Mike Atherton: England are a team to be proud of, they did not deserve this ending

A cruel ending to the Ashes series should not take away from England’s determination, writes MIKE ATHERTON.

Ben Stokes and his team didn’t deserve this ending. Picture: Clive Mason/Getty Images

Sport can be glorious; it can be cruel. It can be many contrasting things over the course of a lengthy contest, both wonderful and terrible, dramatic and dull, it can lift the spirits and try the soul. “It is not enough to succeed,” said the writer Gore Vidal, “others must fail.” Every action brings a reaction, for every winner there is a loser. From Old Trafford, Pat Cummins exited with the Ashes in safekeeping; Ben Stokes left knowing his chance of glory had gone.

From wintry skies, amid increasing gloom, with covers on the square, “supersopper” machines abandoned on the outfield and slowly sinking into the mud and a smattering of hardy spectators huddled under brollies in the stands, a hard rain fell on Manchester and the 2023 Ashes came to a sodden end. The series is still alive, but for Stokes the dream of regaining the Ashes under his captaincy in an English summer is over.

What a terrible way it was for this Ashes above all, which has enthralled, entertained and captivated us every inch of the way, to finish, thus denying us a grandstand finish. The first three games ebbed and flowed with victories decided on the finest of margins, outcomes uncertain to the very end. Although this fourth Test was totally one-sided, it retained a small sense of uncertainty as a brief stoppage during the late morning raised false hopes for a proper ending, but it was not to be.

The scene at Old Trafford was a thoroughly miserable one. Picture: Gareth Copley/Getty Images

Even for Australia, one imagines a sense of anticlimax which may have impinged upon their celebrations. Four years ago, they raised themselves off the floor after a devastating defeat at Headingley and won a victory many of these same players now must look back on as one of the best of their careers. They know, deep down, they got lucky in this match and they have a lot of contemplation to do before the next. The northern leg was very bittersweet for both teams.

There are those who will point to the missed opportunities at Edgbaston, especially. Instead of that lingering regret being the strongest reaction, think first where England were two winters ago in Hobart, a shell of a side that played with no conviction or belief. The transformation since has been remarkable and even though “Bazball” will not get its affirmation with an Ashes win, the country has a team of which to be proud.

They won’t get everything right, and they fluffed opportunities early in the series, but they did not deserve this anticlimactic, damp conclusion. Rarely have Australia been so outplayed as they were over the first three days of this game, and England’s brilliant and bold cricket deserved a more just outcome. Not since Ian Botham at his peak in the 1980s has an Australian team looked as rattled as they did in the field here.

The history books will show a drawn Test – the first in Stokes’s captaincy – Australia still trailing by 61 with five wickets left. They will also show only 30 overs were bowled on the final two days of the game, which, even by Manchester’s standards, is a cruel outcome in high summer in July. Given the pace at which England play and Stokes’s determination to eliminate the draw, it needed biblical rain to prevent a positive outcome. It is inconceivable that England would not have won this match with a fair wind.

It’s an anticlimactic win for Australia. Picture: Clive Mason/Getty Images

That said, the Ashes is played over five games for a reason and it cannot be denied that by winning the opening two Tests, Australia set themselves up for this outcome. In an alternative universe with sunshine over the five days here, it is possible to argue convincingly that England would have gone to the Oval strong favourites to emulate Don Bradman’s side in 1936-37, but they had left themselves no margin for error, or bad weather.

England have won all four tosses and certainly had the better of the conditions throughout. There are those who would point to the declaration at Edgbaston as a gift for Australia, but I would not agree, there being logic to the move there. The dropped catches, missed stumping and extras were more significant in the first Test, and how Stokes would have loved to have had Mark Wood’s pace at his disposal as the game went to the wire.

In the second, at Lord’s, England’s batting lost its equilibrium at times, and Stokes’s wonder innings camouflaged those failings to some degree, and they learnt from those mistakes. Ollie Pope’s injury encouraged England to play the extra bowler at Headingley and admit what they had not wanted to since the start of the series: that Stokes was not fit to fulfil the role of all-rounder except in an emergency situation. Two bowlers, Chris Woakes and Wood, returned alongside an all-rounder, Moeen Ali, and England’s team took on a better balance as a result.

Water the pitch of course pic.twitter.com/JuGOa3fcdv

— Daniel Cherny (@DanielCherny) July 23, 2023

Nathan Lyon’s injury took on the same kind of significance as Glenn McGrath’s in 2005. Although we had known how important he was to Australia’s attack, it was suddenly revealed with even more clarity with Cummins’s reluctance to bowl Todd Murphy at Headingley, and with the off spinner’s exclusion at Old Trafford, despite the dryness of the surface. Surely he must return at the Oval.

So to the Oval, with the Ashes decided but much to play for. No Australia player knows what it is like to win a series in England and for many, including David Warner and possibly the entire seam bowling unit, the chance will not come again. They fluffed their chance four years ago to win a series here and will not want to do so again. That said, they looked tired and rattled at Old Trafford and will do well to gather themselves again.

For England, a proud unbeaten home record against Australia since 2001 to sustain, but there will be something missing. The Oval is a place of endings and farewells and where England captains – Len Hutton and Michael Vaughan among them – have regained the Ashes amid glorious scenes. For Stokes, that chance gone, it is a case of what might have been.

The Times