Highlights of the Ashes
 

What were your highlights of the just finished Ashes series?

For me:

1. Fred's bowling at Lord's, which was simply breath taking.
2. England's bowling effort at Edgbatson in the first session of the second day where they took 7 wickets. I know there was some dodgy umpiring, but England did bowl very well. And I'm going to admit it, I really enjoyed some of the fast bowling.
3. Australia bowling England out for 102 on the first day at Headingly, that was a clinical and dominating period of bowling if there was one. They made the English line-up look like they had never picked up a bat in their life.
4. Ricky Ponting becoming Australia's leading run scorer.
5. Jimmeh and monty holding on at Cardiff and somehow Australia couldn't get that last wicket. Pretty gutsy IMO.

I'll post some more when I think of them.

Broad's spell in the first innings at The Oval.

Yeah, and to add to that

1. Johnson and Hilfy' spell in the last 30 minutes of day 2 of the Headingley test.
2. Clarke and Haddin partnership in the Aussie 2nd innings at Lord's, we didn't the game, but that was a pretty special counter-attacking partnership.
3. Collingwood' gritty knock at Cardiff, everyone talks about MSP and Jimmy' heroics, but if it hadn't been for him, England won't have had a chance.
4. Siddle' spell to Swann at Cardiff in the 2nd innings was also a pretty intriguing contest.

From a parochial POV:

Jimmeh pumping his fists to the Cardiff crowd after securing the draw at Cardiff
Flintoff & Anderson's bowling in the first innings at Lord's, Flintoff's second innings bowling in the same match, and of course Strauss's ton
The first session of day two at Egdbaston
Stuart Broad on Friday
Trott & Swann's partnership on Saturday
Hussey's wicket yesterday

And slightly more objectively, the only day's play I attended saw a masterclass from Ricky Ponting, he scored 78 but was blood marvellous, as was Stuart Clark in the morning session

Yeah Ponting at Headingley on the first day was seriously good, like the best batting I've ever seen live.

Clark's sixes I reckon.

I find it not so easy to create a top 5. But here I go:

-Flintoff's spell at Lord's. It was a great spell. But to be fair, not per se match winning. I'm quite sure England would have managed without it as well. It ranks the top, for the simple reason Freddie is my favourite, not based on these series.
-Broad's spell at the Oval. That was probably the decisive spell of the series
-Aussie match winning innings in Wales, which proved to be not-so-match-winning due to rain, Collingwood, Anderson & Panesar
-Stuart Clark's first spell. Sahme it was given a decent folow-up.
-Harmison's last spell. It was good to see him smile again.

Trott getting a century on debut was pretty good as well.

Flintoff's first spell of the series to Phil Hughes. Hughes battled and battled but couldn't quite see him off- you suspect if he had, he could have been set for the series just as he was after seeing off an early bombardment from the Saffer bowlers in March. But Flintoff nicked him out, and from then on he always looked destined to fail.

The return of Stuart Clark was fantastic too. I blogged before the warm-up game at Northants saying if Clark didn't perform his career with Australia might be over, and after missing out at Edgbaston it certainly looked that way. It was a big surprise to see him in the team at Headingley, with Shane Warne going nuts at the selectors for not choosing a spinner. But within his first spell he took 3/7 and effectively won the match for Australia. It was great to see one of my favourite bowlers of the past five years take a side apart like that, because I never thought it would happen ever again.

My highlight is best summed up by this;

http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/9185/ponting.jpg

Haha that's a brilliant photo.

It may have been in a losing cause, but for me, Hussey's 121 at the Oval was, if not the best, then certainly the gutsiest innings of the series. Up there with Collingwood's 130-odd at the Oval last year as the best career-saving (probably) knock I've seen.:)

Also, I enjoyed Anderson and Onions' last-wicket slog-fest at Lords which lifted England past 400 after a pretty disastrous start to the morning (three in three overs, IIRC). To be honest, watching Anderson smack Johnson for three fours in an over was just hilarious.

And for dramatic starts, Onions nipping two-in-two at the start of the second day was amazing...it can't have happened often before.

Fred's run-out of Ricky was a pretty good moment.

The look on Ricky's face - as if to say to Freddie "what are you doing on the field? You should be in the dressing room having treatment"...

Marcus North's catch to dismiss Strauss which set up a comprehensive win.

Stuart Clark 3-7 on the first morning of the 4th test.