Ashes rivals share the honours, if not the spoils

Australia skipper Pat Cummins ended up accepting the two trophies he came to the UK to claim, but admitted that while his team's tour ledger of three wins, two losses would be viewed as a success in retrospect, in the moment if fell marginally on the side of "disappointing".

His England captaincy counterpart Ben Stokes departed the end-of-series presentation ceremony empty handed, but with the sound of an exultant nation ringing in his ears and the belief the campaign had been "everything I could have asked for minus getting the urn back".

That pretty much summed up the slightly confusing contrast that settled upon The Oval in a rare burst of summer sunlight after England had squared the scoreline 2-2 by storming to a 49-run win over the Ashes holders late on day 25 of the scheduled 25 playing days.

By almost every metric, the suggestion that the teams shared the honours if not the spoils seemed more than the standard sporting cliché.

The second consecutive drawn Ashes series in the UK was decidedly more competitive than the preceding contest four years ago when, apart from the memorable one-wicket at triumph in Leeds, all games were decided by a margin of 135 runs or more.

This battle bore a remarkable symmetry in the Tests that produced results – Australia by two wickets at Edgbaston, England by three wickets at Headingley; Australia by 43 runs at Lord's, England by 49 runs in the finale.

The only potential blow-out was negated by the rain that ruined the final two days at Old Trafford, so it will never be known if England's outlier innings of 592 would have been enough to deliver a thumping win or whether Australia might have pulled off a comeback for the ages.

Drill down further into the detail, and the margins become no more definitive.

Across five Tests, England scored 3,079 runs for the loss of 85 wickets (at an average of 36.22 runs apiece) while Australia scored fewer (2,710), surrendered more (93) and accordingly finished with a marginally lower average per scalp of 29.13.

The most glaring difference was the rate at which the respective teams made those runs with England rattling them on at around 4.9 per over while Australia compiled theirs at a more sedate (aka traditional) 3.1.

But the reason no team was able to claim a series win was that while they regularly found themselves in positions where they might push for victory, they just as often let those chances slip through their fingers.

England should have won at Edgbaston after dominating with the bat on day one, but rather short-sightedly declared before that day was done and spent much of the rest of the game fruitlessly chasing it.

Likewise at Lord's, they threw away a rollicking pursuit of Australia's biggest score of the series and left too much to do at the back end, even for the game's most feared finisher in Stokes.

In the driver's seat to secure that long-awaited Ashes win in the UK that has eluded them since 2001, Australia stumbled in a couple of costly batting collapses at Leeds and were ultimately undone by the deeds of new boys Mark Wood and player of the series Chris Woakes with both ball and bat.

And in the final fixture, the visitors finally had things fall in their favour from the moment Cummins called correctly at the toss then put in their worst fielding effort of the venture (five dropped catches) in the first innings and some listless bowling in the second to set too steep a challenge in the fourth.

The only time they could claim to have been totally outplayed was the nightmarish England innings where they conceded 592 at frightening speed and placed their fate in the hands of weather deities who duly delivered.

"I think there was a couple of key partnerships batting-wise, that we felt like if we'd just put on another fifty runs that could have turned the tide in our favour," Cummins said at series end when asked if there were events within his control he regretted in retrospect.

"No doubt that one big innings they put in (at Manchester), you look at and could do some things a bit differently.

"But you never know if that would change anything, there's too many unknowns.

"We got ourselves in some really good positions winning the first two games, but at Headingley and again this week (we were in) match-winning positions, but just didn't quite capitalise.

"That happens, but we were out of it in Birmingham and found a way to win.

"Once we reflect on it we'll be proud we retained it, so it's been a wonderful tour but we turned up today hoping to get up and win 3-1."

The sense of triumphalism that rumbled around The Oval as Woakes, Moeen Ali and finally Stuart Broad in a Hollywood ending to a glittering career delivered seven wickets in a single session was justifiable given England's position after the first two Tests.

Pointed questions were being asked then about the validity of the 'Bazball' approach of all-out aggression and how it stood up against the newly crowned World Test champions.

But if not for a bout of ill-timed Manchester misery, England might have become just the second team in Ashes history to triumph from 0-2 down.

They might also have surrendered the urn at Headingley if not for a couple of inspiring solo efforts, so Stokes was sanguine but at the same time realistic as he reflected on a summer that eventually delivered England not much more than a warm glow.

"The series as a whole, I think 2-2 is genuinely a fair reflection of two very, very good teams going at it over a five-match series," he said. "The cricket that's been on show has been of the highest quality.

"Being 2-0 down is a very hard task to come back from, so being sat here able to say that we've levelled the series, knowing we had to win the last three … Coming here and playing the way we did, I couldn't be any more proud of the team in what they did.

"We continued everything in the style of play we have over the last 15 months and it's been everything I could have asked for minus getting the urn back."

Given the tour began in early June with the team landing their first World Test Championship title with a win over India at The Oval, it's understandable Cummins also viewed the overall campaign as "a really good tour".

But that couldn't conceal the reality of a squandered two-nil lead, with the likelihood a cohort of generational greats including Steve Smith, David Warner, Usman Khawaja, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon whose injury at Lord's proved pivotal will not experience an Ashes series win away from home.

Cummins was full of praise for his men, but also identified England's veteran bowling outfit that comprised mostly men aged in their mid-30s (as well as 41-year-old James Anderson) who were so well versed in their home conditions they rarely let their rivals breathe easy.

"I think because we've had really good series', especially at home and had a lot of success, the bar gets raised a little bit," Cummins said.

"So coming over here, retaining the Ashes feels like a bit of a missed opportunity.

"But In 2019 we were all pretty happy about a retained Ashes, so I don't think we should lose sight of that.

"It's a huge achievement to come over here and get ourselves in many winning positions, the same as India (earlier this year) where we got ourselves into really good positions.

"We just missed what we were coming over here to achieve, but winning the World Test Championship and retaining the Ashes is a pretty successful tour."

Cummins also noted the views of the British public he informally canvassed during his occasional public outings during the hectically compressed schedule suggested the quality of the cricket transcended a lot of the ugly tribalism on show from the terraces.

"Everyone's been amazing and just been talking about the cricket and how much they loved, and I know it's the same back in Australia – big viewers and lots of people interested in cricket," he said.

"How good is that?

"I was a bit young for 2005 but that series gets talked about a lot, and it feels like this series might be the same."

That view was echoed by Stokes who is keenly aware of Test cricket's standing in the UK where it lives constantly in the shadow of football and risks being eroded by the encroaching presence of white-ball formats.

It was, after all, the necessity to have The Hundred competition kicking off at the start of August that saw the Ashes completed by the end of July for the first time in the rivalry's 146-year history.

"I've been very vocal around that separation from the results thing with cricket," Stokes said in proclaiming the drawn result as the next-best thing for a series win.

"I think that over the last seven weeks, in particular, we've managed to drag a new audience towards Test cricket.

"I think this series is genuinely what Test cricket needed.

"Two high-quality teams going at it toe-to-toe and the cricket has been something you couldn't take your eyes off. Every session has been its own game. We've been in control, then Australia have been in control.

"Everyone who's turned up to the games and bought a ticket has really enjoyed their days of cricket.

"That's all you can ask for as someone who pays money to come and watch an international spot.

"I really hope we've inspired a new generation. I look back to 2005 and what that series did for me as a young person, and I really hope there's someone who's the age I was then and says: 'That's what I want to be doing when I'm 21 or 22'."

2023 Qantas Ashes Tour of the UK

First Test: Australia won by two wickets

Second Test: Australia won by 43 runs

Third Test: England won by three wickets

Fourth Test: Match drawn

Fifth Test: England won by 49 runs

Australia squad: Pat Cummins (c), Scott Boland, Alex Carey (wk), Cameron Green, Marcus Harris, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis (wk), Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitch Marsh, Todd Murphy, Michael Neser, Matthew Renshaw, Steve Smith (vc), Mitchell Starc, David Warner

England squad: Ben Stokes (c), Rehan Ahmed, James Anderson, Jonathan Bairstow, Stuart Broad, Harry Brook, Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Dan Lawrence, Jack Leach, Ollie Pope, Matthew Potts, Ollie Robinson, Joe Root, Josh Tongue, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood