aditya kumar's weblog

Never before has the spirit of the game been captured in such an entirety, in such a wholesome state.

England has won the Ashes after 17 years.

It all went down the wire in the end. Ultimately it was Kevin Pietersen’s mighty willow blade that prevailed over the seam of the likes of McGrath, Lee and the Great Warne. Before lunch, there was a good chance of an Aussie comeback with England reeling at 126/5 and Flintoff, the hero of the series, back in the pavilion. In normal circumstances one would have thought it was all a matter of how long the England tail wags.

But this group of Englishmen, in more ways than one, have been different than their predecessors and this was not just another game.

At lunch time, an Aussie comeback could be imagined for the kind of cricket we have been treated to this English summer, anything could be possible and predicting a winner would almost be a sin.

Kevin Pietersen, as it turned out, had other ideas. Playing in his first test series and riding on a lucky horse that refused to bog down, Pietersen hit a flamboyant 158. Flamboyant because in a game so tense, he unleashed an array of boundaries, 22 in total and 7 out of them which directly landed over the boundary rope- and then we all came to know, Pietersen has more to style than his weird hair color. His partnership with Ashley Giles ultimately proved to be the deciding factor of this exciting game.

Giles’s time at the crease was well spent and his innings out there in the park could only be compared to his gutsy and, eventually proving decisive, batting in the Trent Bridge match which made England lead 2-1 in the series.

One should not take the credit away from Australia- they have been praiseworthy all this while. They have lost to a better opposition, a deserving team led by a highly capable leader in Vaughan. If it was not because of the Australians, we would have witnessed one sided cricket and truth be told, there is a lot that can be learnt by watching the Australians go down- the spirit they play with, the hunger for success and the undying fight they put up. I dare say, these attributes are new found for the English team but it seems every Australian cricketer is born with them.

On a personal note, our Indian Cricket Team can’t win like the Aussies- but if they start losing like them, it would be less grieving for us fans.

And who can forget the Great Shane Warne. Playing his last test on the English soil- the same soil on which he bowled the “ball of the century”, 12 years ago, it was an irony he ended up in the losing side. Though claiming 12 wickets in the match and bowling his heart out in the middle- in the end it was just not enough.

The Ashes is back with England. But perhaps more importantly, the cricket fever, the cricket euphoria that England has been so deprived of in the last two decades is back there, where it belongs.

I say again, never before has the spirit of the game been captured in such an entirety, in such a wholesome state.

[Above: Flintoff and Geraint Jones exult as the umpires remove the bails, marking an End to the Ashes Series. Image from The BBC.]