Seeing endless shots of the public of London cluttering the rooftops around the Oval for a distant glimpse of the cricket, it was hard to feel sad about the result. They filled the windows of every surrounding apartment, they stood on roofs on the other side of the city with binoculars, veritably the people of England had taken to the skies.
I am more saddened by the fact that the Ashes are over. I can’t contemplate watching any other 2 teams compete in a test match now. It won’t seem like a real test. It will be as though its a multiple choice test or something.
That final 1st session was the greatest session of cricket I have ever seen. England scoring at over 4 an over, Australia pressing hard, creating chances, taking plenty of them. And Lee’s final over before lunch at KP. Holy shit. Surely the players don’t have to go off for lunch, surely lunch is offered to the fielding side. The Australians weren’t hungry, they’d clearly had their Weet-bix, stocked up on Milo. They could have kept go go go go go go go going all day.
After lunch the sadness set in. Sad that there wasn’t going to be a mad run chase, a final breathless last ditch attempt. After lunch, nothing.
Great stuff, Nick. You’ve been my favourite reading throughout the Ashes.
Cheers,
Rick
Thanks Rick. Thats incredibly flattering considering the massive amount of writing thats been going on surrounding this series. It was kind of a hard one to write about in a way, especially when had need to be glued to the television set all evening and deep into the night. Great work to everyone who contributed to the textual whirlwind that clearly helped drive the series on!
I want to echo what Rick says; your description of Flintoff and his savage ability gave me goosebumps. As you say, the saddest part is that it is over… (but the nicest part is that England won)… cheers!