England get their timing right

Ricky Ponting summed it up aptly at the post-match presentation after Australia's 197-run defeat at The Oval. He pointed out that in terms of statistics, Australia had been a better team but England had won the big moments. Australia had more centurions, more wickets, a higher partnership average and a greater runs-per-wickets average. A victory in Cardiff- which they came so close to achieving - would have almost certainly changed the course of the series. Ultimately, though, Australia were let down by their first-innings batting - their top and middle orders collapsed to concede decisive leads, leaving themselves with too much to do in the last innings.

The comparison between the teams based on their average runs per wicket in the entire series is telling. England averaged 34.15 and Australia 40.64 - the discrepancy of 6.49 is the highest difference between a losing side over a winning team in a Test series. (More on this by Andy Zaltzman in his Confectionary Stall blog.) But if one were to consider just the matches which produced decisive results, England had an edge - 32.83 compared to 31.48. England, generally, got the better of the conditions, opting to bat each time they won the toss. They batted first in four out of five Tests, faltering once, at Headingley, but averaged better than Australia in the first innings of the three decisive games. Australia's lacklustre reply in two of those three games set up England's victories, and the visitors were completely shut out as England piled it on in the third innings.

In terms of partnerships, Australia's top and middle orders were more productive, but their figures are slightly inflated by the run-fest in Cardiff. If one takes that match into consideration, the difference in the partnership per wicket for the first six wickets between the two sides is more than 16 runs in favour of Australia. (Click for England and Australia partnership averages for the first six wickets.) No England wicket averaged over 50, while Australia had three. But it's down the order that England came up trumps - the partnership-per-wicket difference for wickets 7 to 10 is more than 12 runs. Paul Collingwood's defiance with the tail saved England in Cardiff and the gritty display by Stuart Broad, Graham Onions, James Anderson and especially Graeme Swann - who averaged 35.57 - caused enormous frustration for Australia's attack. The sixth-wicket stand was the most productive for Australia, with Brad Haddin proving his ability, but those further down were far less consistent than their counterparts.

England's win at The Oval was the fifth time they had won an Ashes decider at the venue with the teams going in to the Test with the series tied. For their batsmen, the Ashes, overall, marked a contrast to their performance since the start of the 2008-09 season. Only Andrew Strauss managed to continue his impressive run, but the others don't have much to show in terms of just numbers. Alastair Cook averaged just 24.66, Collingwood 27.77, Andrew Flintoff a significantly better 33.33 and Ravi Bopara a disappointing 15.

But the figures don't capture the enormity of their individual contributions at important stages that proved crucial in how the series shaped up. Had it not been for Collingwood's match-saving 64 in Cardiff, the Ashes may have had a different winner. Cook was involved in a 196-run stand with Strauss at Lord's which gave England a substantial first-innings score, Matt Prior raced to a quickfire half-century in the same game to set Australia an imposing target and Ian Bell chipped in with 72 at The Oval to help his team post a competitive 332 after opting to bat.

Six of Australia's frontline batsmen averaged over 40 in this series, compared to England's two. Michael Clarke topped the list, followed by Marcus North and Ponting - each of them featured prominently in Australia's thumping win at Headingley. Most Australian batsmen bettered their averages since the start of the 2008-09 season but again, failures when it mattered cost their team heavily.

Clarke remained consistent throughout, cashing in on a flat track in Cardiff, scoring a fighting century in a losing cause at Lord's and saving the Edgbaston Test. Still, he was dismissed cheaply in the first innings of both games that Australia lost, and was run out for a duck in the Oval chase. North managed just 24 runs in four innings in the two defeats while Ponting (38 in the first innings at Lord's and 66 in the fourth at The Oval) was unable to carry on after settling down. Phil Hughes, despite all the expectations, was a colossal disappointment. Michael Hussey redressed the balance after a poor year so far with a century in the final Test, but his first-innings scores make unhappy reading - 3, 51, 0, 10 and 0.

The comparison between the bowling attacks of the two teams follows a similar trend. Each of the England bowlers had a strike-rate of above 50, while there were three Australians - Ben Hilfenhaus, Peter Siddle and Mitchell Johnson - whose strike rates were less than 50. But England had more five-wicket hauls with Flintoff's 5 for 92 at Lord's and Stuart Broad's 5 for 37 at The Oval derailing Australia, and the luxury of an effective specialist spinner. Swann's series average of 40.50 is misleading and masks the difference he made to eventual result. He was England's highest wicket-taker coming into this series since the start of the 2008-09 season, and he proved most lethal in England's victories at Lord's and The Oval. He supported Flintoff brilliantly while bowling out Australia for 408 in the second Test, and bagged a haul of 8 for 158 in the decider - it was the first time an England spinner bagged a match haul of eight wickets or more in an Ashes Test at home since 1997. In contrast, Nathan Hauritz, Marcus North and Michael Clarke took 15 wickets between them at 52.10 and played no part with the ball in their win at Headingley.