fun to watch and we (as an audience, not just the OZ team) will miss him when he's gone. He's unique.
4. KP will be an all-time great. I didn't rate him before this series (or rather, I rated him but not as high as everyone else was rating him) but he's been the one England player with loads of self-belief. He has some technical deficiencies and still needs to work on his temperament but he's the kind of bloke that looks forward to the contests with the great bowlers. If he can learn to apply better judgment (which will come with time) I think he could be England's No3 or No4 for the next 10 years.
5. Ditto Mike Hussey. When he was being interviewed for his MOTM something he said in response to a question from Simon O'Donnell struck me. O'Donnell was saying something along the lines of "do you regret not getting to play earlier?" He responded by saying: "I've had to work very hard and wait a long time to get into the team but that's the way it should be...it's a sign of the competitiveness of selection. Wearing the colours of your country is something very special and it's made me value every single moment I go out there and play for Australia, because I've had to work so hard to earn my spot...and I'll never ever take it for granted." Before this series the question marks over him that the English were raising were that he was a bit of a minnow basher and only scored his tons against minnows like WI, SA and Bangladesh (their words, not mine). With four half tons and a ton against a pretty decent England attack I think he's proven that he's a pretty good batsman. He has ability, patience and good judgment and is just about impossible to get out.
And I'll cheat and put in a
sixth takeaway:
6. The OZ can still improve. We effectively went into this match a batman short with Symmo being just not up to it as a batsman (and wasn't really used as a bowler in the 2nd innings, either). I'm still not sold on Lee's consistency - he just doesn't seem to use his brain as much as others. I think Tait's a better option. McGrath improved as the match went on and showed that he is on par with Warney at thinking-out a batsman, but I think he's only got another year ahead of him. It was good to see that it wasn't just the big names that performed in this series, but the lesser ones like Clarke, Clark and Hussey. They'll be key members of this team in the future.
It's been a good series for me, exactly what I expected - I know that neutrals will probably think it's been a thrashing and an anti-climax, but I think there's been lots of tension so far. It's funny, but you can play really well in each match but still get hammered 5-0. England have put up a great fight, but ultimately they've just lacked that little bit of class and composure at the end. But that's what tours to OZ are all about - overcoming adversity, whether it be a bad umpiring call, a great bowler, a hostile crowd or whatever, and seeing what you're made of.