Ashes 2013: England hero Stuart Broad up there with fast-bowling greats, says coach Andy Flower Under Flower, England plan every last detail of their campaigns. Yet even the deepest thinker and most conscientious preparer cannot legislate for the kind of spell Broad produced. Chasing 299 to win, Australia were strong favourites one minute - when the score was 174 for three - then basket cases the next, their fall so sudden and meek that Darren Lehmann, their head coach, has said that careers are on the line. Spells like that are handy when extricating the team from trouble but their relative rarity means you do not want to rely on them too often. Indeed, the great teams share the wickets and runs around, something this England team have done with ball but not bat, where Ian Bell has been the dominant provider with three hundreds after England's top order have misfired. "Ian Bell's contribution to the England series win has been immense, but our cricket side is not perfect, perhaps not even a great side," said Flower. We're all going to make mistakes and Australia were going to have some good periods of play. I think both sides have shown real skill with the new ball and they have been testing conditions for batsmen so we haven't seen huge scores. I think it is fair to say that Alastair Cook and Jonathan Trott have not been at their absolute best but they can't be at their best all the time. It would be more productive to focus on how we have fought ourselves out of those positions and been skilful and tough enough to get back into the game to continually build totals. Cook's travails have not afflicted his captaincy which Flower, but not Shane Warne, says has been strong and a major factor in England holding the Ashes for a third successive series. "One of the keys has been the couple of outstanding captains we have had in Cook and Andrew Strauss," said Flower. A captain in a cricket team is a very important position. They are making constant decisions out in the middle. When they speak in the dressing room they have to be strong and clear, In Strauss and Cook I think English cricket has been very lucky to have had outstanding leaders. Broad partly attributed his match-winning role to Cook telling the team to spice things up during a team talk in the tea interval, but Flower was coy on the matter. I won't talk in any detail about what was said but in those sorts of situations when your opponent is 120 for one, those are the instances where you need strong and decisive leadership and Cook showed that.