I know we are only half way through Australia’s second innings in Sydney and England have yet to bat again but, let’s face it, a fifth consecutive defeat is the likeliest outcome.  Well, that’s the way it goes in sport.  No matter which team you support you know you can’t win every time.  As the title of this blog should tell you, I’m a cricket lover.  Whilst I would always prefer England to win – I can enjoy good cricket even when we’re on the receiving end.  England’s problem in this series, as in years gone by, is that we haven’t really competed.

Take this Test as an example.  In their first innings, Australia were 97 for 5 – and went on to make 326.  England only just made it past 150 all out.  In their second innings, Australia were 91 for 4 and are currently a little over 200 for 5.  They seem able to dig deep and mount a recovery and we just haven’t been able to.

Australia have always had grit and determination, especially against England.  The Ashes is the longest running contest in international sport and there is no doubt when you see Australia play that it matters to them.  A lot.  It gives me no pleasure to say it, but England just don’t seem to have that same desire.  Take a few Australian wickets cheaply and the next batsmen to come to the crease will play themselves in and then fight back.  If you start to score runs against them then the Australian bowlers will move up a gear and come at you with renewed ferocity.

If England lose a couple of wickets then the next few just fold.  Even more frustrating, even if we do get a few runs on the board, we then have a middle order collapse which wipes out any advantage we initially gained.  If opposing batsmen start to come after our bowlers then they (mostly) become dispirited and lose any fire that they did have.  Stuart Broad has been the notable exception to that on this tour.

All us fans want to see is the England bowlers making it as difficult as they can for Australian batsmen to score and for our batsmen to play as though the Ashes mean something.  Yes, the Ashes have been lost – but it’s better to come home with a 4-1 or even 4-0 loss than a 5-0 whitewash.  Too often on this tour our batsmen have given easy catches on the leg side or in the covers.  Honour is at stake and it means something – to us at least.  Is that really too much to ask?