Debate is raging after driving rain in Manchester denied England another chance to push for a series-levelling victory on day five of the fourth Ashes Test, ensuring the urn remains in Australia’s keeping.
Thousands of people, the majority of them English, are screaming about rain forcing a draw and robbing the English of victory at Old Trafford, denying them victory after they outplayed the Australians emphatically.
Yet there are also thousands of people, the majority of them Australian, arguing that England captain Ben Stokes didn’t help his side’s victory hopes by opting against declaring, instead watching on delightedly as Zak Crawley, Jonny Bairstow and company piled up a lead of 275 runs.
In fact, the arguments being shot at Stokes are numerous: he is yet to lose a toss in this series; it was irresponsible to declare with only 393 runs on the board, and after 78 overs, in the first innings of the opening Test; Jonny Bairstow’s wicketkeeping was atrocious in the first and second Tests; and so on.
Regardless, there’s still a Test to be played in this series, at The Oval from Thursday, and although the Australians have retained the urn, they have made it clear they are desperate to win an Ashes series in the United Kingdom.
On the other hand, the English must be desperate to avoid losing an Ashes series on home soil, and if they win at The Oval to square the series at 2-2 they will be letting all and sundry know that if Old Trafford hadn’t copped so much rain they may have won the series.
As it turned out, no cricket was played after Australian all-rounders Mitchell Marsh (31 runs) and Cameron Green (one) walked off at tea on the fourth day, at which stage the visitors trailed England by 61.
Former England captain Michael Vaughan is among the thousands shrieking about the way in which Australia retained the urn.
“It’s dreadfully disappointing,” Vaughan told the BBC.
“It is the wrong way to decide a Test match, never mind an Ashes-defining kind of Test match.”
Former Australian batsman Callum Ferguson posed an argument in Australia’s favour.
“I still think back to the fact that Australia earned the right to be 2-1 up and in the position they are in right now,” Ferguson told Nine.
“They lost every toss, Ben Stokes won every toss, (England) wasn’t able to make the most of it as a team and Australia are 2-1 up with an opportunity to win The Ashes at The Oval.”
Stokes defended his decision to not declare at Old Trafford.
“I think we look at the cricket that was played. We win the toss and bowl, bowl Australia out for 320, score 570 at five-and-a-half runs an over, we have Australia five down, then we get three hours of play after that. I think regardless of what we did we would have still ended up in the same position. Sometimes weather just gets the better of you,” Stokes told the BBC.
“It is unfortunate, we could moan about it, but it just is what it is. It’s just unfortunate after the cricket that we did play that we find ourselves here drawing this game when we felt we were in a great position to be able to win it.”
The England skipper was blunt when asked if he would “analyse deeper” why his went 2-0 down in the series.
“No,” he said, before elaborating when the BBC reporter prodded.
“Yeah, well you can’t change what’s happened in the past. A lot of things can always be said about stuff that has already happened. That’s just sort of theoretical things. You can’t change the decisions that you’ve made.
“I will always back decisions that I make because I know it’s the right decision to try to force a result … in the given time.
“Sometimes it doesn’t work out the way you want it to, but no, I’m never going to look back and question anything that we did.”
Australian captain Pat Cummins admitted retaining the urn in such circumstances felt strange.
“It feels a bit weird,” he said.
“It’s really nice to retain it. Obviously not in the circumstances we would have liked, but you look back at the last series and the first two games here and to get ourselves into this position … The rain might have helped us out, but great result.”
MORE TO COME.
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