ODI Series wrap-up vs Sri-Lanka/ The Baggy Green Ashes XI

The crowd at the Gabba suggested the Ashes is definitely what's on the supporters minds. But undoubtedly Australia's poor run in all forms of the game would've played a role in the poor crowd attendance. The good news is the guys took out Sri-Lanka in the final ODI, largely assisted by an excellent bowling track with good pace and bounce. It has been a dreadful period for the team but hopefully this win was enough to get the confidence levels up again which will send the blokes into some State cricket with stacks of self-belief, now that is hard to believe!

Clint McKay took his best bowling figures and delivered a spell of bowling that I've been waiting to see to ultimately back him up. Not the biggest fan of his but he's in the team and if he can put in good performances it will boost his case. Mitchell Starc will be a very happy bloke as well after an excellent bowling performance in his 2nd ODI. The conditions were perfect for him.

The actual series was summed up with that embarrasing run-out attempt. Things just didn't go well and we also saw another heroic tail-ender partnership that worked against us. The series stats tell a bit of a story that we were outplayed but there were some positive performances but frustratingly the negatives will always stand out in a losing series. The batting was well below par. The bowlers were lacking a full strength, first choice line-up, so the irregular players did well to get their names in the top wicket taking listings.
One thing I do hope to never hear again is, "Full credit to the opposition, I think they played really well and deserved their win." Really want to see the guys winning again and not talking like a bunch of programmed-drones when doing post match presentations.

BATTING:
Michael Clarke: 3 matches/ 3 innings/ 102 runs/ HS 50*/ Avg 51.00/ 91.07 SR
Michael Hussey: 3 matches/ 3 innings/ 92 runs/ HS 71*/ Avg 92.00/ 67.64 SR
Brad Haddin: 3 matches/ 3 innings/ 81 runs/ HS 49/ Avg 27.00/ 79.41 SR
Shane Watson: 3 matches/ 3 innings/ 65 runs/ HS 40/ Avg 21.66/ 83.33 SR

BOWLING:
CJ McKay: 2 matches/ 17.0 overs/ 75 runs/ 5 wickets/ BBI 5/33/ Avg 15.00/ ER 4.41
MA Starc: 1 match/ 9.0 overs/ 27 runs/ 4 wickets/ BBI 4/27/ Avg 6.75/ ER 3.00
XJ Doherty: 2 matches/ 14.0 overs/ 63 runs/ 4 wickets/ BBI 4/46/ Avg 15.75/ ER 4.50
SR Watson: 3 matches/ 19.2 overs/ 84 runs/ 3 wickets/ BBI 2/34/ Avg 28.00/ ER 4.34

Here's a graph that sums up the Baggy Green Blogsites contributors' Ashes XI Squads.