How would you rate this series?

[aussie]

Originally Posted by oitoitoi

Thought his spell in Durban was better, that late inswinger at 96 mph, the first unplayable bowling performance since Wasim retired.

Dont think he actually ever reached 96 mph. But yea his Durban performance>>>>Perth performance in terms of lethalness.

[Pigeon]

Originally Posted by Bloody Hell

Two evenly matched mediocre sides battling it out. The test rankings will reflect the "quality" of these teams.

The least bad team won.

I agree with this. This series was not a patch on the 2005 series. Had 2005 England played 2009 Australia, I can probably say 5-0 would have been result, and vice versa, definitely 5-0.

Certainly not the best series this year, but who cares.

[oitoitoi]

Originally Posted by Pigeon

I agree with this. This series was not a patch on the 2005 series. Had 2005 England played 2009 Australia, I can probably say 5-0 would have been result, and vice versa, definitely 5-0.

Certainly not the best series this year, but who cares.

No way 5-0. No way. Reckon If that England side had played this Aussie side it would have been 3-1 England, if that Aussie side had played this English side, probably 4-0, unusual to get results in all tests in England.

[GIMH]

11/10

[Pigeon]

Originally Posted by oitoitoi

No way 5-0. No way. Reckon If that England side had played this Aussie side it would have been 3-1 England, if that Aussie side had played this English side, probably 4-0, unusual to get results in all tests in England.

Oh rain indeed is a factor I did not figure in. But I do think England would have rolled over Aus and would not have suffered a single defeat. Remember, that team had Flintoff at his prime godly best, Harmy and heck Simon Jones! And to top it, a young and devil may care Pietersen. Yes, the more I think about it, the more am convinced.

[oitoitoi]

Originally Posted by Pigeon

Oh rain indeed is a factor I did not figure in. But I do think England would have rolled over Aus and would not have suffered a single defeat. Remember, that team had Flintoff at his prime godly best, Harmy and heck Simon Jones! And to top it, a young and devil may care Pietersen. Yes, the more I think about it, the more am convinced.

It's a tough one to call, remember that conditions were very different that series too, it was a lot more bowler friendly, much more sunshine this time round.

[Daryl Harper]

Poor series which was dogged throughout by many of the poor aspects of the game.
Weather/ umpiring which constantly present potential for the inferior side, or better appealers to fluke it.

[Langeveldt]

Poor series from the standard of the cricket and umpiring, but a very compelling one when it comes to ebbing and flowwing, shift of the initiative, and the usual Ashes theatre.. Top stuff and a good advert for test cricket

[Zinzan]

From a neutral perspective, a pretty even series played by 2 quite mediocre sides as indicated by their Test rankings of 4 & 5 respectively

[vic_orthdox]

The fact that only one side could really win by day 3 of each Test took something away from it all.

[pup11]

I think Cardiff was a beauty of a test, eventhough from an Aussie perspective the result didn't go our way, but it did set the series up quite beautifully, but from there the series really didn't live upto its billing, as all the remaining tests were pretty one-sided, of course each test had its moments, but all in all the series was pretty average AFAIC.

As Jono said, it was the history and rivalry of the series that kept everyone interested, otherwise in terms cricketing quality there wasn't much to write home about, also agree that the low standard of umpiring also took the gloss off, of the such a high profile series.

[Dissector]

One problem with the series was that the headline players like Flintoff, KP and Ponting didn't really do much.If for example Flintoff had taken 5 wickets in that first innings instead of Broad and for good measure hit a hundred in the second innings this series would be remembered as a completely memorable finale for Freddie. But it was really the lesser players who managed to steal the show particularly at the Oval.

[zaremba]

4th v 5th.

But basically now it's won I don't much care about the quality of the cricket. Winning's the thing.

[GotSpin]

Fairly disappointing despite our loss. Seemed to be a battle between one broken side and one mediocre side that was further ruined by terrible umpiring.

[Jono]

Originally Posted by vic_orthdox

The fact that only one side could really win by day 3 of each Test took something away from it all.

Exactly.

Day 4 and 5 SA vs. Aust in Perth, and day 3 and 4 SA vs. Aust in Melbourne was some terrific cricket.