Who scored most runs?
Australia

Which team had six of the seven leading run makers?
Australia

Who took most wickets?
Australia

Which team had the three leading wicket-takers?
Australia

Who won the series?
England

The bottom line is Test matches are set up in the first innings and England batted like clowns in the first knock just once. Australia did it twice and that proved to be the difference between the sides.

Sure England got away with one in Cardiff and the destiny of the famous urn could well have been academic before we reached the Oval, but in a bold attempt to smash national stereotypes, the hosts showed some stoic resistance from a couple of unlikely sources while the Aussies failed to deliver when it mattered in Wales and then the Baggy Green crumbled on a crumbled pitch in South London.

The whinging Aussie press are claiming the toss of the coin at The Oval decided the Ashes with groundsman Bill Gordon under orders to produce a pitch favourable to the hosts although their batsmen rather diluted their own conspiracy theory by scoring 348 batting last.

Four years on from the 2005 success and there is no clamour for an open top bus parade or Messer’s Cook, Swann, Broad, Anderson, Prior, Trott, Bopara, Panesar and Onions to join the rest of their team-mates with MBE’s

This series was never going to be as exciting as the 2005 series. The narrowest win in Ashes history was followed by a match that England were only one wicket away from snatching before a three wicket home victory. Of course it all culminated in an ultra tense final day at The Oval.

That was an anomaly of acute excitement which probably won’t be ever repeated.

Of course all these incredible finales were played to a backdrop of England having not beaten the old enemy in an Ashes series for 18 years.

But probably the most exciting part about that series was that England were going head-to-head and eventually beating unquestionably the best team in the world and some would argue one of the top three teams in the history of the game.

The 2009 series did have some echoes of 2005 with the pendulum of momentum going back and forth.

But when England embarked on their 2005 boozeathon it was no doubt fuelled in the fact that they had just beaten the team of Hayden-Langer-Ponting-Gilchrist-McGrath and Warne – legends of the game.

Of course Andrew Strauss and his men can only beat the team put in front of them but Australia have won just six of their past 16 Tests and have now dropped to fourth in the Test rankings.

As Strauss said before Leeds, the Australians have lost their aura and it reflected in the mood of the nation.

Unlike four yeas ago, there was not a hint of cricket on the front pages on the morning of the Oval Test, let alone the back pages dominated by Manchester Unity’s defeat to Burnley.

Of course this Ashes series was not on terrestrial television. What effect that had on the series failing to grip the nation in the same way – well you decide.

So even though most of England’s batsmen averaged less than 30 and most of England’s bowlers averaged more than 40, it was the hosts who played the better cricket when it mattered so hats off to them for avenging the 2006/7 whitewash in Australia.

The England cricket team ‘s  next test will be truly significant when they take on the number one team in the world ,South Africa, this winter and if they beat them  in their own backyard then that really would be start of something special. Watch this space.

Australia made a good on start on Saturday evening boosting their confidence with a steady opening partnership of 80 knowing that both the target and the prospect of batting more than six sessions to secure the draw were out of reach. Simon Katich and Shane Watson resumed on another fine, hot English summers day with a capacity crowd anticipating an England victory. However this partnership lasted only another six runs and 15 minutes before Katich (43) misjudged an arm ball from Graeme Swann. The Aussie left-hander thrust his right pad out without offering a shot and was given out lbw.

Watson succumbed for 40 in the next over, also lbw, when an off-cutter from the young in form England bowler Stuart Broad thudded into his pads. An early end to the proceedings seemed likely with Broad exploiting the variable bounce and Swann getting the odd ball to grip and turn.

The Australian cricket captain Ricky Ponting, was at his most determined, and his Partner in crime Hussey, at his most stubborn , were fighting hard against the powerful  pair who had taken nine wickets between them in the first innings. Australia went to lunch with the score at 171 for two. Both may several errors but stayed at the crease.

Ponting reached his half-century in what will probably be his final Ashes Test on English soil, before edging Swann on to Collingwood’s left boot. Collingwood turned quickly but was unable to gather the rebound. Two runouts in the space of six balls followed and accounted for Australia’s two best batsman. Hussey called for a swift single after driving Steve Harmison to Andrew Flintoff at mid-on. Ponting (66), who hesitated, was run out a magnificent flat throw from Freddie, which struck the stumps at the striker’s end.

Clarke followed to a most bizarre dismissal in the following over without scoring when he played the ball on to the foot of Alastair Cook at short-leg. Strauss, running around to leg from first slip, seized the ricochet and flicked the ball on to the stumps with Clarke scrambling in vain to make his ground.

Hussey on 55 survived a chance to the unfortunate Collingwood before Marcus North was stumped by Matt Prior off Swann for 10. Hussey and wicketkeeper Brad Haddin kept Australia’s hopes alive with a steady   and professional seventh wicket partnership of 91 off of 135 balls. Haddin used deft footwork to cancel he bounce, cutting and gliding his way to 34 before hoisting Swann to Strauss in the unaccustomed position of deep mid-wicket.

Mitchell Johnson fell for a duck caught at second slip by a grateful Collingwood off Steve Harmison. Peter Siddle was out to the same bowler for 10 and Stuart followed next ball to put Harmison on a hat-trick, but it was to Swann that perhaps rightly fell the honour of taking the final wicket as he was the most successful of the bowlers with figures of four for 120 from 40.2 overs. Only Hussey of the Australian batsmen had defied the England attack for any length of time, scoring his 10th Test century. He was the last man out, caught at short-leg by Alastair Cook for 121 in five-and-a-half hours at the crease.

A capacity Oval crowd basking in the late August evening  sun joyfully erupted into scenes mirroring those of The 2005 Ashes Test four years ago when a draw was enough to bring the Ashes back after 16 long years. “It’s a special moment for us, we had to dig deep in a very hard series. It has not sunk in yet,” said the England captain Andrew Strauss. Whilst his opponent Ricky Ponting, the Australian team magnanimous in defeat said “We have not been good enough. Full credit to England and Andrew Strauss for the way he has led the team,”

To borrow the adage from their football colleagues, at the beginning of the 2009 Ashes series, the English cricket supporters were looking for cricket to come home, well due to the magnificent effort put in by all of the 2009 England Ashes cricket squad ,cricket truly has come home and the famous Urn has been returned to home soil.

The news from the Australian cricket camp is that they will be targeting England’s middle order that they deem to be vulnerable to their much improved bowling attack. Ravi Bopara, Ian Bell and Paul Collingwood all failed to reach double figures in either innings in the fourth Test at Headingley and Jonathan Trott has been selected to make his debut at the expense of Bopara who’s form has been particularly disappointing.Trott will bat at five with Bell and Collingwood moving up to three and four respectively.

Bell averages 31 batting at number three compared to an overall average nearly 10 runs higher when he bats lower in the order. Hence he is carrying a huge responsibility in what can be considered the pivotal batting position.

“Belly is a maturing character,” Strauss said. “He hasn’t set the world on fire at three but he’s played some important innings. He’s good against pace and he’s good against spin and this is a fantastic opportunity to show his talent.”

Strauss is urging his team to stay calm in the biggest Test match staged in England since the equivalent game in 2005 when the hosts secured the draw they needed to regain the Ashes.

“The important thing about a Test match is that you can’t win on day one, you’ve got to earn the right to win the game and that means playing good, solid cricket for the first three days or so,” he said.

“So it’s not a case of particularly forcing the pace, it’s about wrestling the initiative away over the course of the first three days.”

The manner of the Aussie victory in Leeds together with their all-round superiority looks like it may lead them to play an all-pace attack with Stuart Clark and Brett Lee competing for the final place. Ricky Ponting the Australian Captain and the Australian selectors plan to assess the conditions during their final practice session today before deciding to go with pace or recall off-spinner Nathan Haurtiz.

Once again the weather forecast is not good for Thursday’s start with rain predicted after a week of sunshine however the pitch looks typical of the Oval with pace and bounce and plenty of runs.

So here we are at last the final game in the 2009 Ashes Test at the Oval – the odds are stacked heavily in Australia’s favour. If England can win the toss and amass a good total in the first couple of days then they stand a slight chance of winning back the Ashes but currently this seems unlikely and the Urn looks destined to stay down under. One thing is for sure; before the final ball is bowled we can look forward to some good cricket and drama that only this series seems able to conjure. Let the last battle commence.

Vaughan, the one that knows him best having captained the 27 year old when in charge of the England team says of him “He has done well in Test cricket and averages 40 (40.59)’ If he just relaxes and plays he’s got so much talent. He should just play it in his natural way.”

The right-hander Bell has been in good form for his county, Warwickshire this season and will be on home ground if selected to play in the team against the Aussies. On his day he is an elegant and fluid batsmen, however he struggled with his form against the Australians in the famous 2005 Ashes win. Conversely he was one of the few England cricket players to emerge from the 2006/07 Ashes tour In Australia – 2006/2007with any credit. But his poor form in India last year carried into the first test in the West Indies in February, led to him being dropped.

Bell will no doubt want to prove himself quickly, but he must not to put himself under too much pressure. He must take a leaf out of the book some of England’s other cricketer’s, play himself in and not force the game but let it come to him. He must follow the example of Paul Collingwood, Andrew Strauss, Alastair Cook, Andrew Flintoff and Matthew Prior. They are all playing in an almost Australian style, with freedom and fearlessness.

The stage is set and Ian Bell, has a great chance  to set the record straight –  he would be playing on his home ground with England 1-0 up in the 2009 Ashes series. You really can’t get any better than that!