The Ashes: Session by Session

I have been doing some work on this over the past week or so to try and identify the key sessions and overall significance to the match results. The nature of the first day at Lords got me thinking, effectively England won 2 sessions out of 3 but ended the day as almost definite losers in the context of the match. In the same way that it is possible to lose a tennis match but actually win more points than your opponent.

As a guide I am awarding the session to the batting team if they score more than 90 runs for the loss of less than 3 top order wickets or less than 5 lower order wickets.

3 or more top order wickets gives it to the bowling team unless they concede more than 120 runs. I am making a judgment call in some cases.

There are some very close calls in some of the sessions, for example Freddie's match winning knock in the second innings of the Edgbaston Test was part of a session which gave England 87 runs for 4 wickets - technically an Australian point but it was so pivotal that you have to be tempted to give it to England.

At Lords I have it that Australia won by 7 sessions to 3, which sounds like a one sided game, which indeed it was. Especially as 2 of England's session were on the first day.

At Edgbaston it is closer than it looks, with England winning 6 to 4. It felt like England dominated throughout but their capitulation on day 3 undid all their good work. And according to the analysis although they lost the game, the 100-2 on the final morning is an Aussie win in the context of the session.

At Old Trafford it scores 8 to 5 in England's favour, so for a draw that does seem odd. If England could have got rid of Shane Warne quicker in the first innings it would have given them the session and reduced the number of sessions in the game so would have probably been a win by 8 to 3. Everyone was saying that Ponting's innings was pivotal but in fact it was probably Shane Warne's 90.

The only pattern so far is that the sessions analysis does reflect the result, ie you cannot win the game without winning most sessions, but you can draw!