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'What it's all about': Australia and England's act of sportsmanship

Chris Young
·Sports Reporter

The battle is over - and when that battle was on the cricket pitch, there’s only one thing to do afterwards.

Crack some beers and bubbly and celebrate a hard-fought contest.

With so much of the Ashes dominated by narratives of hostility between English and Australian players, as well as the crowd, a post-Ashes snap from England and Wales Cricket Board communications man Danny Reuben summed up how both sides were feeling after the series was drawn.

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Both teams convened in the England rooms for a few drinks and a chat to celebrate the five match series.

The English and Australian Test teams, pictured sharing a drink after the Fifth Test, were praised for their sportsmanship after the conclusion of the Ashes.
After a series characterised by moments of hostility, a snap of the English and Australian teams sharing a drink after the fifth Test won universal praise. Picture: Twitter/@dannyreuben

“This is what it’s all about,” Reuben wrote on Twitter.

“The cut and thrust of Ashes cricket. Let’s just have a beer and reminisce. Why cricket is the best!”

England proved too good in the fifth and final Test of the series, bowling Australia out on the fourth day to square the series at 2-2.

While the draw was enough for the Aussies to retain the Ashes, once everyone has had time to rest and recover from an arduous series, there are plenty of questions to be answered about Australia’s future Test hopes.

Openers set embarrassing record

Australia may have retained the Ashes, but there are certainly plenty of issues to sort out heading into the Australian summer of cricket.

Steve Smith enjoyed the the greatest single series by a batsman this century, Matthew Wade and Marnus Labuschagne cemented their places in the XI, and the bowlers were typically superb.

But the glaring weakness lies with our openers.

When Marcus Harris was dismissed for 9 on the morning of day four at The Oval, it marked the 14th time in the series that one of Australia’s openers made a single-figure score.

To put that into context, the previous world record was 13 times set by England in South Africa in 1905-06.

Warner also achieved the ignominious feat of being dismissed for the most single-figure scores by an opening batsman in one series ever.

His 95 runs at an average of 9.50 were also the lowest in a series of at least 10 innings.