Lets hope that England now relaxes in this Ashes series and shows their true potential

England has retained The Ashes 2-0 with two to play. Phew thank goodness for that - maybe they can now relax and play some truly fine cricket. Don't get me wrong England deserves their Ashes win - but the nerves have been visible almost throughout. 

I saw every ball of the first two Tests live and an odd experience it was. True in the Lord's Test England's dominance was clear. But don't forget they were 28-3 on the first morning before Ian Bell and Jonathan Trott took control.  Australia's first innings batting was woeful but England neglected to enforce the follow on for no logical reason that I could see. Their bowlers between them had only bowled 53 overs in that Aus first innings.That match should have been over much more quickly but instead we had another poor England start (30/3) in their second knock. Then Root, Bresnan and Bell (again) batted well but with Australia batting little better second time around the margin of victory - 347 runs - showed how wrong the decision not to enforce the follow on had been. 

So after a tense match at Trent Bridge which Australia could and probably should have won and a dominant England victory (not without its flaws) at Lord's we went to Manchester. Here England's early batting once again failed (36/3 and 27/3) and the bowling in Australia's first innings was none too impressive either. Only Swann took more than one wicket and Jimmy Anderson none at all. The batting in the first Innings recovered thanks to Pietersen, Bell (again) and the late middle order who saved the follow on and, as it turned out, the match. Unlike England at Lord's Australia would have enforced the follow on and if that had been able to do this they would have won the match.

So what's been going on? Australia have had one bad match - and so have England. Trent Bridge was England's  but only just. If it was a points contest I'd score it - with ten points at stake each match -   6-4, 8-2, 3-7 (England scores first). That's 17-13. But with 15 more runs Aus could have taken Trent Bridge and then it would be 15-15 ! 

England need to get off to better starts at Durham and The Oval. They need to apply the same bowling pressure that they did at Lord's. They need to get rid of Australia's tail much more efficiently. Above all they need to relax more when the pressure seems to be the greatest - on the first morning of the match. And that challenge is firmly with Alastair Cook. Scores of 13, 50, 12, 8, 62 and O is underperformance by Cook's high standards. And some of the shots he's played to get out have been poor. To me clear signs of the pressure of captaining in an Ashes series have been visible. Now the Ashes are retained I expect Cook to score prolifically in the final two Tests. And I expect England to win these Tests comfortably as well now the pressure is off.