Swervy
International Captain
So, because Bothams performance at Headingley stood out, it should be downgraded, and because the rest of the team performed well at Edgbaston 05, Flintoffs should be upgraded????I'd hope Flintoff's Edgbaston 2005 will be talked about through the annals of history too - though given much of the rest of 1981 was unremarkable and almost all the rest of 2005 was gripping, it stands-out less.
How to put it best... Botham may have been involved in the game and done brilliantly. But despite this, his side were still well on track to lose, very heavily indeed, until his second-innings effort with the bat. Flintoff, on the other hand, was the principle figure in keeping his side on top throughout the game.
A part of the reason Bothams performance at Headingley will be talked about throughout time are:
a) the complete nightmare he was going through before Headingley
b) his performances in the first half of the Headingley game at least allowed England to be a 'mere' 227 behind on the first innings
c) he pulled his team from being 3 wickets away from a heavy innings defeat
d) with the help of Willis, England won
e) he continued his magic touch with his 5-1 in a couple of overs in the next text, when Australia
f) he the pulled England out of the crap again with his 118 at Old Trafford (one of the truely great innings)
g) he then took 10 in the match at the Oval
What makes Headingley such a momentous preformance was the context of it all. In itself, it will go down as one of the really great performances. But with hindsight, it can be seen it was merely the start of a superhuman run, and all that after such a disasterous. Botham was so far clear of everyone else on both sides, it is embarressing (and neither team were bad teams either). Take Botham out of the equation and Australia would probably have won that series 3-0
Flintoff did what he did in a fine allround team performance. So much easier to do when the support is there.