Did Seven or Fox have better cricket coverage?

While James Brayshaw was reminiscent of old-school men’s cricket commentary (his best line was to say Head bought his sunglasses from a petrol station) Justin Langer, Greg Blewett, Trent Copeland and the improving Matthew Hayden were valuable assets, as were Alison Mitchell and Peter Lalor with occasional insight.

The only catch left: Brayshaw claiming the game win with Marnus Labuschagne’s six while there was still a run to be scored.

Fox had great commentary by Adam Gilchrist, Mike Hussey and Kerry O’Keeffe, and excellent interviews by Isa Guha.

Dave Warner was tough, just as he was at the crease: early in England’s second innings, he predicted they would aim to score quickly to put Australia behind. This seemed hasty at the time; When England collapsed, he acted even more hastily.

O’Keeffe overdid some of her signature comedy. When Mitchell Starc (3/55) and Scott Boland (4/33) made everyone forget about Australia’s absent fast bowlers, he said: “Do you remember when Peter Cummins and John Hazlewood were there?”

Vaughan, a former England captain, appeared to be Fox’s dominant voice on every broadcast.

But when Head’s 69-ball century brought out the best in almost everyone, including the elegant Broad on commentator and England captain Ben Stokes on the field, Vaughan forgot that he was commentating for an enthusiastic Australian audience and sulked at England’s “stupid cricket”.

Both channels were unlucky with their match predictions.

Before lunch on the second day, the “Fox Win Predictor” had England at 66 per cent chance, Australia at 33 per cent and a draw at 1 per cent. Shortly thereafter, “Seven Win Viz” owned 75 percent of the UK and 25 percent of Australia.

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It was unclear in the country whether these predictions were based on (a) a century of Test match data analyzed by a supercomputer (b) a statistician’s instinct (c) someone’s prediction behind the commentary box or (d) Mark Waugh opening the Sportsbet app.

A few hours later both predictions turned out to be hopelessly wrong.

Fox had better graphics than the expertly timed Seven. The best were the “Supplement Books” which showed the new batsman’s strengths and the plans to bowl against him. There’s also the ‘Fox X-Ray’, a biomechanical image that shows the batsman’s weight distribution as he moves into delivery, and the ‘Speedgun’ stats, which show how much England’s bowling pace has slowed in the second innings.

Fox used the time Seven was airing advertising for cutaways capturing the atmosphere of the crowd, the pensiveness of the watching Australian team and replays of their boundaries as Head built up his match-winning strike.

I wish Vaughan had told the story of the final session – a knock that Gilchrist called “one of the greatest innings of the Ashes”; Broad described it as “one of the most incredible hits I’ve ever seen”; and Stokes described it as “quite extraordinary” rather than focusing on England’s failings.

In the next Test, I’ll try the best of both telecasts: watching Kayo in a club, broadcasting Seven under the table on a mobile phone – à la Mark Waugh.

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