For people who’d grown up or watched a lot of cricket in the 1990s, the entire summer felt like something of a fever dream. Grounds were full. Newspapers strangely positive. Optimism abound in both hope and expectation.
Now, in 2005, with The Ashes on the horizon, English supporters were on tenterhooks as what was billed as the closest series in decades grew near. Australians – despite some chastening limited overs defeats – still had just one prediction: 5-nil.
On the opening day, Justin Langer and Matthew Hayden – barrel-chested, dominant and Gray-Nicolls bat in hand – strode to the crease for what would go on to become the most talked about and watched series for a generation.
Cricket, for one summer only, was about to become the national sport.
Setting The Tone
Lord’s. The Home of Cricket. The iconic ground. But not usually known for its febrile atmosphere. But on this day, the Lord’s hum gave way to excitement, anticipation, maybe even tribalist euphoria.
With batters at the crease and new ball in the hand of fast bowler Steve Harmison, the ground fell silent with anticipation. While the first delivery was safely navigated by the pugnacious Langer, soon Harmison – at times unplayable in the previous 12 months – hit his mark. Not the top of off stump, but the arm, flush and painful. Soon, the deep red cricket ball wasn’t the only crimson in sight as the same bowler was too quick for Australian captain Ricky Ponting, penetrating his grille to leave a wound that would follow him all summer.
Rarely has an opening salvo been so hyped and still over-delivered. Australia all out for 190. Halcyon days for a supporter base starved of success against old adversaries.
Alas, old failings resurfaced against familiar foes. Glenn McGrath ripped through England to set up an easy Australian victory. Only debutant Kevin Pietersen showed the way, with a pair of pulsating half centuries that McGrath and partner in crime Shane Warne would rarely have faced. Pietersen’s innings was a sign of the way the new England to play, but for now only their South African-born superstar could walk the talk, while others reverted to depressingly familiar type.
You can’t have a comeback without a setback
If Lord’s ended in a very 1990’s vibe, then the following Test at Edgbaston said more about the new era. Firstly, the England team went unchanged. Unchanged. Not a word Three Lions fans were used to hearing. The previous decade had been full of one-match wonders, savage cullings and last chance saloons. But England under Duncan Fletcher and Michael Vaughan was a different animal, placing confidence in the players they’d picked to deliver the goods.
And deliver, they did.
Australia chose to bowl first, clouded by the chaos of McGrath being ruled out of the Test match after rolling his ankle on a stray ball.
England would not blink as opportunity knocked.
Led by Gray-Nicolls man Andrew Strauss and Marcus Trescothick, they gave the Australian attack as taste of what their own batters had done to bowlers around the world for the previous five years. Length balls were walloped to the boundary. Short balls pulled with disdain.
Even Warne, the serial tormentor, was treated savagely, being hit over his head on-repeat. It was the most un-English performance that laid the marker for what the summer would be about. 400 in a day. A Strauss century. The country was captivated.
[button]
Over the next three days, England pressed home their advantage, but England fans have been burned before. At the end of the penultimate evening, with young upstart Michael Clarke at the crease, England were still favourites, but Australia had hope. Enter, again Steve Harmison. For a man for whom steepling bounce and ferocious speed had become a calling card, it was a 65 mph slower ball that turned the tide. Ball, delivered. Clarke, bewildered. England delirious.
It left one more morning of tension. 70 runs or two wickets required. In an ideal world for England, it would all be over on just a couple of deliveries. The fans knew this and arrived anyway. The ground was sold out for what could have been five minutes of action. But the supporters came with prior experience: This Is England. It’s never that simple.
Warne and Brett Lee, primarily bowlers but playing a dab hand here with cricket bat in hand, got Australia closer to their required total. Warne, the irrepressible showman, made his way to 42, before somehow treading on his own stumps.
Still Lee soldiered on, but with just the forlorn figure of Michael Kasprowicz for company. Kasprowicz, brought into the side as the last-minute McGrath replacement, would never replace the metronomic guile of his bowling partner. But in this situation, it was an upgrade for Australia.
Singles. The occasional two. Four byes. Inside edges. The runs came. The furrowed brows of England fans grew deeper, more desperate, beginning to realise that the more things change, the more they stay the same.
[button]
The final Australian pair got to within four runs of their target. Harmison bowled full, wide, fast. Lee smacked it with all his might, but rather than flashing to the boundary it was intercepted by a fielder at deep point, a new position to Test cricket brought in by Michael Vaughan to curb Australian scoring. Here, it curbed Australian winning.
The single bought Kasprowicz on strike. Last chance saloon for England. Lose and it’s 0-2, with three to play. Not even this optimistic England could recover that.
Steepling Bounce. Ferocious Speed. Kasprowicz gloved. Geraint Jones pouched. England euphoric, disbelieving, alive again.
Lee consoled by Flintoff as England celebrate. The blue touch paper is well and truly lit and the Ashes finally has a battle.
The Theatre of Screams and Anguish
England continued in the ascendency as the third Test at Old Trafford got underway. Vaughan made a timely century to put England in a strong position going into the final day, requiring 10 wickets to go 2-1 up in the series.
The country is absolutely gripped by Ashes fever. The ground is full at 9.30am. Gates locked. 10,000 fans turned away. Those that got in were treated to an all-time great day. England made consistent breakthroughs, chipping away at the Australian batting line-up as hopes of victory grew. But one man stayed, resilient and unflappable: Ponting. A captain’s knock when needed most.
When he finally fell after a stunning 156, England were within a wicket of ecstasy. This time, McGrath was back and in the firing line, partnered by the battle-hardened Brett Lee. Harmison, Flintoff, Jones and Hoggard threw all they could, but this time it was Australia celebrating at the conclusion of another thriller.
It was this celebration that gave England the most encouragement, however. The great Australians, celebrating escaping with a draw. A sign of the times, a sign of England’s momentum. But would England rue their failure to capture just one more wicket?
Something to bowl at
Sunday afternoon. Day four of the fourth Test and after yet another captivating contest, England are chasing 129 to go 2-1 up. This brave new England will coast to this total…not so fast, Shane Warne is still in town.
The iconic figure takes the new ball, not wishing to waste a moment or run of opportunity. Just the sight of Warne at the top of his mark is enough to send shivers down the spine of England supporters. And those fears were proved right. First Strauss was dispatched. Vaughan and Trescothick soon followed. Lee got Bell and Pietersen too. Flintoff, fresh from his first innings century, bunted England towards their total. He fell, followed by Jones – painfully, maddeningly, failing to hit over the top.
Down to the bowlers. Old wounds re-opened. England were going to be England. The England of despair and defeat, of calamity and chaos. Or were they?
Ashley Giles and Matthew Hoggard needed 13. They nudged. They nurdled. Every single greeted like it was the winning run. Lee, steaming in like a freight train, trying in vain to beat defences. Over pitching, a full toss was hit through the offside to the boundary.
Two to win. Warne pitches full on leg stump. Giles clips through midwicket, immediately realising what he’s done – the winning runs in an Ashes Test and a place in cricketing folklore.
England have won and go into the final Test knowing that they’ll win the Ashes if they avoid defeat.
A Final Flourish
Heading to The Oval, cricket’s stranglehold on a nation showed no signs of loosening. An open top bus parade was mooted, a sure-fire sign that some egg was well and truly headed for face. For the first time in the series, England were forced into a change. The injured Simon Jones replaced by Paul Collingwood. An extra batter to reinforce the line-up, perhaps the first defensive move by England in the last two months.
England batted first and knew that if they went big, the Ashes was all but theirs. Strauss scored a century but at 131-4, the innings was on a knife edge. Andrew Flintoff, the hero of the series, stepped up with 72 and that tail wagged hard to get England to 373 all out.
Australia seemed different as they went to the crease. Maybe it was the desperate times. Maybe the hard, flat and true Oval wicket that reminded them of home, but the openers went about their business is a more classically Australian way. Langer reached three figures. Hayden joined him. After that however and their highest score was 35, and they ended with a 6-run deficit.
The entire summer came down to a one innings shootout.
England closed day four on 39-1, with Strauss the man out. On day five, they would need to bat for as long as possible to put the game out of Australia’s reach.
As the last day of the summer got underway, the nerves of England fans were permanently shredded. They started well, but then cracks began to show. Vaughan caught behind. Bell, gone for a pair first ball. Trescothick and Flintoff followed soon after. Then Pietersen – in need of a score – survived a barrage. Bouncers, a dropped catch, unsuccessful appeals.
Somehow England got to lunch just five wickets down.
What followed will go down in history. Sick of being on the backfoot, Pietersen decided he was going to fight fire with fire. Lee bowled short, Pietersen swung hard. Harder. Harder still. The ball flayed to all parts of The Oval. Every run putting England further out of reach. Pietersen roared as he reach three figures, on the cusp of achieving the unthinkable. When he was out for 158, England were 300 ahead and all but home.
When umpires Bowden and Koertzen removed the bails to signify the end of the match and the series, a nation collectively exhaled and exclaimed simultaneously. Decades of hurt were over. The greatest series of all-time concluded. New heroes were made.
And the after party? That would live long in the memory for those who watched it, as fans flocked to London to salute the new kings of the summer. What started as a dream had turned into reality; England had once again retained The Ashes.
