The Ashes, Match Three

We have a backlog of things to get caught up on, one of which is that Australia took the Ashes back from England last week.  You will recall that Australia won the first match 696-315, then they won the second match 702-484.  Since there are five matches in an Ashes series, England couldn't lose any more matches if they were going to retain the trophy.  But Match Three, in Perth, was another easy win for the Aussies.  Australia won the toss, elected to bat, and put up 385 runs.  England could only score 251 in its turn at bat.  The Aussies then put up another 369 runs before they declared themselves out with a total of 754.  That meant England needed 504 runs to win, or they needed to keep batting for a day and a half in order to preserve a draw.  They couldn't do either, being retired after 353 runs.  So Australia won by a final score of 754-604, their third blowout in a row.

It's been a very odd series, given that England had beaten Australia the last three times they played for the Ashes, including an easy victory just this summer.  But teams with great traditions are often at their most dangerous when they are at home and facing an opponent that they absolutely have to beat -- and that seems to be the case here.  The Aussies jumped all over England from the beginning of this series, and the English have never been able to get on track.

There will be two more matches in this Series, but we won't pay any attention to them, as we know that the Ashes are going back to Australia.  England will get its next chance at Australia in the summer of 2015, so we'll wait until then for more cricket coverage.