Well done England! That’s the first and most important thing to say. It’s been a pretty even Ashes series — probably not a classic if truth be told — and as well as wondering what happened at the Brit Oval, Australia will be thinking about the first Test at Cardiff, where they let England off the hook instead of taking the lead.

After all the hype, I think the final match was decided by one spell, from Stuart Broad after lunch on Friday. In fact, I’d say the series has boiled down to two spells, with Broad following Andrew Flintoff’s great effort at Lord’s. Broad did not bowl too well in the first three Tests, but he’s really grown over the past week.

The good thing was the way he concentrated on line and length, which is what you want from that third-seamer role. Let’s face it, when the groundsman puts in those three stumps they give you a clue where to bowl. Broad sometimes overdoes things, but he got it right this time and was rewarded with his bowleds and leg-befores.

Jonathan Trott also impressed me. Stepping up to any level is always a challenge and it gets harder the higher you climb up the pyramid. There have been a few difficult debuts down the years — my own wasn’t exactly great — but the pressure of the past week was immense and Trott handled it comfortably.

From an Australia point of view it is hard to think of positives in a lost Test that results in the Ashes changing hands. But I was delighted to see Mike Hussey dig in on Sunday and show his character with a wonderful innings. Yes, he will need to be consistent, but he showed how important he is to the team when he is batting well.

There is bound to be a lot more talk about why Australia did not choose Nathan Hauritz. That’s on top of the chat we’ve heard already. Personally, I have to say that I was staggered by the decision. I would always want to have a spinner in the side for variety’s sake, but I think this time Australia simply misread the pitch.

Even if they were not 100 per cent sure, with all the speculation, they should have known about the history of the Oval and the way the surfaces usually pan out — hard and flat at the start, but turning sometimes quite sharply by the end and a lot of the time also beginning to help reverse swing.

The pitch wasn’t a minefield, but it was ordinary. I am not making a big thing about it, because it produced some decent cricket. Other than Australia’s mad couple of hours in the first innings, the scores were not that low. In a way, you could say that it was a typical Oval wicket — except the first day was more like your normal day four.

We do not want to see the ball dying on its way to the wicketkeeper in the first session, or puffs of dust bursting through the top almost straight away. Having said that, I do not believe that it was doctored in favour of England. It is not as though they picked two spinners, and they couldn’t have known that Hauritz would be left out.

But it was prepared to generate a result, and it made the toss absolutely vital. If Ricky had called correctly and batted first, things probably would have been different. England had to win and effectively they gambled 50-50 on getting the opportunity to put runs on the board first time. Australia were not prepared for it.

I do not know who had the final say on selection, whether it was the selectors themselves, or Ricky, or what degree of input came from Tim Nielsen, the coach. I am sure that questions will be asked over the coming days. We all make mistakes and somebody, somewhere, will have to take the blame for this one.

Regardless of that, I am sure that after an hour’s play on Thursday, if not earlier, Ricky would have been thinking to himself at slip: “I could have used Hauritz here.” I’ve said all along that Hauritz and Graeme Swann are pretty similar as bowlers, and we saw how successful Swann was with his eight wickets in the match.

It was also a great result for Freddie Flintoff and I was pleased with the reception he got from the crowd at the end. He’s been a real hero and I know he has the greatest respect of the Australia players. Winning the Ashes for a second time is a dream way to end your Test career.

Ashes fact

• Stuart Broad twice claimed five wickets in an innings — including a six-wicket haul in the fourth Test — the only player to do so.