Australia v England, 5th Test, Sydney, 4-8 January, 2018

skully wrote:Cheers vilks.

Never fear, it'll be much closer in 2019.

Indeed, Skulls. As shit as we've been on this tour we are generally pretty tough to beat at home.

Australia are due a win in England though, and if Smith plays anything like he has this series and all of your bowlers stay fit, could be the first Australian Ashes victory in England since 2001.

Think it will be a close one, either way.

We always say the ashes will be close, and one way or another, they always aren’t.

Henry wrote:We always say the ashes will be close, and one way or another, they always aren’t.

2005 2-1
2009 2-1
2015 3-2

They're never close in Australia but we've had some close series in recent times in England, 2013 was the only anomaly and that series was closer than the 3-0 scoreline suggests.

Close as far as overall series results, but one-sided in terms of the test matches themselves.

Henry wrote:Close as far as overall series results, but one-sided in terms of the test matches themselves.

There was only one match that wasn't close in 2013 and 2009 was essentially won by virtue of a draw in the first test. Nothing needs to be said about 2005.

2015 I'll give you.

I forgot to say (catching up on sleep) well done to the Australian team, the extended team, and the selectors. Very little went wrong!

you can never have too much in the way of stats:

Grouse!!

One stat in that article really surprised me. The average partnership size for the Aus 5th wkt (123.5) and the Aus 8th wkt (66.6). Remarkable!!

It's sort of reminiscent of the impact Brad Haddin had in the 13-14 series with the bat.