On Lawrence Booth’s excellent Ashes blog, a fellow called MouthoftheMersey adds a nice summing up of the latest Ashes series for all those of us who just can’t face the acres of dismal post-mortem newsprint we’re all about to be hit with:

We all know Gilo for Monty was an error (best wishes Ashley and family), but what really grates is the number of opportunities England’s less than dynamic cricket has created only to see them squandered. This is not an Australian XI to compare with Waugh’s nor Taylor’s nor (possibly) Border’s. The series wasn’t there for the taking, but a tied series retaining the Ashes required England to play as we have a right to expect of international cricketers in the world’s number 2 side and no more. One more batter playing putting up Colly’s or KP’s numbers and one more bowler putting up Monty’s or Hoggy’s figures and it would be very close.

Re Gilchrist, he turned back the clock, but it was cheap runs compared to the glory days of turning matches in a blaze of controlled hitting. Impressive to watch, but Mr Cricket (can we call him Vampire – the bat that drains the blood?) and a hugely matured Clarke deserve the plaudits.

In fact, Australia have played beautifully in this game as a team – utterly focused and determined, utterly professional – but at times it resembled the end of a boxing match, where one contender is drained and on the ropes, knowing his night is over, but the crowd howl for blood, so his opponent unleashes a frenzied volley of blows, destined to destroy the vanquished fighter’s body and his spirit.

The next two tests will sadly just seem like the undercard, when the crowd have long since gone home. England let themselves down, sure. But these are the same guys who gave us so much unexpected joy last time around. I certainly won’t be laying into them. They gave their all, but they weren’t ready and they just weren’t capable of carrying the fight. The same lads will be around in 2009 when a quite different looking Aussie team will come back to England to defend the Ashes on our turf…all the lessons learned this time around need to be sunk into that project. In the meantime, lets get back to winning test series – starting with West Indies in the summer.