Anderson and Shine praise Andy Caddick's match winning performance

Somerset paceman Andy Caddick was the hero in England's resounding victory over the old enemy Australia in the final Test match in the Ashes series at Sydney.

The Ciderman's 7 for 94 off 22 overs, makes him by far the leading English wicket taker of the series with a total of twenty at an average of 34 .50, which is almost certain to mean that the thirty four year old remains an important part of the Test attack for the foreseeable future.

At the end of the match he said: "Even though the Ashes series was lost before coming into this match it's still nice to beat the Australians, not too many countries do that over here. To have played a leading part in that will be a special memory for me."

He continued: "I was feeling a bit down and wondering where my international career was going. Hopefully I'll draw inspiration and rejuvenation from this performance."

The Somerset player's fine performance earned considerable praise from the first team coach and the chief executive back at Taunton.

Kevin Shine told me: "It was a great return and thoroughly deserved It was so pleasing to see Andy back at the top of his game and bowling so well. When the first innings ended almost level it could have gone either way, but he ran in and gave it all he had, and on the last day won the match single handed."

Chief executive Peter Anderson told me: "Before Christmas the coach and I were getting quite excited at the prospect of Andy Caddick's international career looking likely to be over and therefore him being available for Somerset. We should have known never to write him off and today he has reminded just what an outstanding bowler he really is."

The Somerset boss continued: "His exploits in the series have been overshadowed by the media hype referring to Darren Gough's wicket taking exploits who he has now overtaken. Andy is not a natural showman in the style of `Dazzler', which was why the media probably find him less interesting as a player."

Regarding the England victory at Sydney overall, Peter Anderson told me: "Three interesting aspects have come out of this. Firstly there is a huge question mark over an Australian side that is shorn of two gems- Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath and secondly there is also a big question mark over the leadership of Steve Waugh, who is still a fierce competitor master batsman."

"Thirdly, are we really sure that the way forward for English cricket is to play on the benign wickets that the ECB want to play on at county level. The Aussies were decidedly vulnerable when the ball swung and had an uneven bounce."

He concluded: "Why then don't we play on these types of wickets in England which always occurred in the past and let the Australians see if they can compete on that."