Nobody talks about the last ball of the Ashes. It’s the first that’s famous. That wide that flies to slip, that cover drive for four, that wicket, bowled him! Last balls? I had to look them up. Moeen Ali slicing a drive behind to finish an innings defeat in a dead rubber in 2015; Boyd Rankin being taken at slip off Ryan Harris, Rankin playing in his one and only Test at the fag-end of a 30-over collapse in a 5-0 whitewash that’s been full of them in 2014; a Steve Harmison bouncer ricocheting away off Justin Langer’s shoulder for four leg byes, the only four Australia score in a run chase they’ll never get to make in 2005.
It’s the difference between wondering how things will go, and knowing how they do. One thing’s certain, there’s no guarantee there will be a happy ending. For the last decade, England’s Australian tours have ended in ashes, instead of with them. Andy Flower lost his job as head coach after one humiliating defeat, in 2013-14, Chris Silverwood lost his after another, in 2021-22. You can make a pair of XIs out of England players who played their last Test match at the back end of an Australian tour during the past 25 years, and still have a couple of men over to carry the drinks for either side.
