Stats Review: Unstoppable Steven Smith and pacemen hunting in packs

Opening conundrum

Mark Stoneman arrived in Australia as Alastair Cook's 12th opening partner since Andrew Strauss's retirement and showed much promise in the warm-up games with scores of 85, 61, 51 and 111 in four outings. The pair struggled throughout the series scoring only 193 runs in nine stands with a solitary partnership in excess of 50 - in comparison to 436 runs from one fewer innings at 62.28 for Australia, despite Cameron Bancroft's struggles. At the end of the series, the English opening pair averaged 22.86 per stand from 14 innings - the lowest for Cook among the 14 with who he opened the batting (excluding the one-off innings he opened with Kevin Pietersen). To add to it, the Australian duo of David Warner and Bancroft scored at a faster clip, albeit slightly, and more importantly saw the shine off the new ball so that the middle order could prosper.

The Smith phenomenon

Steven Smith started the series with an average of 59.67. His 687 runs in eight innings ensured he ended with an average of 63.76 - a territory only reached by the great Sir Don Bradman among all batsmen, having played a sizeable number of innings. His ability to bat as per situations to score runs in all but one Test was testified by the fact that both his fastest (off 138 balls, Perth) and slowest hundreds (off 261 balls, Brisbane) came in the same series. In Gabba, he went through multiple periods where he didn't hit boundaries, but effectively foiled English bowlers' plans of getting him out by boring him. None of the England bowlers managed to get him out more than once.

Among England batsman, Dawid Malan stood out scoring 383 runs at 42.56 with a century and three fifties on his maiden overseas tour. Joe Root went past fifty five times but failed to reach the three-figure mark even once, getting out when he was seemingly in no trouble. Pat Cummins was his bug bear dismissing him four times. Cook had another poor series where he scored 376 runs, 244 of those coming in the MCG marathon itself.

Leading run scorers in the series

England's brittle lower middle-order

England came to the series boasting of a stronger lower middle-order than the home side despite the absence of Ben Stokes. The Australian lower order comfortably outclassed the visitors' and was needed to bat in the second innings only in the Adelaide Test. In Brisbane, the lower order hung around with skipper Steve Smith to pull them out from 175 for 5 to take a narrow first-innings lead of 26. In the next match in Adelaide, they more than doubled the score from 209 for 5 to 442. Pat Cummins was instrumental with the bat with scores of 42, 44 and 41 in the first three Tests and ended the series with 166 runs at an average of 41.50.

England's lower order collapsed many times in the series including 6 for 56 and 5 for 40 in Brisbane, 7 for 64 in Adelaide, and 6 for 35 and 5 for 46 in Perth. Moeen Ali (19.89), Chris Woakes (16.29) and Stuart Broad (15.11) all averaged below 20 while Craig Overton barely managed to touch the mark (20.67).

England's lower-order collapses

Battle of the spinners - Lyon vs Ali

In the absence of Ben Stokes, Moeen Ali was expected to step up and fill in the role of the premier all-rounder in the side. He demolished South Africa at home scoring 252 runs at 36 and taking 25 wickets at 15.64, but arrived in Australia knowing the pacers would look to target his frailty against the rising ball. Little would he have thought that his opposite number Nathan Lyon, against whom he scored 80 runs at a rate of nearly 75 without getting dismissed, would get him into trouble. Surprisingly, Lyon turned out to be his bete noire dismissing Ali seven times in nine innings - equalling the record for any series. Ali managed to score 90 runs off Lyon this time around from 218 balls but for seven dismissals.

Lyon ended the series with 21 scalps proving to be an ever-present threat to the English left-handers, dismissing 18 of them. When not taking wickets, he kept things tight by not letting the pressure off from his end which helped the pacers to attack from their end. His economy rate of the series was bettered only by James Anderson (2.12) from either side. Meanwhile, Ali took only five wickets in the entire series and was easily negated by the Australian batsmen. The fact that he was hampered by a side strain at the start of the series before a finger injury during the first Test, made matters worse.

Pacers hunt in packs

The Ashes series of 2017-18 was the first instance of only four bowlers taking wickets in a five-Test series and only the third time four bowlers have taken 20-plus wickets each in the same series. Such was the dominance of the four Australian bowlers that there was no standout bowler in the series and that was further testified by the fact that there was no instance of a bowler taking six or more wickets in an innings - only the third time in an Ashes series (after 1932-33 and 1938). Mitchell Starc missed one Test yet finished second in the wicket-charts with 22 scalps, one behind Pat Cummins who was behind the other three at the start of the final Test. Like Lyon, Starc was a thorn in the flesh for England's batting line-up boasting of many left-handers' dismissals. He dismissed Stoneman four times, Stuart Broad thrice and Cook and Malan twice each.

Josh Hazlewood was supposedly the workhorse among the trio but was instrumental in providing the key breakthroughs - Joe Root in second innings in both Brisbane and Adelaide, Johnny Bairstow on the fifth day morning in Perth to complete a five-fer wrapping up the series 3-0. Cummins had the wood on Root dismissing him in the first innings in each of the first four Tests. He was the partnership breaker for the home side - England had seven stands in excess of 75 and it Cummins who broke through for Australia in four of those.

For the visitors, the 35-year old James Anderson stood out among a set of ordinary performers bowling 223.5 overs - the most by a pacer from either side. He bowled arguably the spell of the series in Adelaide taking five for 43 - his first five-wicket haul in the country. In tracks where lateral movement was lacking, he bowled frugal spells and was the most economical bowler in the series conceding runs at 2.12 per over. He took 17 wickets in the series at 27.82.