Ashes 2023: Australia lucky to escape thrashing at Old Trafford

Australia was lucky to escape a thrashing at Old Trafford, but must win next week at the Oval after an unconvincing draw helped them retain the Ashes.

Pat Cummins in the rain at Old Trafford. Picture: Getty Images.

At 5.25pm Manchester time two words appeared on the video screen and cheers rose from a handful of damp Australian fans gathered in the rain below the Australian dressing room.

MATCH ABANDONED.

Ho. Hum.

That is, sorry to say, no way to retain the Ashes. Retention is not something to crow about.

Well done Australia winning early doors in the face of the Bazball furnace, they lost tosses and had the worst of conditions but played the better cricket. Those wins at Edgbaston and Lord’s were hard won and an achievement not to be sneered at.

They were just beaten at Headingley but were in the process of being thrashed at Old Trafford when rain wiped out all but two hours of the last two days.

Pat Cummins, sensibly, was not satisfied by the turn of events.

“It‘s a bit of a strange one,” he said. “As a group (we’re) proud that we’ve retained the Ashes. But it’s, you know, the back of not our greatest week.

“It feels like good that we‘ve won the Ashes, sorry, retained the Ashes, but we know we’ve got a fair bit of work to do for next week.

“Across the board in all facets we just weren’t at our best. It happens, the good thing is if you look at the body of work of this team it is quite rare that we have an off week across the board, I don’t think you can put your finger on one thing.

“They played really well this week.”

Wins in England have been hard to come by and this mob have two.

Ricky Ponting’s sides won one match in 2005 (2-1) and 2009 (2-1). Michael Clarke’s sides did not record ar win in 2013 (3-0) and two in 2015 (3-2), Tim Paine’s won two in 2019 (2-2).

They got out of jail here at Old Trafford, saved from certain defeat by rain’s intervention and now the best England can do will be square the series two-all. That might be fair enough given the home side won the third Test and were set to do so convincingly here.

Yeah, yeah, Australia has been denied series results by weather too, but this has been a fabulous cricket, a clash of cultures, and it deserved a winner-takes-all ending in London.

It is now incumbent on Australia to win at The Oval, claim the series with a resounding 3-1 scoreline that nobody can quibble about.

It will be the only way to stop England bleating from here to eternity about how hard they were done by, how they were robbed and how they woulda, coulda, shoulda.

Here’s a suggestion, if you want to win the Ashes, don’t lose the first two Tests.

(L-R) Australia's Mitchell Starc, wicket keeper Alex Carey, Marnus Labuschagne, Steven Smith and Pat Cummins leave the field at lunch. Picture: AFP.

If you want to win don’t declare too early in the first match or too late in this one.

If you want to win pick someone who can take the critical catches behind the wickets, not one who asks to be excused because he is still lame from a broken leg and under done from not having kept in years.

It is hard not to have sympathy for Jonny Bairstow’s situation, there is admiration for what he has put himself through to do what the team asks of him, but it cost the side dearly in those first two matches.

Before the series Pat Cummins stated the obvious and said he was one in the dressing room who wondered why the side celebrated retaining the Ashes after the win in the corresponding Test in 2019.

England drew the series with a win at The Oval and Justin Langer gave the side a hell of a bake the following day, calling them into a meeting and impressing on them that they had let a chance to create a bit of history slip.

Not everyone understood, but Cummins clearly did.

It was an empty conclusion, as if nothing was lost and nothing gained. Even if the Ashes were retained.

“It‘s pretty similar group to 2019 when we retained and yeah, we all came away feeling okay, but I felt like we there’s a little bit yeah we’ve just kind of just missed what we’d come over to achieve,” he said.

“In some regards, whatever happened today. Wouldn‘t really change how we look at next week. You know, we want to win it. So we made sure that you know, we were winning.”

Pat Cummins admits he bowled badly. Picture: AFP.

Cummins admits he bowled poorly at Old Trafford and they have a lot to work on in terms of preparation for England’s batting.

“I didn’t bowl very well at all,” he said. “In terms of (my) captaincy I think there’s been a few of those moments (in the past) where the batters have played well, have had a good partnership, the game moves quickly, we probably knew that coming into the series we would have a couple of days where everything went their way. It’s tough, it’s frustrating, but that’s cricket.

“I think there‘s some obvious things that we could do a little bit differently, maybe some plans but even just the way we kind of executed our bowling,” he said. “Some days you know betters are going to have days out, there’s going to be times where you know even say that, you know the conditions there was a heap of swing or seeing that happens. And we just got to make sure we get those kind of conditions in our favour we really capitalise on him as well.”

Ben Stokes arrives for the end of match presentations. Picture: Getty Images.

England captain Ben Stokes was disappointed but proud of what the team has achieved.

“It’s an incredible honour to lead this team and I said in the dressing room before that the rewards for your work isn’t what you get, it’s what you become and what we have managed to become is a team people will remember,” he said.

“I said before the series I want this team to be remembered for playing a game that people always talk about, I think regardless of how the series turns out people will always talk about this.”