Aussies already had what they came for
It may have come as rather surprising for australia to discover they had drawn a test series at the Oval. after all, they didn’t stay in England to play a test series. they stayed for the ashes. England and australia never play a series, unless it’s in the one-day game. and the small matter of the ashes was resolved more than a week ago in manchester. that’s what all the dancing and celebrating was about. that was game over. and, rather obviously, after it, australia lost interest. Steve Smith made the same score in the second Oval innings that he did trying to get his eye in post-concussion against Derbyshire — 23 — and looked about as interested. australia were a different team after the Old trafford victory. that was when England really needed Jofra archer at 90mph. So while it was nice that trevor Bayliss got a winning send-off because he deserves it and some individuals in the England team did their reputations no harm, we have to be honest about the significance. If England had retained the ashes in the fourth test at melbourne and australia had started crowing about drawing the series in a fifth meeting in Sydney, we’d have a little giggle at them. the famous sprinkler dance performed by England on the field at the MCG came with the tourists leading the series 2-1 with a test to play. It could still have ended 2-2 but that didn’t matter. England held the ashes and the ashes were retained. It was the same in 2013. England won the first two tests but were in trouble at Old trafford. they were three second innings wickets down and 294 short of australia’s total. then rain came shortly after lunch and stayed for the day. Suck on that, aussies. ashes retained, job done. So we knew the rules of engagement going in and no amount of wishful reimagining of history can change it. the ashes do not get shared, because the ashes have to be won. If they are not won, they are retained — in other words, lost by the team that doesn’t have them. Ben Stokes said he would have swapped the innings of a lifetime at Headingley for winning the ashes. He doesn’t think it’s match drawn either, for all the talk of pride and parity. Some think this is a silly way to manage an event, that the ashes are out on a limb, but this isn’t true. When Suzann Pettersen stood over her putt in the Solheim Cup on the 18th at Gleneagles on Sunday, there were only two outcomes. She made it, and Europe won, or she missed and her match and the competition were halved. In this instance, america would win, because they would retain, and the Solheim Cup is another prize that has to be wrested from the opponent. the Ryder Cup, too. In 1989, Jose maria Canizares made a two-foot putt on the 18th to beat Ken Green and give Europe a 14-10 lead. there were four matches still out on the course and america won them all. It made no difference. they could only square the competition 14-14, meaning Europe retained, having won in 1987. So the ashes are far from unique. Rugby’s oldest trophy — the Calcutta Cup, awarded to the winner of the match between England and Scotland — must also be won. Indeed, Scotland retained it this year, drawing 38-38 at twickenham, having won 25-13 at murrayfield 12 months earlier. It was the 15th time in the competition’s history that a draw retained the prize — 1881, 1886, 1887, 1898, 1958, 1959, 1962, 1979, 1982, 1989 and 2010 for England, and 1900, 1930, 1965 and 2019 for Scotland. It is significant that two of the oldest competitions in sport, the ashes and the Calcutta Cup, are also those that insist on being earned by nothing less than victory. We can’t bend history to suit our modern need for gratification.