2006-07 Ashes series
Encyclopedia
The 2006–07 cricket
series between Australia
and England
for the Ashes
was played in Australia from 23 November 2006 to 5 January 2007. Australia won the series and regained the Ashes that had been lost to England in the 2005 Ashes series
. The five Tests of the series were played at Brisbane
, Adelaide
, Perth
, Melbourne
and Sydney
.
This included the incredible Boxing day Test.
In winning, Australia completed a 5–0 "whitewash
", the first time this had happened in an Ashes series since 1920–21
. The series was also notable for the retirement of several significant Australian players, namely Justin Langer
, Damien Martyn
, Glenn McGrath
, and Shane Warne
.
Ricky Ponting
was named Player of the Series.
, The Cricket Show
on Channel 9 in Australia revealed that the winner of the Ashes would lift a larger, crystal model of the Ashes urn at the end of the series, rather than a replica of the small Ashes urn.
found himself criticised by journalists on his captaincy and performances in the 2005 series during the run-up to the first Test. When questioned in a press conference on this subject, he said "We didn't perform the way we would have liked and probably I didn't score the runs I would have liked to during the Ashes...It's important for us to move on, to move forward from that; that is me as a player, me as a captain and the rest of the team as well...We have managed to do that very well, we've actually played better cricket as a result of that."
Andrew Flintoff
, England's captain, said about the series that "[it is] the reason we play...we are going over there to play in what could be the biggest series ever so there is an excited group of lads...it is going to be tough. We know that 2005 was something special and whether that can be recreated I am not quite sure...in England each Test match got bigger and bigger and we got a real feeling of what the Ashes was about."
The Sydney Morning Herald newspaper described the series as "the most anticipated Ashes series ever", and tickets were sold out within days of being available for all the games.
Bookmakers were heavily favouring an Australian series victory, with best odds, as at 10 November, being listed on one site as Australia 1–3 to win, England 11–2 to win, and the draw 9–1.
Cricket Australia
made the first tickets available on 1 June, selling only to the registered members of the Australian Cricket Family, who were able to register in the months before the ticket sale. 182,000 of 635,500 available tickets were sold on the first day, and a number of buyers immediately put their tickets on eBay
at inflated prices. Telephones and internet systems were delayed to such an extent that CA chief executive James Sutherland
wrote a letter of apology to the Australian fans, but was still criticised by Brett Judd, the organiser of 1.5 million tickets for the 2006 Commonwealth Games
. Judd called their approach "farcical".
On 19 June, the remainder of the tickets went for sale to the general public, and were sold within two hours. Cricket Australia later cancelled 1,300 tickets, which they believed had been sold on eBay
at inflated prices, as the tickets had "breached conditions of sale".
On 29 December, Cricket Victoria
had announced that an excess of 47,000 pre-purchased tickets for the fourth day of the Boxing Day Test were to be refunded, as a result of the Test reaching its conclusion on the third day. Despite the Test lasting only three days, bumper crowds over the duration of the Test ensured that sales had generated over A$8 million in takings.
, England's successful captain in the 2005 Ashes series
, and Simon Jones
, England's lowest-averaging bowler during the 2005 series, were unavailable due to injury. Of other 2005 winners, there were concerns about the fitness of Andrew Flintoff
and Ashley Giles
. Australia selected Glenn McGrath
for his first first class match since he left the game in April for personal reasons. Other former Australian players such as Jason Gillespie
were not selected.
The England
squad for the tour of Australia was announced on 12 September 2006. Andrew Flintoff
was selected over Andrew Strauss
as the captain, in the absence through injury of Michael Vaughan
. Marcus Trescothick
left the squad on 14 November due to a "recurrence of a stress-related illness," after making 10 runs in two tour matches. Ed Joyce
was called up as his replacement on 15 November. The Australian 13-man squad for the first Test was announced by Cricket Australia
's National Selection Panel on 16 November 2006. Michael Clarke
was called up on 18 November 2006 as cover for injury doubt Shane Watson
.
On 8 December 2006, a week before the third Test, Damien Martyn
announced he was retiring from all forms of cricket. Adam Voges
and Andrew Symonds
were called up to the squad to replace him.
On 16 December Ashley Giles left the tour to be with his wife, who was diagnosed with a brain tumour. He was replaced by Jamie Dalrymple
.
Australia won the toss after Andrew Flintoff
called heads. Ricky Ponting
elected to bat on a good looking pitch. Steve Harmison
bowled the opening over, with the first ball a wide that went straight to Andrew Flintoff
at second slip
. Harmison only lasted two overs, which went for 17 runs, before being replaced by James Anderson
. Anderson proved just as expensive as Harmison, conceding 10 runs in his first over in his first Test match for 7 months. Andrew Flintoff
got Matthew Hayden
to edge one to second slip on 21. Australia reached lunch without further loss on 1/79.
In the afternoon, Flintoff unexpectedly removed Justin Langer
, who had looked set for a century but holed out to Kevin Pietersen at cover point. Ashley Giles
, bowling in his first first-class match for twelve months, took the wicket of Damien Martyn
but was innocuous, if inexpensive (unlike many of his colleagues), claiming no more wickets during the day. Ricky Ponting
and Michael Hussey
survived the final session of the day to close at 3/346. During the session, Ponting passed 100 runs in a near-faultless display, offering up only one potential lbw shout (dismissed by umpire Billy Bowden) when he missed a sweep on a straight ball from Giles. The century took him level with Steve Waugh
as Australia's leading century-maker, with 32 centuries each. England's bowling was generally criticised, most notably Harmison, who was given only 12 overs out of the 90 overs bowled during the day. Andrew Flintoff was the only bowler to finish the day with his reputation enhanced, having been England's cheapest and most effective bowler. The pitch, however, was flat and not conducive to either pace or spin bowling and as England failed to use the new ball well at both the beginning and end of the day, it proved to be one of the most frustrating days in the field English cricket had endured in modern Ashes series.
Day Two
Australia continued their dominance throughout the second day. Ricky Ponting
and Michael Hussey
continued their partnership, putting together 209. Flintoff finally took Hussey's wicket when he was on 86, bowled through the gate, with the off-stump out of the ground, when he had looked set for a century. Matthew Hoggard
finally made a significant breakthrough in the afternoon, taking the wickets of Ponting (for 196) and Adam Gilchrist
(for a duck) in the same over, both men out lbw. Gilchrist, in particular, was out to a ball bowled from around the wicket from the right-arm bowler Hoggard, a continuation of England's tactics against him in the 2005 Ashes series, which had restricted him to a top score of 49*. Ponting
's 196 allowed him to surpass Graham Gooch
as the 7th highest Test runscorer of all time (Gooch scored 8900 runs). Michael Clarke
crafted a solid 56 before falling to James Anderson
, edging a good delivery to slip. Australia's tail wagged, with Brett Lee
scoring 43 and Stuart Clark
hitting a quick-fire 39 off 23 balls before having his leg stump knocked out of the ground by Flintoff. His innings included two huge sixes off the bowling of James Anderson, who ended the innings with figures of 141 runs for just one wicket. Australia were able to declare their innings with the score 9/602 after tea.
England had to negotiate the seventeen overs remaining in the evening. After a reasonably solid start, England lost Andrew Strauss
and Alastair Cook
in consecutive balls to Glenn McGrath
. Strauss was lambasted for his dismissal, top-edging a pull on a ball too full to be suitable for the shot. Stuart Clark removed Paul Collingwood
, edging an off-cutter to Adam Gilchrist. This dismissal left England on 3/53 at the close, leaving England in a perilous position, Australia having reached a total more than 200 runs higher in any Test of the 2005 Ashes series before taking three cheap wickets before the close. Ian Bell and Kevin Pietersen
were the not out batsmen, with scores of 13 and 6 respectively.
Day Three
Matters continued badly for England on day three and they ended their first innings on 157 all out just after lunch, 246 short of their follow-on target of 403. Ian Bell was the only England batsman to offer any real resistance, spending nearly four hours at the crease before being dismissed by Stuart Clark
for 50. It was a personal triumph for Bell, who had averaged just 17.10 in the 2005 series, looking particularly vulnerable against McGrath and Warne. England's other specialist batsman Kevin Pietersen was out for only 16, lbw to a ball from McGrath which he did not offer a shot at. All-rounder and captain Andrew Flintoff
was out for a duck, caught behind off what replays suggested was a no-ball (not spotted by umpire Steve Bucknor) from Brett Lee. Brief resistance also came from wicketkeeper Geraint Jones
and spinner Giles, who made 19 and a quickfire 24 respectively, but both were out to Glenn McGrath. In total McGrath took 6 wickets for only 50 runs conceded, a powerful response to critics who had suggested that he was, at 36, too old to be a frontline bowler in an Ashes series.
Ponting chose not to enforce the follow-on and put his team back in to bat, a decision which surprised the majority of spectators and media personnel. Australia's lead of 445 going into the second innings was one of the largest ever held by a team which had then decided not to enforce the follow-on. This decision was in contrast to Michael Vaughan's decision in the 4th Test of the 2005 series, where he had enforced the follow-on with Australia just 259 runs behind. As on the opening day, England's bowling attack was again barely able to penetrate Australia's defences, and the home side were able to end the day on 1/181, the only loss being Matthew Hayden
who was run out on 37 by James Anderson
while attempting a risky second run. Justin Langer
and Ricky Ponting
ended the day unbeaten, with Langer on 88, and Ponting on 51 having scored his 9,000th test run during the innings. The day was the third in a row which had gone badly for England and with the pitch showing wide cracks, offering encouragement to Shane Warne in particular, an Australian victory was widely expected at the close of play.
Day Four
Australia continued to build a formidable lead, eventually declaring at 1/202, a lead of 648, just after Langer had passed his century, his 23rd in Test cricket. Langer ended on 100 not out while Ricky Ponting
had progressed to 60. Towards the end of Australia's second innings Ponting suffered a back strain, and did not return to the field after his side's declaration.
England began their second innings shakily, with Andrew Strauss
out for 11 off Stuart Clark in a similar fashion to his first innings dismissal, this time hooking the ball to fine leg, the dismissal owing more to poor execution than the poor shot selection witnessed in England's first innings. Shane Warne
dismissed Alastair Cook
for an industrious 43, caught by Hussey off his pads, and Ian Bell for a duck, lbw to a slider, leaving England struggling at 3/91. Paul Collingwood
and Kevin Pietersen
then rebuilt their team's innings in the second session, sharing a 153 run partnership. Collingwood was eventually stumped for 96 off the bowling of Warne, charging down the pitch while looking to reach his third Test century, and his first against Australia, and missing his shot by nearly six inches. Andrew Flintoff
soon followed after scoring 16 runs, perishing to an ill-judged pull shot off the bowling of Shane Warne. Kevin Pietersen
and Geraint Jones
were the not out batsmen at the end of the day, with 92 and 12 runs respectively, with England needing a further 355 for victory. Pietersen's innings was notable because of the manner in which he had suppressed legendary leg spinner Warne.
At one point at the end of a delivery, Warne picked up the ball and threw it to Adam Gilchrist behind stumps albeit badly. The ball veered and headed to Pietersen, who was forced to defend himself with a reflexive hookshot. He could be seen angrily mouthing the words, "F... off!" on conclusion of the stroke. The fourth day was a break from the norm of the Brisbane Test, which until then had gone entirely in Australia's favour. The partnership between Collingwood and Pietersen was the first of any substance in the Test for England and allowed some hope of an unlikely draw, with reports from some sources of an approaching storm.
Day Five
England's chances of lasting the day were effectively dashed after Kevin Pietersen flicked the ball to Damien Martyn at short midwicket off Brett Lee in the first over of the day, immediately after Australia's taking the new ball and without adding to his overnight score. Geraint Jones struck a few boundaries but edged onto his stumps off Glenn McGrath. Fellow NSW paceman Stuart Clark took the final wickets of Giles (caught at first slip), Hoggard (caught at first slip) and Harmison (caught pulling at fine leg), with England lasting only 20 overs for the day. England's fourth innings total of 370 was the highest ever achieved in a fourth innings of a Test match at the Gabba but was still nowhere near the total set by Australia. Australia won the match by 277 runs, with Ricky Ponting named man of the match for his 196 and 60 not out. The total attendance was recorded as 164,747 for the match.
In a similar fashion to 2005, England named an unchanged XI for the second test, despite Cricinfo
and others suggesting that it was "almost certain" that Monty Panesar
would replace James Anderson
. Australia also named an unchanged team after Glenn McGrath
passed a late fitness test. He was earlier rated as 50:50 to play due to a heel injury/
Andrew Flintoff
won the toss and elected to bat first. Early on, the dry flat wicket offered little for the Australian bowlers who toiled in the first hour for no wicket. Stuart Clark
took the first wicket, with Andrew Strauss
being caught by Damien Martyn
for fourteen runs. This was the third time in the series that Strauss had been caught attempting to play on the leg side. Clark then took the wicket of Alastair Cook
for twenty-seven runs, having him caught behind by Adam Gilchrist
. The periods before and just after lunch were dominated by Shane Warne
, who bowled with consistent line and length to keep both Ian Bell and Paul Collingwood
restricted to about two runs per over. Bell continued his struggle against Warne, who beat Bell's bat on several occasions. Despite a slow scoring rate
, the batsmen made a good fightback in the afternoon session, despite some persistent Australian bowling. Both batsmen reached their half-centuries in the last over
before the tea interval, which England reached with the score at 2/144. After tea, England came out looking to increase the scoring rate. Soon, however, Bell was caught and bowled by Brett Lee
as he skied an attempted pull to the leg side. Kevin Pietersen
was aggressive from his first ball, going on to make his half-century off just 70 balls. The scoring rate increased somewhat in the evening session as England increased their score to 3/266 at stumps. Paul Collingwood
was not out on 98 runs, tantalisingly close to a maiden Ashes century. The day's honours were roughly even. Australia would have liked more than 3 wickets, but they did keep England's scoring rate low on a flat dry wicket.
Day Two
Australia resumed play on the second day with the ball only 6 overs old, whilst England's Paul Collingwood
required two runs to make a century. Collingwood made his runs in the second over of the morning, off the second ball he faced. Kevin Pietersen
made his own century later in the morning. England again scored relatively slowly, but survived the first session without losing a wicket to be 3/347 at lunch. The two batsmen continued after lunch in a session that would go on to break several previous partnership records for English batting. Collingwood increased his score to a personal best innings of 206, becoming only the third Englishman to score a double-century in Australia, and the first in seventy years. He was out caught behind by Adam Gilchrist
from an outswinging Stuart Clark
delivery on the final ball before tea. After the interval, Pietersen went on to make 158 before being run out. This was the third time that Pietersen had been out for 158. Collingwood, and particularly Pietersen, consistently attacked the Australian bowlers, forcing them to take up defensive fielding positions for the first time in the series. Noticeably, Shane Warne
bowled defensively outside leg stump from around the wicket to Pietersen, having exhausted all other methods of containment. Andrew Flintoff
and Ashley Giles
added sixty runs for the sixth wicket before the innings was declared
at 6/551.
The Australian bowling was generally ineffective during the England innings, despite keeping the run rate
low. Glenn McGrath
conceded his first analysis of 0/100 or worse in Test cricket, and was targeted by Pietersen in particular, who took three fours off his first over of the second day. It was speculated that whilst McGrath had declared himself fit for the game, he was still struggling with his sore heel. Despite his defensive bowling, Shane Warne
conceded his worst innings figures of 1/167.
Australia had to face nine overs before the close of play. Flintoff, who opened the bowling with Matthew Hoggard
, took the wicket of Justin Langer
during this short period. The Australian score at stumps was 1/28, making day two the first day of the series which clearly belonged to England. However, the question remained as to whether England's bowling attack would perform any better than Australia's on a good batting pitch in the days ahead.
Day Three
England started the day strongly, their bowling attack testing the Australians as Matthew Hoggard
claimed two wickets before lunch. The first came in the 13th over of the innings as Matthew Hayden
edged a delivery to the gloves of Geraint Jones
. The second was in the 23rd over when Ian Bell took a comfortable slip catch off Damien Martyn
. This left Australia on 3/65. James Anderson
and Steve Harmison
also bowled well, proving to be much more accurate and economical in their bowling than they had in the First Test at Brisbane.
At times England's fielding was inept, however. In the morning session Ricky Ponting
survived a dropped catch by Ashley Giles
and a run out
chance missed by Paul Collingwood
when on 35 and 43 respectively. Ponting reached his half-century just before lunch, taking his side to 3/105 at the interval.
Following the lunch break, Ponting returned to build a solid partnership with Michael Hussey
. The Australian batsmen remained at the crease throughout the afternoon session. Ponting reached his 33rd Test century in the 62nd over, just before tea. This score saw him become Australia's leading century-scorer in Test history and took the home side to 3/185.
After tea Australia continued to settle into their batting rhythm as Hussey reached his 50 in the 64th over. England began to lose the advantage they had established early in the day, with runs coming easier to Australia. In the 73rd over Hussey survived a dramatic run out
chance which had to be referred to the third umpire
as he slid his bat back into his crease
a fraction of a second before Geraint Jones
broke the stumps off a James Anderson
throw-in. It wasn't until after the new ball had been taken in the 83rd over that England got a breakthrough. Matthew Hoggard
was again the successful bowler, claiming Ponting for 142 and later Hussey for 91 in the 91st over. After the fall of Hussey's wicket, Michael Clarke
and Adam Gilchrist
established themselves at the crease to end the day on 30 and 13 respectively. The Australian score was 5/312, 40 runs short of the follow-on
target.
Day Four
The Australian batsman started well and by mid-session had started to dominate the England bowling and increase the run rate
. The Australians passed the follow-on target after drinks, and shortly after this Adam Gilchrist
and Michael Clarke
made their half-centuries. Just as Adam Gilchrist was beginning to look dangerous and starting to score quickly, Ashley Giles had him caught attempting a six. He had made 64 runs off 79 balls, and the score was 6/384. Shane Warne
joined Clarke at the crease, and the pair negotiated through to lunch, taking the score to 6/417.
Clarke and Warne put on 100 runs between then in the afternoon session, with Clarke making a century. It was late in the afternoon before England finally made some inroads, with Matthew Hoggard
striking either side of the tea interval. Shane Warne
was out leg before wicket
just prior to the break. Michael Clarke
was caught by Ashley Giles
after tea, having made 124 runs, and with the score at 8/505. Hoggard and James Anderson
took a wicket each to clean up the tail within eight overs, so that Australia were all out for 513 runs from 165.3 overs.
England passed nineteen overs to reach the close on 1/59. Alastair Cook
was the batsman whose wicket fell, caught by Adam Gilchrist
off the bowling of Stuart Clark
for nine.
Matthew Hoggard
bowled very well to take 7/109 on an unresponsive pitch. His figures were his third best in Test cricket and his best against Australia. Meanwhile Michael Clarke
's third Test century helped Australia pass the follow-on
target and put the game into a position that Australia could not lose from. The situation of the game made Australia the only team that had a chance of winning, but left the draw the far more likely result.
Day Five
Australia started the fifth day needing early wickets to try to force a result. They were successful in this quest, as England's second innings stumbled to 4/73 after the overnight batsmen scored at approximately one run per over. Andrew Strauss
was caught by Michael Hussey
off the bowling of Shane Warne
for 34, although replay analysis appeared to show that the ball did not make contact with bat or gloves, an audible nick was heard after the ball was played and missed, which led to the subsequent decision.
In Warne's next over, Ian Bell was run out on 26. Paul Collingwood
called for a run and set off, but Bell did not respond until it was too late. The ball went to Michael Clarke
's left hand, his dominant side, and he was able to get the ball to Warne who threw down the stumps with an underarm throw, ending Bell's innings. Warne struck again in his next over as Kevin Pietersen
was clean bowled behind his legs as he attempted a sweep. Four overs later, England lost Andrew Flintoff
, who edged Brett Lee
through to the wicket-keeper, leaving the score on 5/77. England scored only thirty runs in the session for the loss of four wickets, making the score at lunch 5/89, a lead of just 127.
England continued to lose wickets after the break. Geraint Jones
swung his bat at a wide delivery and edged to Matthew Hayden
in the gully
in the second over after lunch. Ashley Giles
made an eight ball duck
, edging to Hayden, this time at slip. Matthew Hoggard
was able to block for a while, but was eventually bowled off the inside edge by Shane Warne
. Steve Harmison
and James Anderson
each held up an end for periods before tea, but both were trapped leg before wicket
by Glenn McGrath
, Anderson's wicket ending the innings. Paul Collingwood
was the not out batsman, scoring only 22 runs, but crucially occupying the crease for 119 balls and approximately three hours. England lost their last nine wickets for sixty runs. Tea was taken at the change of innings with the result of the game finely in the balance. Australia required 168 runs to win the game, whilst England could only hope to prevent this from happening in the remaining 36 overs and obtain a draw.
With a target to chase, Australia started their final innings aggressively, taking 13 off the first two overs. England hit back, as Justin Langer
was caught in the gully off Matthew Hoggard
in the third over. Matthew Hayden
was caught by Paul Collingwood
after top-edging Andrew Flintoff
. Michael Hussey
was promoted up the batting order
to join Ricky Ponting
, putting Australia's two in-form batsmen at the crease. The pair steadied the innings whilst continuing to score runs above the required rate. Again, progress stuttered in the 22nd and 23rd overs, as Ponting was caught off Ashley Giles
at short extra cover for 49, and Damien Martyn
was caught off Andrew Flintoff
at point for five. However, Hussey and Michael Clarke
were able to continue Australia's progress successfully.
Hussey saw his team home, scoring 61 not out
and hitting the winning runs with three overs to spare. This set off jubilant celebrations among the Australian players and the crowd, who had poured into the Adelaide Oval
during the afternoon, as news spread of England's second innings demise, and the chance of an Australian victory in the afternoon/evening session. Australia won the test by six wickets, and led in the series by two matches to none. The official attendance over the five days was announced as 136,731.
Members of the Nine Network
commentary team noted that it was indeed a remarkable victory, perhaps one of the greatest in Test match cricket history. A DVD, entitled "Amazing Adelaide", was released a week following the test to commemorate Australia's unlikely, and indeed amazing victory in the second test of the 06/07 Ashes series.
Australia made one change to the side that won in Adelaide as Andrew Symonds
came into the team following the shock retirement of Damien Martyn
. England dropped Ashley Giles
and James Anderson
, replacing them with Monty Panesar
and Sajid Mahmood
respectively. Ricky Ponting
won the toss and elected to bat. Monty Panesar
justified his selection taking 5 wickets, the best figures by an English spinner in Perth. Steve Harmison
took 4 wickets, relieving the pressure that had been growing on him after taking 1 for 288 in the first two tests. Harmison and Panesar combined to bowl Australia out for 244. Michael Hussey
finished 74 not out, the only player of six top-eight batsmen to convert a 20-plus score into a long stay at the crease. England lost 2 for 51 after an aggressive start by openers Alistair Cook
and Andrew Strauss
. Strauss and Paul Collingwood
were the overnight batsmen, the latter having been reprieved by a dropped catch from the bowling of Stuart Clark
.
Day Two
England lost four wickets in the first session on day two with only Kevin Pietersen
of the recognised batsmen remaining at lunch. Strauss suffered another contentious decision after being adjudged caught behind off Clark when replays suggested he had missed the ball despite a nick being heard. Collingwood had already been dismissed, caught in the gully off the bowling of Glenn McGrath
, and the wickets of the out of form Andrew Flintoff
and Geraint Jones
to Andrew Symonds
soon followed. Australia bowled England out for 215 on the stroke of tea, giving the Australians a first innings lead of 29 runs despite lower order resistance from Monty Panesar
and Steve Harmison
as well as a 70 from Pietersen. In reply, Australia's second innings began shakily with Justin Langer bowled on the very first ball by Matthew Hoggard
. Australia recovered well though through Matthew Hayden
and captain Ricky Ponting
who were each on an unbeaten 57 at stumps with Australia at 1/119.
Day Three
Australia resumed at 1/119. With the Ashes series on the line and 42 degree heat, Ricky Ponting
and Matthew Hayden
improved on their overnight scores, but fell short of centuries, scoring 75 and 92 respectively after lunch. Michael Clarke
and Michael Hussey
both recorded centuries, with Clarke's being his second in as many Tests. Hussey got out rather cheaply, being caught behind by Geraint Jones
. Adam Gilchrist
made a quickfire 50 off only 40 balls. After that, he hit 3 sixes and a four from one Monty Panesar
over, with the over ultimately costing 24 runs. Subsequent overs cost 10 and 18, with Gilchrist recording the second-fastest century in Test Cricket behind Viv Richards
(the mark is the fastest in Ashes history, however), in just 57 balls. In an interview after the day's play, Gilchrist explained that he was unaware of how close he was to the record until after he had scored his century until Ian Healy mentioned it to him during that interview, but was not disappointed to be behind a player regarded as one of the most damaging hitters to play the game. Soon after, Ponting declared the innings and sent England in to bat. Brett Lee
took Andrew Strauss
' wicket with an inswinging ball, which Strauss left and it thundered into the pads and was given out, this left England at 1/0. By stumps, the score had progressed to 1/19.
Day Four
England resumed their innings under immense pressure, needing a further 538 runs to win with 9 wickets in hand or needing to bat for 2 days to draw the game and keep the series alive. With the pitch looking good for batting and no real movement off the seam this seemed possible with some sensible batting.
Bell started aggressively against the Australian pace bowlers while Cook
took his time, and when Warne
came on he found himself being battered for a 4 and a 6 by Bell off his first over. Bell continued to bat positively and posted his 10th half century. England managed to add 80 runs for no loss, going into lunch at 1/99.
Coming into the afternoon session Bell and Cook played positively, attacking the Australian bowlers. Cook managed to post his half century and soon England were starting to think about a victory. However, Warne got Bell caught by Langer
for a well composed 87. That left England on 2/170 with Paul Collingwood
coming in, looking to continue the good work. There was a period where Collingwood seemed so intent on staying in, he forgot to score. England went into tea at 2/170, having scored 81 runs for 1 wicket in the session.
England came out to the evening session hoping to bat through losing 1 wicket maximum. Just a few overs in, Collingwood edged one through to the keeper, out for 5 off 36 balls. After that partnership in which 15 runs were scored for 75 balls, England had to bat more aggressively and Pietersen seemed the perfect man to do that for the team. Cook started looking much more confident against Warne and soon he was 1 run away from his maiden Ashes century, not made easy by Warne but eventually, Cook got the run to bring up a 257-ball 100. The day had belonged firmly to England, but with just 3 overs left, McGrath
took the wicket of Cook, edging behind to Gilchrist, and bowled nightwatchman
Matthew Hoggard
for a second-ball duck. McGrath proceeded to beat Flintoff
with the remaining two balls, including an unsuccessful appeal for caught-behind. Flintoff and Pietersen, saw out the remaining overs, leaving England on 5/265.
Day Five
England started the fifth and final day of the match in an aggressive fashion, which many found surprising. Flintoff, in particular, took the Australian bowlers to task, including striking Stuart Clark
for 3 consecutive fours and striking a Brett Lee
delivery for six just inches above Michael Hussey, who was fielding at deep mid-wicket.
Pietersen was unusually reserved and was almost run out by some quick reaction fielding from Hussey in the first hour, but was given the benefit of the doubt by the 3rd umpire who eventually gave it not out, much to the delight of the Barmy Army
.
After that huge scare for England, Pietersen charged down the pitch and smacked Warne through mid wicket for 4, bringing up yet another half century. Soon after that Andrew Flintoff brought up his half century with an inside edge and Ricky Ponting
was starting to look nervous, perhaps considering England could pull off the impossible.
Australia finally broke through when Flintoff misjudged the length of a straighter ball from Warne and was bowled. He was quickly followed by Geraint Jones
; his dismal tour continued when he was run out in astounding fashion. Having failed in an attempt to sweep Warne, Jones was struck on the pad, resulting in an unsuccessful appeal for LBW
from the Australians. Jones, however, was too preoccupied waiting for the umpire's verdict to notice that his back foot was out of his batting crease. This fact did not escape an alert Ponting, however, who swooped in from silly point and underarmed the ball into the stumps. Jones was out for a duck – his second of the match.
The remaining English batsmen, Harmison
, Mahmood
and Panesar
, offered the Australian bowlers no trouble, with the last man, Panesar, being dismissed by Warne two balls after the lunch break, leaving Warne with 699 career test wickets leading into the Boxing Day Test
at the MCG
. Pietersen continued a fine tour with relatively subdued 60 not out.
Attendance for the five days was 103,440, breaking the 1970 record of 84,142.
The victory gave Australia an unbeatable 3–0 lead in the best of 5 series.
Weather conditions were poor with heavily overcast skies and patchy showers. Andrew Flintoff
won the toss and elected to bat. The start of the first session of play was delayed by 30 minutes due to rain, commencing at 11:00 local time (00:00 UTC). The pitch was damp and unpredictable with a lot of seam movement. Although England managed to survive through to lunch at 1/36, Bell fell shortly after the luncheon interval to a Clark LBW. Collingwood and Strauss appeared to have embarked on a good partnership and brought the score to 2/101. Lee then removed Collingwood with a Ponting slips catch. Two balls later Warne took his 700th test wicket by clean bowling Strauss, who had just reached 50. England subsequently collapsed and finished all out for 159 with Warne taking a further four wickets. England had lost their final eight wickets for a mere 58 runs. When Australia commenced batting it appeared that Langer and Hayden might run away with the match, and England's frustration was compounded by the rejection of a number of creditable LBW appeals. However Flintoff restored considerable confidence when he had Langer and (nightwatchman) Lee caught behind on successive deliveries in the 10th over. Australia finished the day at 2/48.
Day Two
The morning session was completely dominated by England, who collected the prized wickets of Ponting, Hussey and Clarke for a combined total of 18 runs. Although Hayden had managed to survive despite several strong appeals, Australia looked in severe trouble at 5/84, with the unproven Symonds coming to the crease. England were, however, unable to capitalise on their advantage, and Hayden and Symonds wrested control of the match back in Australia's favour throughout most of the remaining two sessions. Hayden achieved his century just before tea, and Australia resumed the third session at 5/226. Symonds subsequently achieved his maiden test century with a powerful six to long on. Although Hayden fell late in the day for 153, swiftly followed by Gilchrist (for 1 run), the match appeared close to irretrievable for England. At close of play Australia had recovered from 5/85 to reach 7/372, (a lead of 213), with Symonds and Warne still at the crease.
Day Three
Like the morning session of the previous day, England initially gave themselves some grounds for optimism. The wicket of Symonds fell early and only Warne provided any resistance as the tail was cleaned up, with Australia all out for 419 (a lead of 260). The originally bowler-friendly pitch appeared to have flattened out considerably, and the total did not appear as imposing as it might have otherwise been. Unfortunately for England the four Australia bowlers gave no quarter, and England went from 0/41 to 3/49 as the pacemen ripped through the top order. The pressure did not relent, and ultimately England succumbed midway through the final session to be all out for a mere 161 runs. The victory margin was an innings and 99 runs, giving Ponting his first innings victory in an Ashes test match, in what was clearly England's poorest performance of the series thus far. Brett Lee took his best wicket haul of the series with 4–87. Shane Warne
was named Man of the Match for his bowling figures of 5-39 and 2–46, and his resilient 40* with the bat. Warne's dismissal of Harmison was also his 999th International wicket (combining Test and ODI wickets), leaving him one shy of becoming only the second player in history to reach the 1000th International wicket milestone (after Muttiah Muralitharan
).
Attendance over the three days at the Melbourne Cricket Ground totalled 244,351 fans, which is the largest test crowd for a match of less than five days duration. This included a crowd of 89,155 fans for day one of the fourth Test, a record for the Ashes and also a record for a Boxing Day match at the ground, just shy of the official all-time mark of 90,800, (set at the MCG when Australia played the West Indies during the 1960–61 season.
coming in for Matthew Hoggard
, who had sustained a side-strain. Australia named the same side that won in Melbourne. To recognise the careers of retiring Australian Players Glenn McGrath
and Shane Warne
, "Thx Glenn" and "Thx Shane" were painted on the ground in place of the "mobile" part of the 3 Mobile logos ("Thx" being SMS language
for "thanks"). When Justin Langer
also announced his retirement, a "Thx Justin" sign was painted on the ground also.
Day One
As in Melbourne, rain delayed the start in Sydney. When the toss finally came at 11:10 local time (00:10 UTC), England won and captain Andrew Flintoff
elected to bat first. Play commenced at 11:40 local time (00:40 UTC). Andrew Strauss
was dropped on 21 by Justin Langer
, but was out 8 runs later to an easy Adam Gilchrist
catch off a miscued cut shot against Brett Lee
. England reached lunch on 58 for 1, but Alastair Cook
departed for 20 shortly after the restart when he edged a Stuart Clark
delivery to Gilchrist.
Kevin Pietersen
then joined Ian Bell at the crease and the two batted for nearly all of the middle session, for a partnership of 108 including 70 from Bell. Shortly after tea, with England on 2/166, McGrath took Pietersen's wicket for 41 when he top-edged a pull for a Michael Hussey
catch. After Paul Collingwood
came to bat, Bell only lasted one more run before McGrath clean bowled him in his next over, leaving England at 4/167. Collingwood (25*
) and Flintoff (42*) then steadied matters until bad light forced an early end to the day's affairs.
Day Two
Play started 11 minutes earlier than normal (1019 local time, 2319 UTC 2 January) to recover some of the time lost on the first day.
Less than a half-hour in, shortly after Flintoff got his half-ton, McGrath took Collingwood's wicket off an edge to Gilchrist. Within 20 minutes, Lee took the wickets of Chris Read
for 2 and Sajid Mahmood
for a duck off consecutive balls, reducing England to 257 for 7. Flintoff and Steve Harmison
stayed at the crease for 25 runs before Harmison was given out lbw
to Clark. Just before the lunch break, Flintoff fell for 89 after trying to slog Clark but edging to Gilchrist. A clearly out-of-sorts Shane Warne
was able to pick up his 1000th international wicket to end the England innings on 291, trapping Monty Panesar
lbw for a duck.
The Australian openers Justin Langer
and Matthew Hayden
started confidently, but Langer faltered on 26, gloving an Anderson ball to Read. Ponting and Hayden found batting easy against a defensive field setting until Hayden played a foolish stroke and top-edged a Harmison ball to Collingwood. Ponting appeared supremely confident against the bowling, but was undone by the fielding when an Anderson throw found him well short of his ground, and he departed for 45. Clarke was then caught behind off a sharply rising Harmison delivery. Symonds and Hussey then batted very defensively during the rain-interrupted remainder of the final session.
Day Three
Hussey fell in only the second over of the day to a Read catch off Anderson. With this England appeared to have made a contest of it with Australia at 5/190, still trailing by over 100 runs. But as on so many previous occasions in this series, Australia retaliated in a fearsome manner.
Symonds and Gilchrist added a steady 70 runs before Symonds saw his stumps tumble to a superb Panesar ball. Warne then joined Gilchrist at the crease and put England's bowling to the sword, with a 58 run partnership in only seven overs, including a four and six off the first two balls Warne faced. Gilchrist was given out caught behind, although replays indicated the decision was a bad one. Lee joined Warne at 7/317 but departed quickly, and Clark then delivered a sparkling tail-ender innings of 35. Warne's fairy-tale dream of a maiden Test century in his final match ended when he was easily stumped after swinging wildly at a Panesar ball, but he had earned the top-scorer mantle with 71, and England found themselves with a deficit of 102.
The English second innings began dismally with Cook edging to Gilchrist off Lee with the score only at 5. Hopes were faintly restored when Strauss and Bell appeared to be settling in, but after Clark trapped Strauss LBW and Bell edged Lee to Gilchrist, England were looking fragile at 3/64. Collingwood soon departed cheaply, and Flintoff was sent to the pavilion after an agonizingly close—but fair—stumping decision by the 3rd umpire. Flintoff's dismissal would later prove to be the final wicket of Shane Warne's illustrious Test career. Panesar was then sent in as nightwatchman
, and survived to the end of the day.
At the end of the day, England were facing the grave prospect of a 5–0 Ashes whitewash after closing a mere 12 runs ahead of Australia with only five wickets remaining.
Day Four
Whatever tiny hope England had of taking the match to a fifth day was quashed on the third ball of the first over when Pietersen edged to Gilchrist off McGrath. Poor judgment led to a Panesar run-out for a duck, and England had lost two wickets in the day without scoring a run. Mahmood and Read followed shortly thereafter, and England were 9/123. Anderson and Harmison combined for a valiant 10th wicket stand of 24, before Anderson skied a McGrath delivery to midwicket. The second innings was over, and England had only managed to set a target of 46 runs.
Australia's brief second innings was paradoxically the time that England delivered some of the finest bowling of the series. Langer was given a guard of honour by the English team as he walked out to his final innings, but he was then clearly tested by a series of superb rising deliveries from Harmison. Regardless, the match outcome was inevitable, and it was Hayden who lofted a six, followed by a single, to conclude the innings, the match and the series 5–0 whitewash, the first since 1920/21.
along with McGrath had announced prior to the Ashes series that his retirement would be effective after the ICC Cricket World Cup 2007 series (of one-day internationals), so that the Ashes was his last series of test matches as coach.
Major concern was raised in England after a dramatic capitulation just 15 months after winning the coveted urn. As a result, many have criticised Andrew Flintoff
's captaincy and the resultant pressure placed on him in lieu of Michael Vaughan
being injured.
The next series was the 2009 Ashes series
, in which England
successfully won back the Ashes in a 2-1 test victory.
Television Networks Nine Network
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Internet audio stream
Ball-by-ball web commentary
Over-by-over web commentary
Internet Video Highlights
Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...
series between Australia
Australian cricket team
The Australian cricket team is the national cricket team of Australia. It is the joint oldest team in Test cricket, having played in the first Test match in 1877...
and England
English cricket team
The England and Wales cricket team is a cricket team which represents England and Wales. Until 1992 it also represented Scotland. Since 1 January 1997 it has been governed by the England and Wales Cricket Board , having been previously governed by Marylebone Cricket Club from 1903 until the end...
for the Ashes
The Ashes
The Ashes is a Test cricket series played between England and Australia. It is one of the most celebrated rivalries in international cricket and dates back to 1882. It is currently played biennially, alternately in the United Kingdom and Australia. Cricket being a summer sport, and the venues...
was played in Australia from 23 November 2006 to 5 January 2007. Australia won the series and regained the Ashes that had been lost to England in the 2005 Ashes series
2005 Ashes series
The 2005 Ashes series was that year's edition of the long-standing and storied cricket rivalry between England and Australia. Starting on 21 July 2005, England and Australia played five Tests, with the Ashes held by Australia as the most recent victors...
. The five Tests of the series were played at Brisbane
Brisbane Cricket Ground
The Brisbane Cricket Ground, commonly known as The Gabba, is a major sports stadium in Brisbane, the capital of Queensland. It is named after the suburb of Woolloongabba, in which it is located....
, Adelaide
Adelaide Oval
The Adelaide Oval is a sports ground in Adelaide, South Australia, located in the parklands between the Central Business District and North Adelaide...
, Perth
WACA Ground
The WACA is a sports stadium in Perth, Western Australia. WACA are the initials of its owners and operators, the Western Australian Cricket Association....
, Melbourne
Melbourne Cricket Ground
The Melbourne Cricket Ground is an Australian sports stadium located in Yarra Park, Melbourne and is home to the Melbourne Cricket Club. It is the tenth largest stadium in the world, the largest in Australia, the largest stadium for playing cricket, and holds the world record for the highest light...
and Sydney
Sydney Cricket Ground
The Sydney Cricket Ground is a sports stadium in Sydney in Australia. It is used for Australian football, Test cricket, One Day International cricket, some rugby league and rugby union matches and is the home ground for the New South Wales Blues cricket team and the Sydney Swans of the Australian...
.
This included the incredible Boxing day Test.
In winning, Australia completed a 5–0 "whitewash
Whitewash (sport)
A whitewash is an informal term in sport describing a game or series in which the losing person or team fails to score.A whitewash may be in a single game where the loser fails to score any points or goals, or in a series where the loser fails to win a game...
", the first time this had happened in an Ashes series since 1920–21
English cricket team in Australia in 1920-21
An England team toured Australia between November 1920 and March 1921. The tour was organised by the Marylebone Cricket Club and matches outside the Tests were played under the MCC name...
. The series was also notable for the retirement of several significant Australian players, namely Justin Langer
Justin Langer
Justin Lee Langer AM is a former international cricketer who represented Australia in 105 Test matches and the current Assistant Coach and Batting Coach of the Australian cricket team. A left-handed batsman, his opening partnership with Matthew Hayden was one of the most successful of all time...
, Damien Martyn
Damien Martyn
Damien Richard Martyn is a former Australian cricketer. He played for the national team sporadically in 1992–1994 before becoming a regular ODI player in 1999–2000 and a regular Test player in 2001 until his retirement in late 2006...
, Glenn McGrath
Glenn McGrath
Glenn Donald McGrath AM , nicknamed "Pigeon", is a former Australian cricket player. He is one of the most highly regarded fast-medium pace bowlers in cricketing history, and a leading contributor to Australia's domination of world cricket from the mid-1990s to the early 21st century...
, and Shane Warne
Shane Warne
Shane Keith Warne is a former Australian international cricketer widely regarded as one of the greatest bowlers in the history of the game. In 2000, he was selected by a panel of cricket experts as one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Century, the only specialist bowler selected in the quintet...
.
Ricky Ponting
Ricky Ponting
Ricky Thomas Ponting , nicknamed Punter, is an Australian cricketer, a former captain of the Australian cricket team between 2004 and 2011 in Test cricket and 2002 and 2011 in One Day International cricket. He is a specialist right-handed batsman, slips and close catching fielder, as well as a very...
was named Player of the Series.
Trophy
During lunch on the third day of the First Test in BrisbaneBrisbane
Brisbane is the capital and most populous city in the Australian state of Queensland and the third most populous city in Australia. Brisbane's metropolitan area has a population of over 2 million, and the South East Queensland urban conurbation, centred around Brisbane, encompasses a population of...
, The Cricket Show
The Cricket Show
The Cricket Show is an Australian cricket television show, screened during the lunch breaks of Test matches in Australia on the Nine Network....
on Channel 9 in Australia revealed that the winner of the Ashes would lift a larger, crystal model of the Ashes urn at the end of the series, rather than a replica of the small Ashes urn.
Lead up
Ricky PontingRicky Ponting
Ricky Thomas Ponting , nicknamed Punter, is an Australian cricketer, a former captain of the Australian cricket team between 2004 and 2011 in Test cricket and 2002 and 2011 in One Day International cricket. He is a specialist right-handed batsman, slips and close catching fielder, as well as a very...
found himself criticised by journalists on his captaincy and performances in the 2005 series during the run-up to the first Test. When questioned in a press conference on this subject, he said "We didn't perform the way we would have liked and probably I didn't score the runs I would have liked to during the Ashes...It's important for us to move on, to move forward from that; that is me as a player, me as a captain and the rest of the team as well...We have managed to do that very well, we've actually played better cricket as a result of that."
Andrew Flintoff
Andrew Flintoff
Andrew "Freddie" Flintoff MBE is a former English cricketer who played for Lancashire County Cricket Club, England and the Indian Premier League team Chennai Super Kings. A tall fast bowler, batsman and slip fielder, Flintoff according to the ICC rankings was consistently rated amongst the top...
, England's captain, said about the series that "[it is] the reason we play...we are going over there to play in what could be the biggest series ever so there is an excited group of lads...it is going to be tough. We know that 2005 was something special and whether that can be recreated I am not quite sure...in England each Test match got bigger and bigger and we got a real feeling of what the Ashes was about."
The Sydney Morning Herald newspaper described the series as "the most anticipated Ashes series ever", and tickets were sold out within days of being available for all the games.
Bookmakers were heavily favouring an Australian series victory, with best odds, as at 10 November, being listed on one site as Australia 1–3 to win, England 11–2 to win, and the draw 9–1.
Sale of tickets
Cricket Australia
Cricket Australia, formerly known as the Australian Cricket Board, is the governing body for professional and amateur cricket in Australia. It was originally formed in 1905 as the Australian Board of Control for International Cricket...
made the first tickets available on 1 June, selling only to the registered members of the Australian Cricket Family, who were able to register in the months before the ticket sale. 182,000 of 635,500 available tickets were sold on the first day, and a number of buyers immediately put their tickets on eBay
EBay
eBay Inc. is an American internet consumer-to-consumer corporation that manages eBay.com, an online auction and shopping website in which people and businesses buy and sell a broad variety of goods and services worldwide...
at inflated prices. Telephones and internet systems were delayed to such an extent that CA chief executive James Sutherland
James Sutherland (cricketer)
James Alexander Sutherland is a former Australian first-class cricketer and current cricket administrator...
wrote a letter of apology to the Australian fans, but was still criticised by Brett Judd, the organiser of 1.5 million tickets for the 2006 Commonwealth Games
2006 Commonwealth Games
The 2006 Commonwealth Games were held in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia between 15 March and 26 March 2006. It was the largest sporting event to be staged in Melbourne, eclipsing the 1956 Summer Olympics in terms of the number of teams competing, athletes competing, and events being held.The site...
. Judd called their approach "farcical".
On 19 June, the remainder of the tickets went for sale to the general public, and were sold within two hours. Cricket Australia later cancelled 1,300 tickets, which they believed had been sold on eBay
EBay
eBay Inc. is an American internet consumer-to-consumer corporation that manages eBay.com, an online auction and shopping website in which people and businesses buy and sell a broad variety of goods and services worldwide...
at inflated prices, as the tickets had "breached conditions of sale".
On 29 December, Cricket Victoria
Cricket Victoria
Cricket Victoria is the governing body for the sport of cricket in Victoria. It was formed on 29 September 1875 as the Victorian Cricket Association...
had announced that an excess of 47,000 pre-purchased tickets for the fourth day of the Boxing Day Test were to be refunded, as a result of the Test reaching its conclusion on the third day. Despite the Test lasting only three days, bumper crowds over the duration of the Test ensured that sales had generated over A$8 million in takings.
Squads
Both England and Australia went into the series with concerns about the fitness, form and availability of key players: Michael VaughanMichael Vaughan
Michael Paul Vaughan OBE is a retired cricketer who represented Yorkshire and England. A classically elegant right-handed batsman and occasional off-spinner, Vaughan was ranked one of the best batsmen in the world following the 2002/3 Ashes, in which he scored 633 runs, including three centuries...
, England's successful captain in the 2005 Ashes series
2005 Ashes series
The 2005 Ashes series was that year's edition of the long-standing and storied cricket rivalry between England and Australia. Starting on 21 July 2005, England and Australia played five Tests, with the Ashes held by Australia as the most recent victors...
, and Simon Jones
Simon Jones (cricketer)
Simon Philip Jones MBE is a Welsh cricketer, who played internationally for England. Formerly playing his county cricket for Glamorgan County Cricket Club and then Worcestershire before moving in September 2009 to Hampshire. He is currently on a month's loan with his first county, Glamorgan...
, England's lowest-averaging bowler during the 2005 series, were unavailable due to injury. Of other 2005 winners, there were concerns about the fitness of Andrew Flintoff
Andrew Flintoff
Andrew "Freddie" Flintoff MBE is a former English cricketer who played for Lancashire County Cricket Club, England and the Indian Premier League team Chennai Super Kings. A tall fast bowler, batsman and slip fielder, Flintoff according to the ICC rankings was consistently rated amongst the top...
and Ashley Giles
Ashley Giles
Ashley Fraser Giles MBE is a retired English cricketer. Giles played the entirety of his 14-year first-class career at Warwickshire County Cricket Club where he is now employed as Director of Cricket...
. Australia selected Glenn McGrath
Glenn McGrath
Glenn Donald McGrath AM , nicknamed "Pigeon", is a former Australian cricket player. He is one of the most highly regarded fast-medium pace bowlers in cricketing history, and a leading contributor to Australia's domination of world cricket from the mid-1990s to the early 21st century...
for his first first class match since he left the game in April for personal reasons. Other former Australian players such as Jason Gillespie
Jason Gillespie
Jason Neil Gillespie is an Australian cricketer who formerly represented Australia at international level, in both Tests and One Day Internationals, and South Australia, Yorkshire and Glamorgan at first-class level. His primary role is as a right-arm fast-medium bowler, but he is also a competent...
were not selected.
The England
English cricket team
The England and Wales cricket team is a cricket team which represents England and Wales. Until 1992 it also represented Scotland. Since 1 January 1997 it has been governed by the England and Wales Cricket Board , having been previously governed by Marylebone Cricket Club from 1903 until the end...
squad for the tour of Australia was announced on 12 September 2006. Andrew Flintoff
Andrew Flintoff
Andrew "Freddie" Flintoff MBE is a former English cricketer who played for Lancashire County Cricket Club, England and the Indian Premier League team Chennai Super Kings. A tall fast bowler, batsman and slip fielder, Flintoff according to the ICC rankings was consistently rated amongst the top...
was selected over Andrew Strauss
Andrew Strauss
Andrew John Strauss, OBE is an English cricketer who plays county cricket for Middlesex County Cricket Club and is the captain of England's Test cricket team. A fluent left-handed opening batsman, Strauss favours scoring off the back foot, mostly playing cut and pull shots...
as the captain, in the absence through injury of Michael Vaughan
Michael Vaughan
Michael Paul Vaughan OBE is a retired cricketer who represented Yorkshire and England. A classically elegant right-handed batsman and occasional off-spinner, Vaughan was ranked one of the best batsmen in the world following the 2002/3 Ashes, in which he scored 633 runs, including three centuries...
. Marcus Trescothick
Marcus Trescothick
Marcus Edward Trescothick MBE is an English cricketer. He plays first-class cricket for Somerset County Cricket Club, and represented England in 76 Test matches and 123 One Day Internationals. A left-handed opening batsman, he made his first-class debut for Somerset in 1993 and quickly established...
left the squad on 14 November due to a "recurrence of a stress-related illness," after making 10 runs in two tour matches. Ed Joyce
Ed Joyce
Edmund Christopher Joyce is an Irish cricketer who has played for both the Irish and English national cricket teams. After beginning his career with Middlesex, he moved to Sussex in 2009. A left-handed batsman and occasional right-arm bowler of medium pace, Joyce is widely regarded as one of the...
was called up as his replacement on 15 November. The Australian 13-man squad for the first Test was announced by Cricket Australia
Cricket Australia
Cricket Australia, formerly known as the Australian Cricket Board, is the governing body for professional and amateur cricket in Australia. It was originally formed in 1905 as the Australian Board of Control for International Cricket...
's National Selection Panel on 16 November 2006. Michael Clarke
Michael Clarke (cricketer)
Michael John Clarke is an Australian cricketer. He was appointed captain of the Test and ODI teams on 30 March 2011. Nicknamed 'Pup', he is a right-handed batsman, and occasional left-arm orthodox spin bowler...
was called up on 18 November 2006 as cover for injury doubt Shane Watson
Shane Watson
Shane Robert Watson is an Australian cricketer. He is a right-handed batsman and a right-handed fast medium bowler. He mainly bats as an opener in international cricket, although he does not do so domestically....
.
On 8 December 2006, a week before the third Test, Damien Martyn
Damien Martyn
Damien Richard Martyn is a former Australian cricketer. He played for the national team sporadically in 1992–1994 before becoming a regular ODI player in 1999–2000 and a regular Test player in 2001 until his retirement in late 2006...
announced he was retiring from all forms of cricket. Adam Voges
Adam Voges
Adam Charles Voges is an Australian cricketer. In domestic cricket, he plays for the Western Warriors. He is a right-hand batsman and part-time left-arm orthodox bowler.-Early career:...
and Andrew Symonds
Andrew Symonds
Andrew Symonds is a former Australian cricket team all-rounder. A two-time World Cup winner, Symonds is a right-handed middle order batsman and alternates between medium pace and off-spin bowling....
were called up to the squad to replace him.
On 16 December Ashley Giles left the tour to be with his wife, who was diagnosed with a brain tumour. He was replaced by Jamie Dalrymple
Jamie Dalrymple
James William Murray "Jamie" Dalrymple is a Kenyan-born English cricketer. He is a right-handed batsman and off-spin bowler....
.
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Venues
As with other recent Ashes series in Australia, this series was played at the main cricket grounds in Australia's five largest cities.| Test | Location | Stadium Name | Capacity | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Brisbane Brisbane Brisbane is the capital and most populous city in the Australian state of Queensland and the third most populous city in Australia. Brisbane's metropolitan area has a population of over 2 million, and the South East Queensland urban conurbation, centred around Brisbane, encompasses a population of... |
The Gabba Brisbane Cricket Ground The Brisbane Cricket Ground, commonly known as The Gabba, is a major sports stadium in Brisbane, the capital of Queensland. It is named after the suburb of Woolloongabba, in which it is located.... |
42,200 | 23–27 November |
| 2 | Adelaide Adelaide Adelaide is the capital city of South Australia and the fifth-largest city in Australia. Adelaide has an estimated population of more than 1.2 million... |
Adelaide Oval Adelaide Oval The Adelaide Oval is a sports ground in Adelaide, South Australia, located in the parklands between the Central Business District and North Adelaide... |
34,000 | 1–5 December |
| 3 | Perth Perth, Western Australia Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia and the fourth most populous city in Australia. The Perth metropolitan area has an estimated population of almost 1,700,000.... |
WACA Ground WACA Ground The WACA is a sports stadium in Perth, Western Australia. WACA are the initials of its owners and operators, the Western Australian Cricket Association.... |
24,000 | 14–18 December |
| 4 | Melbourne Melbourne Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater... |
Melbourne Cricket Ground Melbourne Cricket Ground The Melbourne Cricket Ground is an Australian sports stadium located in Yarra Park, Melbourne and is home to the Melbourne Cricket Club. It is the tenth largest stadium in the world, the largest in Australia, the largest stadium for playing cricket, and holds the world record for the highest light... |
100,000 | 26–30 December |
| 5 | Sydney Sydney Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people... |
Sydney Cricket Ground Sydney Cricket Ground The Sydney Cricket Ground is a sports stadium in Sydney in Australia. It is used for Australian football, Test cricket, One Day International cricket, some rugby league and rugby union matches and is the home ground for the New South Wales Blues cricket team and the Sydney Swans of the Australian... |
43,562 | 2–6 January |
First Test: 23–27 November, Brisbane
Day OneAustralia won the toss after Andrew Flintoff
Andrew Flintoff
Andrew "Freddie" Flintoff MBE is a former English cricketer who played for Lancashire County Cricket Club, England and the Indian Premier League team Chennai Super Kings. A tall fast bowler, batsman and slip fielder, Flintoff according to the ICC rankings was consistently rated amongst the top...
called heads. Ricky Ponting
Ricky Ponting
Ricky Thomas Ponting , nicknamed Punter, is an Australian cricketer, a former captain of the Australian cricket team between 2004 and 2011 in Test cricket and 2002 and 2011 in One Day International cricket. He is a specialist right-handed batsman, slips and close catching fielder, as well as a very...
elected to bat on a good looking pitch. Steve Harmison
Steve Harmison
Stephen James Harmison MBE is an English cricketer. Primarily a fast bowler, he represented England in 63 Tests, 58 ODI's, and 2 T20's. He also plays county cricket for Durham....
bowled the opening over, with the first ball a wide that went straight to Andrew Flintoff
Andrew Flintoff
Andrew "Freddie" Flintoff MBE is a former English cricketer who played for Lancashire County Cricket Club, England and the Indian Premier League team Chennai Super Kings. A tall fast bowler, batsman and slip fielder, Flintoff according to the ICC rankings was consistently rated amongst the top...
at second slip
Slip (cricket)
In the sport of cricket, a slip fielder is placed behind the batsman on the off side of the field. They are placed with the aim of catching an edged ball which is beyond the wicket-keeper's reach. Many teams employ two or three slips...
. Harmison only lasted two overs, which went for 17 runs, before being replaced by James Anderson
James Anderson (cricketer)
James Michael "Jimmy" Anderson is an English cricketer. He plays first-class cricket for Lancashire County Cricket Club and since bursting onto the scene in 2002/03, before his first full season of county cricket, Anderson has represented England in over 50 Test matches and over 100 One Day...
. Anderson proved just as expensive as Harmison, conceding 10 runs in his first over in his first Test match for 7 months. Andrew Flintoff
Andrew Flintoff
Andrew "Freddie" Flintoff MBE is a former English cricketer who played for Lancashire County Cricket Club, England and the Indian Premier League team Chennai Super Kings. A tall fast bowler, batsman and slip fielder, Flintoff according to the ICC rankings was consistently rated amongst the top...
got Matthew Hayden
Matthew Hayden
Matthew Lawrence Hayden AM is a former Australian cricketer, and was signed to the Chennai Super Kings in the IPL until the 2010 season. Hayden is a powerful and aggressive left-handed opening batsman, known for his ability to score quickly at both Test and one day levels.Hayden holds the record...
to edge one to second slip on 21. Australia reached lunch without further loss on 1/79.
In the afternoon, Flintoff unexpectedly removed Justin Langer
Justin Langer
Justin Lee Langer AM is a former international cricketer who represented Australia in 105 Test matches and the current Assistant Coach and Batting Coach of the Australian cricket team. A left-handed batsman, his opening partnership with Matthew Hayden was one of the most successful of all time...
, who had looked set for a century but holed out to Kevin Pietersen at cover point. Ashley Giles
Ashley Giles
Ashley Fraser Giles MBE is a retired English cricketer. Giles played the entirety of his 14-year first-class career at Warwickshire County Cricket Club where he is now employed as Director of Cricket...
, bowling in his first first-class match for twelve months, took the wicket of Damien Martyn
Damien Martyn
Damien Richard Martyn is a former Australian cricketer. He played for the national team sporadically in 1992–1994 before becoming a regular ODI player in 1999–2000 and a regular Test player in 2001 until his retirement in late 2006...
but was innocuous, if inexpensive (unlike many of his colleagues), claiming no more wickets during the day. Ricky Ponting
Ricky Ponting
Ricky Thomas Ponting , nicknamed Punter, is an Australian cricketer, a former captain of the Australian cricket team between 2004 and 2011 in Test cricket and 2002 and 2011 in One Day International cricket. He is a specialist right-handed batsman, slips and close catching fielder, as well as a very...
and Michael Hussey
Michael Hussey
Michael Edward Killeen Hussey is an Australian cricketer, a left-handed specialist batsman. Hussey is also widely known by his nickname Mr Cricket. Hussey was a relative latecomer to both the one-day international and Test Australian teams, debuting at 28 and 30 years of age in the respective...
survived the final session of the day to close at 3/346. During the session, Ponting passed 100 runs in a near-faultless display, offering up only one potential lbw shout (dismissed by umpire Billy Bowden) when he missed a sweep on a straight ball from Giles. The century took him level with Steve Waugh
Steve Waugh
Stephen Rodger "Steve" Waugh, AO is a former Australian cricketer and fraternal twin of cricketer Mark Waugh. A right-handed batsman, he was also a successful medium-pace bowler...
as Australia's leading century-maker, with 32 centuries each. England's bowling was generally criticised, most notably Harmison, who was given only 12 overs out of the 90 overs bowled during the day. Andrew Flintoff was the only bowler to finish the day with his reputation enhanced, having been England's cheapest and most effective bowler. The pitch, however, was flat and not conducive to either pace or spin bowling and as England failed to use the new ball well at both the beginning and end of the day, it proved to be one of the most frustrating days in the field English cricket had endured in modern Ashes series.
Day Two
Australia continued their dominance throughout the second day. Ricky Ponting
Ricky Ponting
Ricky Thomas Ponting , nicknamed Punter, is an Australian cricketer, a former captain of the Australian cricket team between 2004 and 2011 in Test cricket and 2002 and 2011 in One Day International cricket. He is a specialist right-handed batsman, slips and close catching fielder, as well as a very...
and Michael Hussey
Michael Hussey
Michael Edward Killeen Hussey is an Australian cricketer, a left-handed specialist batsman. Hussey is also widely known by his nickname Mr Cricket. Hussey was a relative latecomer to both the one-day international and Test Australian teams, debuting at 28 and 30 years of age in the respective...
continued their partnership, putting together 209. Flintoff finally took Hussey's wicket when he was on 86, bowled through the gate, with the off-stump out of the ground, when he had looked set for a century. Matthew Hoggard
Matthew Hoggard
Matthew James Hoggard MBE is an English cricketer. The 6' 2" Hoggard is a right arm fast-medium bowler and right-handed batsman. He played international cricket for England cricket team from 2000-2008, playing both Test cricket and One Day International cricket. He is currently the captain of...
finally made a significant breakthrough in the afternoon, taking the wickets of Ponting (for 196) and Adam Gilchrist
Adam Gilchrist
Adam Craig Gilchrist AM , nicknamed "Gilly" or "Churchy", is an Australian international cricketer who currently captains Kings XI Punjab and recently captained Middlesex. He is an attacking left-handed batsman and record-breaking wicket-keeper, who redefined the role for the Australian national...
(for a duck) in the same over, both men out lbw. Gilchrist, in particular, was out to a ball bowled from around the wicket from the right-arm bowler Hoggard, a continuation of England's tactics against him in the 2005 Ashes series, which had restricted him to a top score of 49*. Ponting
Ricky Ponting
Ricky Thomas Ponting , nicknamed Punter, is an Australian cricketer, a former captain of the Australian cricket team between 2004 and 2011 in Test cricket and 2002 and 2011 in One Day International cricket. He is a specialist right-handed batsman, slips and close catching fielder, as well as a very...
's 196 allowed him to surpass Graham Gooch
Graham Gooch
Graham Alan Gooch OBE DL is a former cricketer who captained Essex and England. He was one of the most successful international batsmen of his generation, and through a career spanning from 1973 until 2000, he became the most prolific run scorer of all time with 67,057 runs...
as the 7th highest Test runscorer of all time (Gooch scored 8900 runs). Michael Clarke
Michael Clarke (cricketer)
Michael John Clarke is an Australian cricketer. He was appointed captain of the Test and ODI teams on 30 March 2011. Nicknamed 'Pup', he is a right-handed batsman, and occasional left-arm orthodox spin bowler...
crafted a solid 56 before falling to James Anderson
James Anderson (cricketer)
James Michael "Jimmy" Anderson is an English cricketer. He plays first-class cricket for Lancashire County Cricket Club and since bursting onto the scene in 2002/03, before his first full season of county cricket, Anderson has represented England in over 50 Test matches and over 100 One Day...
, edging a good delivery to slip. Australia's tail wagged, with Brett Lee
Brett Lee
Brett Lee is an Australian cricketer.After breaking into the Australian Test team, Lee was recognised as one of the fastest bowlers in world cricket...
scoring 43 and Stuart Clark
Stuart Clark
Stuart Rupert Clark is an Australian International cricketer who plays domestic cricket for the New South Wales Blues. He plays as a right-arm fast-medium bowler...
hitting a quick-fire 39 off 23 balls before having his leg stump knocked out of the ground by Flintoff. His innings included two huge sixes off the bowling of James Anderson, who ended the innings with figures of 141 runs for just one wicket. Australia were able to declare their innings with the score 9/602 after tea.
England had to negotiate the seventeen overs remaining in the evening. After a reasonably solid start, England lost Andrew Strauss
Andrew Strauss
Andrew John Strauss, OBE is an English cricketer who plays county cricket for Middlesex County Cricket Club and is the captain of England's Test cricket team. A fluent left-handed opening batsman, Strauss favours scoring off the back foot, mostly playing cut and pull shots...
and Alastair Cook
Alastair Cook
Alastair Nathan Cook, MBE is an English international cricket player. He is a left-handed opening batsman who plays county cricket for Essex and International cricket for England, where he is their ODI captain. Cook played for Essex's Academy and made his debut for the first XI in 2003...
in consecutive balls to Glenn McGrath
Glenn McGrath
Glenn Donald McGrath AM , nicknamed "Pigeon", is a former Australian cricket player. He is one of the most highly regarded fast-medium pace bowlers in cricketing history, and a leading contributor to Australia's domination of world cricket from the mid-1990s to the early 21st century...
. Strauss was lambasted for his dismissal, top-edging a pull on a ball too full to be suitable for the shot. Stuart Clark removed Paul Collingwood
Paul Collingwood
Paul David Collingwood MBE is an English cricketer. He has been a regular member of the England Test side, was captain of the One Day International team 2007–2008. He is also vice-captain of his county, Durham County Cricket Club. Collingwood is a batting all-rounder, whose batting...
, edging an off-cutter to Adam Gilchrist. This dismissal left England on 3/53 at the close, leaving England in a perilous position, Australia having reached a total more than 200 runs higher in any Test of the 2005 Ashes series before taking three cheap wickets before the close. Ian Bell and Kevin Pietersen
Kevin Pietersen
Kevin Peter Pietersen, MBE is a South African-born English cricketer. He is a right-handed batsman and occasional off spin bowler who plays for England and Surrey...
were the not out batsmen, with scores of 13 and 6 respectively.
Day Three
Matters continued badly for England on day three and they ended their first innings on 157 all out just after lunch, 246 short of their follow-on target of 403. Ian Bell was the only England batsman to offer any real resistance, spending nearly four hours at the crease before being dismissed by Stuart Clark
Stuart Clark
Stuart Rupert Clark is an Australian International cricketer who plays domestic cricket for the New South Wales Blues. He plays as a right-arm fast-medium bowler...
for 50. It was a personal triumph for Bell, who had averaged just 17.10 in the 2005 series, looking particularly vulnerable against McGrath and Warne. England's other specialist batsman Kevin Pietersen was out for only 16, lbw to a ball from McGrath which he did not offer a shot at. All-rounder and captain Andrew Flintoff
Andrew Flintoff
Andrew "Freddie" Flintoff MBE is a former English cricketer who played for Lancashire County Cricket Club, England and the Indian Premier League team Chennai Super Kings. A tall fast bowler, batsman and slip fielder, Flintoff according to the ICC rankings was consistently rated amongst the top...
was out for a duck, caught behind off what replays suggested was a no-ball (not spotted by umpire Steve Bucknor) from Brett Lee. Brief resistance also came from wicketkeeper Geraint Jones
Geraint Jones
Geraint Owen Jones MBE is an England cricketer of Welsh extraction but raised in Australia. Until August 2006 he was the first-choice wicketkeeper for England in both Test and One-day cricket, but fell behind Chris Read, Paul Nixon, Matt Prior and Tim Ambrose...
and spinner Giles, who made 19 and a quickfire 24 respectively, but both were out to Glenn McGrath. In total McGrath took 6 wickets for only 50 runs conceded, a powerful response to critics who had suggested that he was, at 36, too old to be a frontline bowler in an Ashes series.
Ponting chose not to enforce the follow-on and put his team back in to bat, a decision which surprised the majority of spectators and media personnel. Australia's lead of 445 going into the second innings was one of the largest ever held by a team which had then decided not to enforce the follow-on. This decision was in contrast to Michael Vaughan's decision in the 4th Test of the 2005 series, where he had enforced the follow-on with Australia just 259 runs behind. As on the opening day, England's bowling attack was again barely able to penetrate Australia's defences, and the home side were able to end the day on 1/181, the only loss being Matthew Hayden
Matthew Hayden
Matthew Lawrence Hayden AM is a former Australian cricketer, and was signed to the Chennai Super Kings in the IPL until the 2010 season. Hayden is a powerful and aggressive left-handed opening batsman, known for his ability to score quickly at both Test and one day levels.Hayden holds the record...
who was run out on 37 by James Anderson
James Anderson (cricketer)
James Michael "Jimmy" Anderson is an English cricketer. He plays first-class cricket for Lancashire County Cricket Club and since bursting onto the scene in 2002/03, before his first full season of county cricket, Anderson has represented England in over 50 Test matches and over 100 One Day...
while attempting a risky second run. Justin Langer
Justin Langer
Justin Lee Langer AM is a former international cricketer who represented Australia in 105 Test matches and the current Assistant Coach and Batting Coach of the Australian cricket team. A left-handed batsman, his opening partnership with Matthew Hayden was one of the most successful of all time...
and Ricky Ponting
Ricky Ponting
Ricky Thomas Ponting , nicknamed Punter, is an Australian cricketer, a former captain of the Australian cricket team between 2004 and 2011 in Test cricket and 2002 and 2011 in One Day International cricket. He is a specialist right-handed batsman, slips and close catching fielder, as well as a very...
ended the day unbeaten, with Langer on 88, and Ponting on 51 having scored his 9,000th test run during the innings. The day was the third in a row which had gone badly for England and with the pitch showing wide cracks, offering encouragement to Shane Warne in particular, an Australian victory was widely expected at the close of play.
Day Four
Ricky Ponting
Ricky Thomas Ponting , nicknamed Punter, is an Australian cricketer, a former captain of the Australian cricket team between 2004 and 2011 in Test cricket and 2002 and 2011 in One Day International cricket. He is a specialist right-handed batsman, slips and close catching fielder, as well as a very...
had progressed to 60. Towards the end of Australia's second innings Ponting suffered a back strain, and did not return to the field after his side's declaration.
England began their second innings shakily, with Andrew Strauss
Andrew Strauss
Andrew John Strauss, OBE is an English cricketer who plays county cricket for Middlesex County Cricket Club and is the captain of England's Test cricket team. A fluent left-handed opening batsman, Strauss favours scoring off the back foot, mostly playing cut and pull shots...
out for 11 off Stuart Clark in a similar fashion to his first innings dismissal, this time hooking the ball to fine leg, the dismissal owing more to poor execution than the poor shot selection witnessed in England's first innings. Shane Warne
Shane Warne
Shane Keith Warne is a former Australian international cricketer widely regarded as one of the greatest bowlers in the history of the game. In 2000, he was selected by a panel of cricket experts as one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Century, the only specialist bowler selected in the quintet...
dismissed Alastair Cook
Alastair Cook
Alastair Nathan Cook, MBE is an English international cricket player. He is a left-handed opening batsman who plays county cricket for Essex and International cricket for England, where he is their ODI captain. Cook played for Essex's Academy and made his debut for the first XI in 2003...
for an industrious 43, caught by Hussey off his pads, and Ian Bell for a duck, lbw to a slider, leaving England struggling at 3/91. Paul Collingwood
Paul Collingwood
Paul David Collingwood MBE is an English cricketer. He has been a regular member of the England Test side, was captain of the One Day International team 2007–2008. He is also vice-captain of his county, Durham County Cricket Club. Collingwood is a batting all-rounder, whose batting...
and Kevin Pietersen
Kevin Pietersen
Kevin Peter Pietersen, MBE is a South African-born English cricketer. He is a right-handed batsman and occasional off spin bowler who plays for England and Surrey...
then rebuilt their team's innings in the second session, sharing a 153 run partnership. Collingwood was eventually stumped for 96 off the bowling of Warne, charging down the pitch while looking to reach his third Test century, and his first against Australia, and missing his shot by nearly six inches. Andrew Flintoff
Andrew Flintoff
Andrew "Freddie" Flintoff MBE is a former English cricketer who played for Lancashire County Cricket Club, England and the Indian Premier League team Chennai Super Kings. A tall fast bowler, batsman and slip fielder, Flintoff according to the ICC rankings was consistently rated amongst the top...
soon followed after scoring 16 runs, perishing to an ill-judged pull shot off the bowling of Shane Warne. Kevin Pietersen
Kevin Pietersen
Kevin Peter Pietersen, MBE is a South African-born English cricketer. He is a right-handed batsman and occasional off spin bowler who plays for England and Surrey...
and Geraint Jones
Geraint Jones
Geraint Owen Jones MBE is an England cricketer of Welsh extraction but raised in Australia. Until August 2006 he was the first-choice wicketkeeper for England in both Test and One-day cricket, but fell behind Chris Read, Paul Nixon, Matt Prior and Tim Ambrose...
were the not out batsmen at the end of the day, with 92 and 12 runs respectively, with England needing a further 355 for victory. Pietersen's innings was notable because of the manner in which he had suppressed legendary leg spinner Warne.
At one point at the end of a delivery, Warne picked up the ball and threw it to Adam Gilchrist behind stumps albeit badly. The ball veered and headed to Pietersen, who was forced to defend himself with a reflexive hookshot. He could be seen angrily mouthing the words, "F... off!" on conclusion of the stroke. The fourth day was a break from the norm of the Brisbane Test, which until then had gone entirely in Australia's favour. The partnership between Collingwood and Pietersen was the first of any substance in the Test for England and allowed some hope of an unlikely draw, with reports from some sources of an approaching storm.
Day Five
England's chances of lasting the day were effectively dashed after Kevin Pietersen flicked the ball to Damien Martyn at short midwicket off Brett Lee in the first over of the day, immediately after Australia's taking the new ball and without adding to his overnight score. Geraint Jones struck a few boundaries but edged onto his stumps off Glenn McGrath. Fellow NSW paceman Stuart Clark took the final wickets of Giles (caught at first slip), Hoggard (caught at first slip) and Harmison (caught pulling at fine leg), with England lasting only 20 overs for the day. England's fourth innings total of 370 was the highest ever achieved in a fourth innings of a Test match at the Gabba but was still nowhere near the total set by Australia. Australia won the match by 277 runs, with Ricky Ponting named man of the match for his 196 and 60 not out. The total attendance was recorded as 164,747 for the match.
Second Test: 1–5 December, Adelaide
Day OneIn a similar fashion to 2005, England named an unchanged XI for the second test, despite Cricinfo
Cricinfo
ESPNcricinfo is believed to be the largest cricket-related website on the World Wide Web. Content includes news,articles, live scorecards,live text commentary and a comprehensive and searchable database called 'StatsGuru', of historical matches and players from the 18th century to the present...
and others suggesting that it was "almost certain" that Monty Panesar
Monty Panesar
Mudhsuden Singh Panesar, known as Monty Panesar , is an English cricketer who currently plays for Sussex. A left-arm spinner, Panesar played Test and one-day cricket for England until 2009. In English county cricket he played for Northamptonshire until 2009...
would replace James Anderson
James Anderson (cricketer)
James Michael "Jimmy" Anderson is an English cricketer. He plays first-class cricket for Lancashire County Cricket Club and since bursting onto the scene in 2002/03, before his first full season of county cricket, Anderson has represented England in over 50 Test matches and over 100 One Day...
. Australia also named an unchanged team after Glenn McGrath
Glenn McGrath
Glenn Donald McGrath AM , nicknamed "Pigeon", is a former Australian cricket player. He is one of the most highly regarded fast-medium pace bowlers in cricketing history, and a leading contributor to Australia's domination of world cricket from the mid-1990s to the early 21st century...
passed a late fitness test. He was earlier rated as 50:50 to play due to a heel injury/
Andrew Flintoff
Andrew Flintoff
Andrew "Freddie" Flintoff MBE is a former English cricketer who played for Lancashire County Cricket Club, England and the Indian Premier League team Chennai Super Kings. A tall fast bowler, batsman and slip fielder, Flintoff according to the ICC rankings was consistently rated amongst the top...
won the toss and elected to bat first. Early on, the dry flat wicket offered little for the Australian bowlers who toiled in the first hour for no wicket. Stuart Clark
Stuart Clark
Stuart Rupert Clark is an Australian International cricketer who plays domestic cricket for the New South Wales Blues. He plays as a right-arm fast-medium bowler...
took the first wicket, with Andrew Strauss
Andrew Strauss
Andrew John Strauss, OBE is an English cricketer who plays county cricket for Middlesex County Cricket Club and is the captain of England's Test cricket team. A fluent left-handed opening batsman, Strauss favours scoring off the back foot, mostly playing cut and pull shots...
being caught by Damien Martyn
Damien Martyn
Damien Richard Martyn is a former Australian cricketer. He played for the national team sporadically in 1992–1994 before becoming a regular ODI player in 1999–2000 and a regular Test player in 2001 until his retirement in late 2006...
for fourteen runs. This was the third time in the series that Strauss had been caught attempting to play on the leg side. Clark then took the wicket of Alastair Cook
Alastair Cook
Alastair Nathan Cook, MBE is an English international cricket player. He is a left-handed opening batsman who plays county cricket for Essex and International cricket for England, where he is their ODI captain. Cook played for Essex's Academy and made his debut for the first XI in 2003...
for twenty-seven runs, having him caught behind by Adam Gilchrist
Adam Gilchrist
Adam Craig Gilchrist AM , nicknamed "Gilly" or "Churchy", is an Australian international cricketer who currently captains Kings XI Punjab and recently captained Middlesex. He is an attacking left-handed batsman and record-breaking wicket-keeper, who redefined the role for the Australian national...
. The periods before and just after lunch were dominated by Shane Warne
Shane Warne
Shane Keith Warne is a former Australian international cricketer widely regarded as one of the greatest bowlers in the history of the game. In 2000, he was selected by a panel of cricket experts as one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Century, the only specialist bowler selected in the quintet...
, who bowled with consistent line and length to keep both Ian Bell and Paul Collingwood
Paul Collingwood
Paul David Collingwood MBE is an English cricketer. He has been a regular member of the England Test side, was captain of the One Day International team 2007–2008. He is also vice-captain of his county, Durham County Cricket Club. Collingwood is a batting all-rounder, whose batting...
restricted to about two runs per over. Bell continued his struggle against Warne, who beat Bell's bat on several occasions. Despite a slow scoring rate
Run rate
In cricket, the run rate , or runs per over is the number of runs a batsman scores in an over of 6 balls. It includes all runs, even the so-called extras awarded due to errors by the bowler. Without extras and overthrows, the maximum run rate is 36 – if every ball were struck for six and, as...
, the batsmen made a good fightback in the afternoon session, despite some persistent Australian bowling. Both batsmen reached their half-centuries in the last over
Over (cricket)
In the sport of cricket, an over is a set of six consecutive balls bowled in succession. An over is normally bowled by a single bowler. However, in the event of injury preventing a bowler from completing an over, it is completed by a teammate....
before the tea interval, which England reached with the score at 2/144. After tea, England came out looking to increase the scoring rate. Soon, however, Bell was caught and bowled by Brett Lee
Brett Lee
Brett Lee is an Australian cricketer.After breaking into the Australian Test team, Lee was recognised as one of the fastest bowlers in world cricket...
as he skied an attempted pull to the leg side. Kevin Pietersen
Kevin Pietersen
Kevin Peter Pietersen, MBE is a South African-born English cricketer. He is a right-handed batsman and occasional off spin bowler who plays for England and Surrey...
was aggressive from his first ball, going on to make his half-century off just 70 balls. The scoring rate increased somewhat in the evening session as England increased their score to 3/266 at stumps. Paul Collingwood
Paul Collingwood
Paul David Collingwood MBE is an English cricketer. He has been a regular member of the England Test side, was captain of the One Day International team 2007–2008. He is also vice-captain of his county, Durham County Cricket Club. Collingwood is a batting all-rounder, whose batting...
was not out on 98 runs, tantalisingly close to a maiden Ashes century. The day's honours were roughly even. Australia would have liked more than 3 wickets, but they did keep England's scoring rate low on a flat dry wicket.
Day Two
Australia resumed play on the second day with the ball only 6 overs old, whilst England's Paul Collingwood
Paul Collingwood
Paul David Collingwood MBE is an English cricketer. He has been a regular member of the England Test side, was captain of the One Day International team 2007–2008. He is also vice-captain of his county, Durham County Cricket Club. Collingwood is a batting all-rounder, whose batting...
required two runs to make a century. Collingwood made his runs in the second over of the morning, off the second ball he faced. Kevin Pietersen
Kevin Pietersen
Kevin Peter Pietersen, MBE is a South African-born English cricketer. He is a right-handed batsman and occasional off spin bowler who plays for England and Surrey...
made his own century later in the morning. England again scored relatively slowly, but survived the first session without losing a wicket to be 3/347 at lunch. The two batsmen continued after lunch in a session that would go on to break several previous partnership records for English batting. Collingwood increased his score to a personal best innings of 206, becoming only the third Englishman to score a double-century in Australia, and the first in seventy years. He was out caught behind by Adam Gilchrist
Adam Gilchrist
Adam Craig Gilchrist AM , nicknamed "Gilly" or "Churchy", is an Australian international cricketer who currently captains Kings XI Punjab and recently captained Middlesex. He is an attacking left-handed batsman and record-breaking wicket-keeper, who redefined the role for the Australian national...
from an outswinging Stuart Clark
Stuart Clark
Stuart Rupert Clark is an Australian International cricketer who plays domestic cricket for the New South Wales Blues. He plays as a right-arm fast-medium bowler...
delivery on the final ball before tea. After the interval, Pietersen went on to make 158 before being run out. This was the third time that Pietersen had been out for 158. Collingwood, and particularly Pietersen, consistently attacked the Australian bowlers, forcing them to take up defensive fielding positions for the first time in the series. Noticeably, Shane Warne
Shane Warne
Shane Keith Warne is a former Australian international cricketer widely regarded as one of the greatest bowlers in the history of the game. In 2000, he was selected by a panel of cricket experts as one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Century, the only specialist bowler selected in the quintet...
bowled defensively outside leg stump from around the wicket to Pietersen, having exhausted all other methods of containment. Andrew Flintoff
Andrew Flintoff
Andrew "Freddie" Flintoff MBE is a former English cricketer who played for Lancashire County Cricket Club, England and the Indian Premier League team Chennai Super Kings. A tall fast bowler, batsman and slip fielder, Flintoff according to the ICC rankings was consistently rated amongst the top...
and Ashley Giles
Ashley Giles
Ashley Fraser Giles MBE is a retired English cricketer. Giles played the entirety of his 14-year first-class career at Warwickshire County Cricket Club where he is now employed as Director of Cricket...
added sixty runs for the sixth wicket before the innings was declared
Declaration and forfeiture
In the sport of cricket a declaration occurs when a captain declares his team's innings closed and a forfeiture is when a captain chooses to forfeit an innings. Declaration and forfeiture are covered in Law 14 of the Laws of cricket...
at 6/551.
The Australian bowling was generally ineffective during the England innings, despite keeping the run rate
Run rate
In cricket, the run rate , or runs per over is the number of runs a batsman scores in an over of 6 balls. It includes all runs, even the so-called extras awarded due to errors by the bowler. Without extras and overthrows, the maximum run rate is 36 – if every ball were struck for six and, as...
low. Glenn McGrath
Glenn McGrath
Glenn Donald McGrath AM , nicknamed "Pigeon", is a former Australian cricket player. He is one of the most highly regarded fast-medium pace bowlers in cricketing history, and a leading contributor to Australia's domination of world cricket from the mid-1990s to the early 21st century...
conceded his first analysis of 0/100 or worse in Test cricket, and was targeted by Pietersen in particular, who took three fours off his first over of the second day. It was speculated that whilst McGrath had declared himself fit for the game, he was still struggling with his sore heel. Despite his defensive bowling, Shane Warne
Shane Warne
Shane Keith Warne is a former Australian international cricketer widely regarded as one of the greatest bowlers in the history of the game. In 2000, he was selected by a panel of cricket experts as one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Century, the only specialist bowler selected in the quintet...
conceded his worst innings figures of 1/167.
Australia had to face nine overs before the close of play. Flintoff, who opened the bowling with Matthew Hoggard
Matthew Hoggard
Matthew James Hoggard MBE is an English cricketer. The 6' 2" Hoggard is a right arm fast-medium bowler and right-handed batsman. He played international cricket for England cricket team from 2000-2008, playing both Test cricket and One Day International cricket. He is currently the captain of...
, took the wicket of Justin Langer
Justin Langer
Justin Lee Langer AM is a former international cricketer who represented Australia in 105 Test matches and the current Assistant Coach and Batting Coach of the Australian cricket team. A left-handed batsman, his opening partnership with Matthew Hayden was one of the most successful of all time...
during this short period. The Australian score at stumps was 1/28, making day two the first day of the series which clearly belonged to England. However, the question remained as to whether England's bowling attack would perform any better than Australia's on a good batting pitch in the days ahead.
Day Three
England started the day strongly, their bowling attack testing the Australians as Matthew Hoggard
Matthew Hoggard
Matthew James Hoggard MBE is an English cricketer. The 6' 2" Hoggard is a right arm fast-medium bowler and right-handed batsman. He played international cricket for England cricket team from 2000-2008, playing both Test cricket and One Day International cricket. He is currently the captain of...
claimed two wickets before lunch. The first came in the 13th over of the innings as Matthew Hayden
Matthew Hayden
Matthew Lawrence Hayden AM is a former Australian cricketer, and was signed to the Chennai Super Kings in the IPL until the 2010 season. Hayden is a powerful and aggressive left-handed opening batsman, known for his ability to score quickly at both Test and one day levels.Hayden holds the record...
edged a delivery to the gloves of Geraint Jones
Geraint Jones
Geraint Owen Jones MBE is an England cricketer of Welsh extraction but raised in Australia. Until August 2006 he was the first-choice wicketkeeper for England in both Test and One-day cricket, but fell behind Chris Read, Paul Nixon, Matt Prior and Tim Ambrose...
. The second was in the 23rd over when Ian Bell took a comfortable slip catch off Damien Martyn
Damien Martyn
Damien Richard Martyn is a former Australian cricketer. He played for the national team sporadically in 1992–1994 before becoming a regular ODI player in 1999–2000 and a regular Test player in 2001 until his retirement in late 2006...
. This left Australia on 3/65. James Anderson
James Anderson (cricketer)
James Michael "Jimmy" Anderson is an English cricketer. He plays first-class cricket for Lancashire County Cricket Club and since bursting onto the scene in 2002/03, before his first full season of county cricket, Anderson has represented England in over 50 Test matches and over 100 One Day...
and Steve Harmison
Steve Harmison
Stephen James Harmison MBE is an English cricketer. Primarily a fast bowler, he represented England in 63 Tests, 58 ODI's, and 2 T20's. He also plays county cricket for Durham....
also bowled well, proving to be much more accurate and economical in their bowling than they had in the First Test at Brisbane.
At times England's fielding was inept, however. In the morning session Ricky Ponting
Ricky Ponting
Ricky Thomas Ponting , nicknamed Punter, is an Australian cricketer, a former captain of the Australian cricket team between 2004 and 2011 in Test cricket and 2002 and 2011 in One Day International cricket. He is a specialist right-handed batsman, slips and close catching fielder, as well as a very...
survived a dropped catch by Ashley Giles
Ashley Giles
Ashley Fraser Giles MBE is a retired English cricketer. Giles played the entirety of his 14-year first-class career at Warwickshire County Cricket Club where he is now employed as Director of Cricket...
and a run out
Run out
Run out is a method of dismissal in the sport of cricket. It is governed by Law 38 of the Laws of cricket.-The rules:A batsman is out Run out if at any time while the ball is in play no part of his bat or person is grounded behind the popping crease and his wicket is fairly put down by the opposing...
chance missed by Paul Collingwood
Paul Collingwood
Paul David Collingwood MBE is an English cricketer. He has been a regular member of the England Test side, was captain of the One Day International team 2007–2008. He is also vice-captain of his county, Durham County Cricket Club. Collingwood is a batting all-rounder, whose batting...
when on 35 and 43 respectively. Ponting reached his half-century just before lunch, taking his side to 3/105 at the interval.
Following the lunch break, Ponting returned to build a solid partnership with Michael Hussey
Michael Hussey
Michael Edward Killeen Hussey is an Australian cricketer, a left-handed specialist batsman. Hussey is also widely known by his nickname Mr Cricket. Hussey was a relative latecomer to both the one-day international and Test Australian teams, debuting at 28 and 30 years of age in the respective...
. The Australian batsmen remained at the crease throughout the afternoon session. Ponting reached his 33rd Test century in the 62nd over, just before tea. This score saw him become Australia's leading century-scorer in Test history and took the home side to 3/185.
After tea Australia continued to settle into their batting rhythm as Hussey reached his 50 in the 64th over. England began to lose the advantage they had established early in the day, with runs coming easier to Australia. In the 73rd over Hussey survived a dramatic run out
Run out
Run out is a method of dismissal in the sport of cricket. It is governed by Law 38 of the Laws of cricket.-The rules:A batsman is out Run out if at any time while the ball is in play no part of his bat or person is grounded behind the popping crease and his wicket is fairly put down by the opposing...
chance which had to be referred to the third umpire
Third umpire
In international cricket matches the third umpire is an off-field umpire who makes the final decision in questions referred to him by the two on-field umpires. Television replays are available to the third umpire to assist him in coming to a decision...
as he slid his bat back into his crease
Crease (cricket)
In the sport of cricket, the crease is a certain area demarcated by white lines painted or chalked on the field of play.The term crease also refers to any of the lines themselves, particularly the popping crease. Law 9 of the Laws of Cricket governs the size and position of the crease markings...
a fraction of a second before Geraint Jones
Geraint Jones
Geraint Owen Jones MBE is an England cricketer of Welsh extraction but raised in Australia. Until August 2006 he was the first-choice wicketkeeper for England in both Test and One-day cricket, but fell behind Chris Read, Paul Nixon, Matt Prior and Tim Ambrose...
broke the stumps off a James Anderson
James Anderson (cricketer)
James Michael "Jimmy" Anderson is an English cricketer. He plays first-class cricket for Lancashire County Cricket Club and since bursting onto the scene in 2002/03, before his first full season of county cricket, Anderson has represented England in over 50 Test matches and over 100 One Day...
throw-in. It wasn't until after the new ball had been taken in the 83rd over that England got a breakthrough. Matthew Hoggard
Matthew Hoggard
Matthew James Hoggard MBE is an English cricketer. The 6' 2" Hoggard is a right arm fast-medium bowler and right-handed batsman. He played international cricket for England cricket team from 2000-2008, playing both Test cricket and One Day International cricket. He is currently the captain of...
was again the successful bowler, claiming Ponting for 142 and later Hussey for 91 in the 91st over. After the fall of Hussey's wicket, Michael Clarke
Michael Clarke (cricketer)
Michael John Clarke is an Australian cricketer. He was appointed captain of the Test and ODI teams on 30 March 2011. Nicknamed 'Pup', he is a right-handed batsman, and occasional left-arm orthodox spin bowler...
and Adam Gilchrist
Adam Gilchrist
Adam Craig Gilchrist AM , nicknamed "Gilly" or "Churchy", is an Australian international cricketer who currently captains Kings XI Punjab and recently captained Middlesex. He is an attacking left-handed batsman and record-breaking wicket-keeper, who redefined the role for the Australian national...
established themselves at the crease to end the day on 30 and 13 respectively. The Australian score was 5/312, 40 runs short of the follow-on
Follow-on
Follow-on is a term used in the sport of cricket to describe a situation where the team that bats second is forced to take its second batting innings immediately after its first, because the team was not able to get close enough to the score achieved by the first team batting in the first innings...
target.
Day Four
The Australian batsman started well and by mid-session had started to dominate the England bowling and increase the run rate
Run rate
In cricket, the run rate , or runs per over is the number of runs a batsman scores in an over of 6 balls. It includes all runs, even the so-called extras awarded due to errors by the bowler. Without extras and overthrows, the maximum run rate is 36 – if every ball were struck for six and, as...
. The Australians passed the follow-on target after drinks, and shortly after this Adam Gilchrist
Adam Gilchrist
Adam Craig Gilchrist AM , nicknamed "Gilly" or "Churchy", is an Australian international cricketer who currently captains Kings XI Punjab and recently captained Middlesex. He is an attacking left-handed batsman and record-breaking wicket-keeper, who redefined the role for the Australian national...
and Michael Clarke
Michael Clarke (cricketer)
Michael John Clarke is an Australian cricketer. He was appointed captain of the Test and ODI teams on 30 March 2011. Nicknamed 'Pup', he is a right-handed batsman, and occasional left-arm orthodox spin bowler...
made their half-centuries. Just as Adam Gilchrist was beginning to look dangerous and starting to score quickly, Ashley Giles had him caught attempting a six. He had made 64 runs off 79 balls, and the score was 6/384. Shane Warne
Shane Warne
Shane Keith Warne is a former Australian international cricketer widely regarded as one of the greatest bowlers in the history of the game. In 2000, he was selected by a panel of cricket experts as one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Century, the only specialist bowler selected in the quintet...
joined Clarke at the crease, and the pair negotiated through to lunch, taking the score to 6/417.
Clarke and Warne put on 100 runs between then in the afternoon session, with Clarke making a century. It was late in the afternoon before England finally made some inroads, with Matthew Hoggard
Matthew Hoggard
Matthew James Hoggard MBE is an English cricketer. The 6' 2" Hoggard is a right arm fast-medium bowler and right-handed batsman. He played international cricket for England cricket team from 2000-2008, playing both Test cricket and One Day International cricket. He is currently the captain of...
striking either side of the tea interval. Shane Warne
Shane Warne
Shane Keith Warne is a former Australian international cricketer widely regarded as one of the greatest bowlers in the history of the game. In 2000, he was selected by a panel of cricket experts as one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Century, the only specialist bowler selected in the quintet...
was out leg before wicket
Leg before wicket
In the sport of cricket, leg before wicket is one of the ways in which a batsman can be dismissed. An umpire will rule a batsman out LBW under a series of circumstances which primarily include the ball striking the batsman's body when it would otherwise have continued on to hit the batsman's...
just prior to the break. Michael Clarke
Michael Clarke (cricketer)
Michael John Clarke is an Australian cricketer. He was appointed captain of the Test and ODI teams on 30 March 2011. Nicknamed 'Pup', he is a right-handed batsman, and occasional left-arm orthodox spin bowler...
was caught by Ashley Giles
Ashley Giles
Ashley Fraser Giles MBE is a retired English cricketer. Giles played the entirety of his 14-year first-class career at Warwickshire County Cricket Club where he is now employed as Director of Cricket...
after tea, having made 124 runs, and with the score at 8/505. Hoggard and James Anderson
James Anderson (cricketer)
James Michael "Jimmy" Anderson is an English cricketer. He plays first-class cricket for Lancashire County Cricket Club and since bursting onto the scene in 2002/03, before his first full season of county cricket, Anderson has represented England in over 50 Test matches and over 100 One Day...
took a wicket each to clean up the tail within eight overs, so that Australia were all out for 513 runs from 165.3 overs.
England passed nineteen overs to reach the close on 1/59. Alastair Cook
Alastair Cook
Alastair Nathan Cook, MBE is an English international cricket player. He is a left-handed opening batsman who plays county cricket for Essex and International cricket for England, where he is their ODI captain. Cook played for Essex's Academy and made his debut for the first XI in 2003...
was the batsman whose wicket fell, caught by Adam Gilchrist
Adam Gilchrist
Adam Craig Gilchrist AM , nicknamed "Gilly" or "Churchy", is an Australian international cricketer who currently captains Kings XI Punjab and recently captained Middlesex. He is an attacking left-handed batsman and record-breaking wicket-keeper, who redefined the role for the Australian national...
off the bowling of Stuart Clark
Stuart Clark
Stuart Rupert Clark is an Australian International cricketer who plays domestic cricket for the New South Wales Blues. He plays as a right-arm fast-medium bowler...
for nine.
Matthew Hoggard
Matthew Hoggard
Matthew James Hoggard MBE is an English cricketer. The 6' 2" Hoggard is a right arm fast-medium bowler and right-handed batsman. He played international cricket for England cricket team from 2000-2008, playing both Test cricket and One Day International cricket. He is currently the captain of...
bowled very well to take 7/109 on an unresponsive pitch. His figures were his third best in Test cricket and his best against Australia. Meanwhile Michael Clarke
Michael Clarke (cricketer)
Michael John Clarke is an Australian cricketer. He was appointed captain of the Test and ODI teams on 30 March 2011. Nicknamed 'Pup', he is a right-handed batsman, and occasional left-arm orthodox spin bowler...
's third Test century helped Australia pass the follow-on
Follow-on
Follow-on is a term used in the sport of cricket to describe a situation where the team that bats second is forced to take its second batting innings immediately after its first, because the team was not able to get close enough to the score achieved by the first team batting in the first innings...
target and put the game into a position that Australia could not lose from. The situation of the game made Australia the only team that had a chance of winning, but left the draw the far more likely result.
Day Five
Australia started the fifth day needing early wickets to try to force a result. They were successful in this quest, as England's second innings stumbled to 4/73 after the overnight batsmen scored at approximately one run per over. Andrew Strauss
Andrew Strauss
Andrew John Strauss, OBE is an English cricketer who plays county cricket for Middlesex County Cricket Club and is the captain of England's Test cricket team. A fluent left-handed opening batsman, Strauss favours scoring off the back foot, mostly playing cut and pull shots...
was caught by Michael Hussey
Michael Hussey
Michael Edward Killeen Hussey is an Australian cricketer, a left-handed specialist batsman. Hussey is also widely known by his nickname Mr Cricket. Hussey was a relative latecomer to both the one-day international and Test Australian teams, debuting at 28 and 30 years of age in the respective...
off the bowling of Shane Warne
Shane Warne
Shane Keith Warne is a former Australian international cricketer widely regarded as one of the greatest bowlers in the history of the game. In 2000, he was selected by a panel of cricket experts as one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Century, the only specialist bowler selected in the quintet...
for 34, although replay analysis appeared to show that the ball did not make contact with bat or gloves, an audible nick was heard after the ball was played and missed, which led to the subsequent decision.
In Warne's next over, Ian Bell was run out on 26. Paul Collingwood
Paul Collingwood
Paul David Collingwood MBE is an English cricketer. He has been a regular member of the England Test side, was captain of the One Day International team 2007–2008. He is also vice-captain of his county, Durham County Cricket Club. Collingwood is a batting all-rounder, whose batting...
called for a run and set off, but Bell did not respond until it was too late. The ball went to Michael Clarke
Michael Clarke (cricketer)
Michael John Clarke is an Australian cricketer. He was appointed captain of the Test and ODI teams on 30 March 2011. Nicknamed 'Pup', he is a right-handed batsman, and occasional left-arm orthodox spin bowler...
's left hand, his dominant side, and he was able to get the ball to Warne who threw down the stumps with an underarm throw, ending Bell's innings. Warne struck again in his next over as Kevin Pietersen
Kevin Pietersen
Kevin Peter Pietersen, MBE is a South African-born English cricketer. He is a right-handed batsman and occasional off spin bowler who plays for England and Surrey...
was clean bowled behind his legs as he attempted a sweep. Four overs later, England lost Andrew Flintoff
Andrew Flintoff
Andrew "Freddie" Flintoff MBE is a former English cricketer who played for Lancashire County Cricket Club, England and the Indian Premier League team Chennai Super Kings. A tall fast bowler, batsman and slip fielder, Flintoff according to the ICC rankings was consistently rated amongst the top...
, who edged Brett Lee
Brett Lee
Brett Lee is an Australian cricketer.After breaking into the Australian Test team, Lee was recognised as one of the fastest bowlers in world cricket...
through to the wicket-keeper, leaving the score on 5/77. England scored only thirty runs in the session for the loss of four wickets, making the score at lunch 5/89, a lead of just 127.
England continued to lose wickets after the break. Geraint Jones
Geraint Jones
Geraint Owen Jones MBE is an England cricketer of Welsh extraction but raised in Australia. Until August 2006 he was the first-choice wicketkeeper for England in both Test and One-day cricket, but fell behind Chris Read, Paul Nixon, Matt Prior and Tim Ambrose...
swung his bat at a wide delivery and edged to Matthew Hayden
Matthew Hayden
Matthew Lawrence Hayden AM is a former Australian cricketer, and was signed to the Chennai Super Kings in the IPL until the 2010 season. Hayden is a powerful and aggressive left-handed opening batsman, known for his ability to score quickly at both Test and one day levels.Hayden holds the record...
in the gully
Slip (cricket)
In the sport of cricket, a slip fielder is placed behind the batsman on the off side of the field. They are placed with the aim of catching an edged ball which is beyond the wicket-keeper's reach. Many teams employ two or three slips...
in the second over after lunch. Ashley Giles
Ashley Giles
Ashley Fraser Giles MBE is a retired English cricketer. Giles played the entirety of his 14-year first-class career at Warwickshire County Cricket Club where he is now employed as Director of Cricket...
made an eight ball duck
Duck (cricket)
In the sport of cricket, a duck refers to a batsman's dismissal for a score of zero.-Origin of the term:The term is a shortening of the term "duck's egg", the latter being used long before Test cricket began...
, edging to Hayden, this time at slip. Matthew Hoggard
Matthew Hoggard
Matthew James Hoggard MBE is an English cricketer. The 6' 2" Hoggard is a right arm fast-medium bowler and right-handed batsman. He played international cricket for England cricket team from 2000-2008, playing both Test cricket and One Day International cricket. He is currently the captain of...
was able to block for a while, but was eventually bowled off the inside edge by Shane Warne
Shane Warne
Shane Keith Warne is a former Australian international cricketer widely regarded as one of the greatest bowlers in the history of the game. In 2000, he was selected by a panel of cricket experts as one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Century, the only specialist bowler selected in the quintet...
. Steve Harmison
Steve Harmison
Stephen James Harmison MBE is an English cricketer. Primarily a fast bowler, he represented England in 63 Tests, 58 ODI's, and 2 T20's. He also plays county cricket for Durham....
and James Anderson
James Anderson (cricketer)
James Michael "Jimmy" Anderson is an English cricketer. He plays first-class cricket for Lancashire County Cricket Club and since bursting onto the scene in 2002/03, before his first full season of county cricket, Anderson has represented England in over 50 Test matches and over 100 One Day...
each held up an end for periods before tea, but both were trapped leg before wicket
Leg before wicket
In the sport of cricket, leg before wicket is one of the ways in which a batsman can be dismissed. An umpire will rule a batsman out LBW under a series of circumstances which primarily include the ball striking the batsman's body when it would otherwise have continued on to hit the batsman's...
by Glenn McGrath
Glenn McGrath
Glenn Donald McGrath AM , nicknamed "Pigeon", is a former Australian cricket player. He is one of the most highly regarded fast-medium pace bowlers in cricketing history, and a leading contributor to Australia's domination of world cricket from the mid-1990s to the early 21st century...
, Anderson's wicket ending the innings. Paul Collingwood
Paul Collingwood
Paul David Collingwood MBE is an English cricketer. He has been a regular member of the England Test side, was captain of the One Day International team 2007–2008. He is also vice-captain of his county, Durham County Cricket Club. Collingwood is a batting all-rounder, whose batting...
was the not out batsman, scoring only 22 runs, but crucially occupying the crease for 119 balls and approximately three hours. England lost their last nine wickets for sixty runs. Tea was taken at the change of innings with the result of the game finely in the balance. Australia required 168 runs to win the game, whilst England could only hope to prevent this from happening in the remaining 36 overs and obtain a draw.
With a target to chase, Australia started their final innings aggressively, taking 13 off the first two overs. England hit back, as Justin Langer
Justin Langer
Justin Lee Langer AM is a former international cricketer who represented Australia in 105 Test matches and the current Assistant Coach and Batting Coach of the Australian cricket team. A left-handed batsman, his opening partnership with Matthew Hayden was one of the most successful of all time...
was caught in the gully off Matthew Hoggard
Matthew Hoggard
Matthew James Hoggard MBE is an English cricketer. The 6' 2" Hoggard is a right arm fast-medium bowler and right-handed batsman. He played international cricket for England cricket team from 2000-2008, playing both Test cricket and One Day International cricket. He is currently the captain of...
in the third over. Matthew Hayden
Matthew Hayden
Matthew Lawrence Hayden AM is a former Australian cricketer, and was signed to the Chennai Super Kings in the IPL until the 2010 season. Hayden is a powerful and aggressive left-handed opening batsman, known for his ability to score quickly at both Test and one day levels.Hayden holds the record...
was caught by Paul Collingwood
Paul Collingwood
Paul David Collingwood MBE is an English cricketer. He has been a regular member of the England Test side, was captain of the One Day International team 2007–2008. He is also vice-captain of his county, Durham County Cricket Club. Collingwood is a batting all-rounder, whose batting...
after top-edging Andrew Flintoff
Andrew Flintoff
Andrew "Freddie" Flintoff MBE is a former English cricketer who played for Lancashire County Cricket Club, England and the Indian Premier League team Chennai Super Kings. A tall fast bowler, batsman and slip fielder, Flintoff according to the ICC rankings was consistently rated amongst the top...
. Michael Hussey
Michael Hussey
Michael Edward Killeen Hussey is an Australian cricketer, a left-handed specialist batsman. Hussey is also widely known by his nickname Mr Cricket. Hussey was a relative latecomer to both the one-day international and Test Australian teams, debuting at 28 and 30 years of age in the respective...
was promoted up the batting order
Batting order (cricket)
In cricket, the batting order is the sequence in which batsmen play through their team's innings, there always being two batsmen taking part at any one time...
to join Ricky Ponting
Ricky Ponting
Ricky Thomas Ponting , nicknamed Punter, is an Australian cricketer, a former captain of the Australian cricket team between 2004 and 2011 in Test cricket and 2002 and 2011 in One Day International cricket. He is a specialist right-handed batsman, slips and close catching fielder, as well as a very...
, putting Australia's two in-form batsmen at the crease. The pair steadied the innings whilst continuing to score runs above the required rate. Again, progress stuttered in the 22nd and 23rd overs, as Ponting was caught off Ashley Giles
Ashley Giles
Ashley Fraser Giles MBE is a retired English cricketer. Giles played the entirety of his 14-year first-class career at Warwickshire County Cricket Club where he is now employed as Director of Cricket...
at short extra cover for 49, and Damien Martyn
Damien Martyn
Damien Richard Martyn is a former Australian cricketer. He played for the national team sporadically in 1992–1994 before becoming a regular ODI player in 1999–2000 and a regular Test player in 2001 until his retirement in late 2006...
was caught off Andrew Flintoff
Andrew Flintoff
Andrew "Freddie" Flintoff MBE is a former English cricketer who played for Lancashire County Cricket Club, England and the Indian Premier League team Chennai Super Kings. A tall fast bowler, batsman and slip fielder, Flintoff according to the ICC rankings was consistently rated amongst the top...
at point for five. However, Hussey and Michael Clarke
Michael Clarke (cricketer)
Michael John Clarke is an Australian cricketer. He was appointed captain of the Test and ODI teams on 30 March 2011. Nicknamed 'Pup', he is a right-handed batsman, and occasional left-arm orthodox spin bowler...
were able to continue Australia's progress successfully.
Hussey saw his team home, scoring 61 not out
Not out
In cricket, a batsman will be not out if he comes out to bat in an innings and has not been dismissed by the end of the innings. One may similarly describe a batsman as not out while the innings is still in progress...
and hitting the winning runs with three overs to spare. This set off jubilant celebrations among the Australian players and the crowd, who had poured into the Adelaide Oval
Adelaide Oval
The Adelaide Oval is a sports ground in Adelaide, South Australia, located in the parklands between the Central Business District and North Adelaide...
during the afternoon, as news spread of England's second innings demise, and the chance of an Australian victory in the afternoon/evening session. Australia won the test by six wickets, and led in the series by two matches to none. The official attendance over the five days was announced as 136,731.
Members of the Nine Network
Nine Network
The Nine Network , is an Australian television network with headquarters based in Willoughby, a suburb located on the North Shore of Sydney. For 50 years since television's inception in Australia, between 1956 and 2006, it was the most watched television network in Australia...
commentary team noted that it was indeed a remarkable victory, perhaps one of the greatest in Test match cricket history. A DVD, entitled "Amazing Adelaide", was released a week following the test to commemorate Australia's unlikely, and indeed amazing victory in the second test of the 06/07 Ashes series.
Third Test: 14–18 December, Perth
Day OneAustralia made one change to the side that won in Adelaide as Andrew Symonds
Andrew Symonds
Andrew Symonds is a former Australian cricket team all-rounder. A two-time World Cup winner, Symonds is a right-handed middle order batsman and alternates between medium pace and off-spin bowling....
came into the team following the shock retirement of Damien Martyn
Damien Martyn
Damien Richard Martyn is a former Australian cricketer. He played for the national team sporadically in 1992–1994 before becoming a regular ODI player in 1999–2000 and a regular Test player in 2001 until his retirement in late 2006...
. England dropped Ashley Giles
Ashley Giles
Ashley Fraser Giles MBE is a retired English cricketer. Giles played the entirety of his 14-year first-class career at Warwickshire County Cricket Club where he is now employed as Director of Cricket...
and James Anderson
James Anderson (cricketer)
James Michael "Jimmy" Anderson is an English cricketer. He plays first-class cricket for Lancashire County Cricket Club and since bursting onto the scene in 2002/03, before his first full season of county cricket, Anderson has represented England in over 50 Test matches and over 100 One Day...
, replacing them with Monty Panesar
Monty Panesar
Mudhsuden Singh Panesar, known as Monty Panesar , is an English cricketer who currently plays for Sussex. A left-arm spinner, Panesar played Test and one-day cricket for England until 2009. In English county cricket he played for Northamptonshire until 2009...
and Sajid Mahmood
Sajid Mahmood
Sajid "Saj" Iqbal Mahmood is an English cricketer of Pakistani descent...
respectively. Ricky Ponting
Ricky Ponting
Ricky Thomas Ponting , nicknamed Punter, is an Australian cricketer, a former captain of the Australian cricket team between 2004 and 2011 in Test cricket and 2002 and 2011 in One Day International cricket. He is a specialist right-handed batsman, slips and close catching fielder, as well as a very...
won the toss and elected to bat. Monty Panesar
Monty Panesar
Mudhsuden Singh Panesar, known as Monty Panesar , is an English cricketer who currently plays for Sussex. A left-arm spinner, Panesar played Test and one-day cricket for England until 2009. In English county cricket he played for Northamptonshire until 2009...
justified his selection taking 5 wickets, the best figures by an English spinner in Perth. Steve Harmison
Steve Harmison
Stephen James Harmison MBE is an English cricketer. Primarily a fast bowler, he represented England in 63 Tests, 58 ODI's, and 2 T20's. He also plays county cricket for Durham....
took 4 wickets, relieving the pressure that had been growing on him after taking 1 for 288 in the first two tests. Harmison and Panesar combined to bowl Australia out for 244. Michael Hussey
Michael Hussey
Michael Edward Killeen Hussey is an Australian cricketer, a left-handed specialist batsman. Hussey is also widely known by his nickname Mr Cricket. Hussey was a relative latecomer to both the one-day international and Test Australian teams, debuting at 28 and 30 years of age in the respective...
finished 74 not out, the only player of six top-eight batsmen to convert a 20-plus score into a long stay at the crease. England lost 2 for 51 after an aggressive start by openers Alistair Cook
Alastair Cook
Alastair Nathan Cook, MBE is an English international cricket player. He is a left-handed opening batsman who plays county cricket for Essex and International cricket for England, where he is their ODI captain. Cook played for Essex's Academy and made his debut for the first XI in 2003...
and Andrew Strauss
Andrew Strauss
Andrew John Strauss, OBE is an English cricketer who plays county cricket for Middlesex County Cricket Club and is the captain of England's Test cricket team. A fluent left-handed opening batsman, Strauss favours scoring off the back foot, mostly playing cut and pull shots...
. Strauss and Paul Collingwood
Paul Collingwood
Paul David Collingwood MBE is an English cricketer. He has been a regular member of the England Test side, was captain of the One Day International team 2007–2008. He is also vice-captain of his county, Durham County Cricket Club. Collingwood is a batting all-rounder, whose batting...
were the overnight batsmen, the latter having been reprieved by a dropped catch from the bowling of Stuart Clark
Stuart Clark
Stuart Rupert Clark is an Australian International cricketer who plays domestic cricket for the New South Wales Blues. He plays as a right-arm fast-medium bowler...
.
Day Two
Kevin Pietersen
Kevin Peter Pietersen, MBE is a South African-born English cricketer. He is a right-handed batsman and occasional off spin bowler who plays for England and Surrey...
of the recognised batsmen remaining at lunch. Strauss suffered another contentious decision after being adjudged caught behind off Clark when replays suggested he had missed the ball despite a nick being heard. Collingwood had already been dismissed, caught in the gully off the bowling of Glenn McGrath
Glenn McGrath
Glenn Donald McGrath AM , nicknamed "Pigeon", is a former Australian cricket player. He is one of the most highly regarded fast-medium pace bowlers in cricketing history, and a leading contributor to Australia's domination of world cricket from the mid-1990s to the early 21st century...
, and the wickets of the out of form Andrew Flintoff
Andrew Flintoff
Andrew "Freddie" Flintoff MBE is a former English cricketer who played for Lancashire County Cricket Club, England and the Indian Premier League team Chennai Super Kings. A tall fast bowler, batsman and slip fielder, Flintoff according to the ICC rankings was consistently rated amongst the top...
and Geraint Jones
Geraint Jones
Geraint Owen Jones MBE is an England cricketer of Welsh extraction but raised in Australia. Until August 2006 he was the first-choice wicketkeeper for England in both Test and One-day cricket, but fell behind Chris Read, Paul Nixon, Matt Prior and Tim Ambrose...
to Andrew Symonds
Andrew Symonds
Andrew Symonds is a former Australian cricket team all-rounder. A two-time World Cup winner, Symonds is a right-handed middle order batsman and alternates between medium pace and off-spin bowling....
soon followed. Australia bowled England out for 215 on the stroke of tea, giving the Australians a first innings lead of 29 runs despite lower order resistance from Monty Panesar
Monty Panesar
Mudhsuden Singh Panesar, known as Monty Panesar , is an English cricketer who currently plays for Sussex. A left-arm spinner, Panesar played Test and one-day cricket for England until 2009. In English county cricket he played for Northamptonshire until 2009...
and Steve Harmison
Steve Harmison
Stephen James Harmison MBE is an English cricketer. Primarily a fast bowler, he represented England in 63 Tests, 58 ODI's, and 2 T20's. He also plays county cricket for Durham....
as well as a 70 from Pietersen. In reply, Australia's second innings began shakily with Justin Langer bowled on the very first ball by Matthew Hoggard
Matthew Hoggard
Matthew James Hoggard MBE is an English cricketer. The 6' 2" Hoggard is a right arm fast-medium bowler and right-handed batsman. He played international cricket for England cricket team from 2000-2008, playing both Test cricket and One Day International cricket. He is currently the captain of...
. Australia recovered well though through Matthew Hayden
Matthew Hayden
Matthew Lawrence Hayden AM is a former Australian cricketer, and was signed to the Chennai Super Kings in the IPL until the 2010 season. Hayden is a powerful and aggressive left-handed opening batsman, known for his ability to score quickly at both Test and one day levels.Hayden holds the record...
and captain Ricky Ponting
Ricky Ponting
Ricky Thomas Ponting , nicknamed Punter, is an Australian cricketer, a former captain of the Australian cricket team between 2004 and 2011 in Test cricket and 2002 and 2011 in One Day International cricket. He is a specialist right-handed batsman, slips and close catching fielder, as well as a very...
who were each on an unbeaten 57 at stumps with Australia at 1/119.
Day Three
Australia resumed at 1/119. With the Ashes series on the line and 42 degree heat, Ricky Ponting
Ricky Ponting
Ricky Thomas Ponting , nicknamed Punter, is an Australian cricketer, a former captain of the Australian cricket team between 2004 and 2011 in Test cricket and 2002 and 2011 in One Day International cricket. He is a specialist right-handed batsman, slips and close catching fielder, as well as a very...
and Matthew Hayden
Matthew Hayden
Matthew Lawrence Hayden AM is a former Australian cricketer, and was signed to the Chennai Super Kings in the IPL until the 2010 season. Hayden is a powerful and aggressive left-handed opening batsman, known for his ability to score quickly at both Test and one day levels.Hayden holds the record...
improved on their overnight scores, but fell short of centuries, scoring 75 and 92 respectively after lunch. Michael Clarke
Michael Clarke (cricketer)
Michael John Clarke is an Australian cricketer. He was appointed captain of the Test and ODI teams on 30 March 2011. Nicknamed 'Pup', he is a right-handed batsman, and occasional left-arm orthodox spin bowler...
and Michael Hussey
Michael Hussey
Michael Edward Killeen Hussey is an Australian cricketer, a left-handed specialist batsman. Hussey is also widely known by his nickname Mr Cricket. Hussey was a relative latecomer to both the one-day international and Test Australian teams, debuting at 28 and 30 years of age in the respective...
both recorded centuries, with Clarke's being his second in as many Tests. Hussey got out rather cheaply, being caught behind by Geraint Jones
Geraint Jones
Geraint Owen Jones MBE is an England cricketer of Welsh extraction but raised in Australia. Until August 2006 he was the first-choice wicketkeeper for England in both Test and One-day cricket, but fell behind Chris Read, Paul Nixon, Matt Prior and Tim Ambrose...
. Adam Gilchrist
Adam Gilchrist
Adam Craig Gilchrist AM , nicknamed "Gilly" or "Churchy", is an Australian international cricketer who currently captains Kings XI Punjab and recently captained Middlesex. He is an attacking left-handed batsman and record-breaking wicket-keeper, who redefined the role for the Australian national...
made a quickfire 50 off only 40 balls. After that, he hit 3 sixes and a four from one Monty Panesar
Monty Panesar
Mudhsuden Singh Panesar, known as Monty Panesar , is an English cricketer who currently plays for Sussex. A left-arm spinner, Panesar played Test and one-day cricket for England until 2009. In English county cricket he played for Northamptonshire until 2009...
over, with the over ultimately costing 24 runs. Subsequent overs cost 10 and 18, with Gilchrist recording the second-fastest century in Test Cricket behind Viv Richards
Viv Richards
Sir Isaac Vivian Alexander Richards, KNH, OBE is a former West Indian cricketer. Better known by his second name, Vivian or, more popularly, simply as Viv or King Viv Richards was voted one of the five Cricketers of the Century in 2000, by a 100-member panel of experts, along with Sir Donald...
(the mark is the fastest in Ashes history, however), in just 57 balls. In an interview after the day's play, Gilchrist explained that he was unaware of how close he was to the record until after he had scored his century until Ian Healy mentioned it to him during that interview, but was not disappointed to be behind a player regarded as one of the most damaging hitters to play the game. Soon after, Ponting declared the innings and sent England in to bat. Brett Lee
Brett Lee
Brett Lee is an Australian cricketer.After breaking into the Australian Test team, Lee was recognised as one of the fastest bowlers in world cricket...
took Andrew Strauss
Andrew Strauss
Andrew John Strauss, OBE is an English cricketer who plays county cricket for Middlesex County Cricket Club and is the captain of England's Test cricket team. A fluent left-handed opening batsman, Strauss favours scoring off the back foot, mostly playing cut and pull shots...
' wicket with an inswinging ball, which Strauss left and it thundered into the pads and was given out, this left England at 1/0. By stumps, the score had progressed to 1/19.
Day Four
England resumed their innings under immense pressure, needing a further 538 runs to win with 9 wickets in hand or needing to bat for 2 days to draw the game and keep the series alive. With the pitch looking good for batting and no real movement off the seam this seemed possible with some sensible batting.
Bell started aggressively against the Australian pace bowlers while Cook
Alastair Cook
Alastair Nathan Cook, MBE is an English international cricket player. He is a left-handed opening batsman who plays county cricket for Essex and International cricket for England, where he is their ODI captain. Cook played for Essex's Academy and made his debut for the first XI in 2003...
took his time, and when Warne
Shane Warne
Shane Keith Warne is a former Australian international cricketer widely regarded as one of the greatest bowlers in the history of the game. In 2000, he was selected by a panel of cricket experts as one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Century, the only specialist bowler selected in the quintet...
came on he found himself being battered for a 4 and a 6 by Bell off his first over. Bell continued to bat positively and posted his 10th half century. England managed to add 80 runs for no loss, going into lunch at 1/99.
Coming into the afternoon session Bell and Cook played positively, attacking the Australian bowlers. Cook managed to post his half century and soon England were starting to think about a victory. However, Warne got Bell caught by Langer
Justin Langer
Justin Lee Langer AM is a former international cricketer who represented Australia in 105 Test matches and the current Assistant Coach and Batting Coach of the Australian cricket team. A left-handed batsman, his opening partnership with Matthew Hayden was one of the most successful of all time...
for a well composed 87. That left England on 2/170 with Paul Collingwood
Paul Collingwood
Paul David Collingwood MBE is an English cricketer. He has been a regular member of the England Test side, was captain of the One Day International team 2007–2008. He is also vice-captain of his county, Durham County Cricket Club. Collingwood is a batting all-rounder, whose batting...
coming in, looking to continue the good work. There was a period where Collingwood seemed so intent on staying in, he forgot to score. England went into tea at 2/170, having scored 81 runs for 1 wicket in the session.
England came out to the evening session hoping to bat through losing 1 wicket maximum. Just a few overs in, Collingwood edged one through to the keeper, out for 5 off 36 balls. After that partnership in which 15 runs were scored for 75 balls, England had to bat more aggressively and Pietersen seemed the perfect man to do that for the team. Cook started looking much more confident against Warne and soon he was 1 run away from his maiden Ashes century, not made easy by Warne but eventually, Cook got the run to bring up a 257-ball 100. The day had belonged firmly to England, but with just 3 overs left, McGrath
Glenn McGrath
Glenn Donald McGrath AM , nicknamed "Pigeon", is a former Australian cricket player. He is one of the most highly regarded fast-medium pace bowlers in cricketing history, and a leading contributor to Australia's domination of world cricket from the mid-1990s to the early 21st century...
took the wicket of Cook, edging behind to Gilchrist, and bowled nightwatchman
Nightwatchman (cricket)
In the sport of cricket, a nightwatchman is a lower-order batsman who comes in to bat higher up the order than usual near the end of the day's play...
Matthew Hoggard
Matthew Hoggard
Matthew James Hoggard MBE is an English cricketer. The 6' 2" Hoggard is a right arm fast-medium bowler and right-handed batsman. He played international cricket for England cricket team from 2000-2008, playing both Test cricket and One Day International cricket. He is currently the captain of...
for a second-ball duck. McGrath proceeded to beat Flintoff
Andrew Flintoff
Andrew "Freddie" Flintoff MBE is a former English cricketer who played for Lancashire County Cricket Club, England and the Indian Premier League team Chennai Super Kings. A tall fast bowler, batsman and slip fielder, Flintoff according to the ICC rankings was consistently rated amongst the top...
with the remaining two balls, including an unsuccessful appeal for caught-behind. Flintoff and Pietersen, saw out the remaining overs, leaving England on 5/265.
Day Five
England started the fifth and final day of the match in an aggressive fashion, which many found surprising. Flintoff, in particular, took the Australian bowlers to task, including striking Stuart Clark
Stuart Clark
Stuart Rupert Clark is an Australian International cricketer who plays domestic cricket for the New South Wales Blues. He plays as a right-arm fast-medium bowler...
for 3 consecutive fours and striking a Brett Lee
Brett Lee
Brett Lee is an Australian cricketer.After breaking into the Australian Test team, Lee was recognised as one of the fastest bowlers in world cricket...
delivery for six just inches above Michael Hussey, who was fielding at deep mid-wicket.
Pietersen was unusually reserved and was almost run out by some quick reaction fielding from Hussey in the first hour, but was given the benefit of the doubt by the 3rd umpire who eventually gave it not out, much to the delight of the Barmy Army
Barmy Army
The Barmy Army is a semi-organised group of English cricket fans which arranges touring parties for some of its members to follow the English cricket team on overseas tours...
.
After that huge scare for England, Pietersen charged down the pitch and smacked Warne through mid wicket for 4, bringing up yet another half century. Soon after that Andrew Flintoff brought up his half century with an inside edge and Ricky Ponting
Ricky Ponting
Ricky Thomas Ponting , nicknamed Punter, is an Australian cricketer, a former captain of the Australian cricket team between 2004 and 2011 in Test cricket and 2002 and 2011 in One Day International cricket. He is a specialist right-handed batsman, slips and close catching fielder, as well as a very...
was starting to look nervous, perhaps considering England could pull off the impossible.
Australia finally broke through when Flintoff misjudged the length of a straighter ball from Warne and was bowled. He was quickly followed by Geraint Jones
Geraint Jones
Geraint Owen Jones MBE is an England cricketer of Welsh extraction but raised in Australia. Until August 2006 he was the first-choice wicketkeeper for England in both Test and One-day cricket, but fell behind Chris Read, Paul Nixon, Matt Prior and Tim Ambrose...
; his dismal tour continued when he was run out in astounding fashion. Having failed in an attempt to sweep Warne, Jones was struck on the pad, resulting in an unsuccessful appeal for LBW
Leg before wicket
In the sport of cricket, leg before wicket is one of the ways in which a batsman can be dismissed. An umpire will rule a batsman out LBW under a series of circumstances which primarily include the ball striking the batsman's body when it would otherwise have continued on to hit the batsman's...
from the Australians. Jones, however, was too preoccupied waiting for the umpire's verdict to notice that his back foot was out of his batting crease. This fact did not escape an alert Ponting, however, who swooped in from silly point and underarmed the ball into the stumps. Jones was out for a duck – his second of the match.
The remaining English batsmen, Harmison
Steve Harmison
Stephen James Harmison MBE is an English cricketer. Primarily a fast bowler, he represented England in 63 Tests, 58 ODI's, and 2 T20's. He also plays county cricket for Durham....
, Mahmood
Sajid Mahmood
Sajid "Saj" Iqbal Mahmood is an English cricketer of Pakistani descent...
and Panesar
Monty Panesar
Mudhsuden Singh Panesar, known as Monty Panesar , is an English cricketer who currently plays for Sussex. A left-arm spinner, Panesar played Test and one-day cricket for England until 2009. In English county cricket he played for Northamptonshire until 2009...
, offered the Australian bowlers no trouble, with the last man, Panesar, being dismissed by Warne two balls after the lunch break, leaving Warne with 699 career test wickets leading into the Boxing Day Test
Boxing Day Test
The Boxing Day Test match is a cricket Test match hosted in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia involving the Australian cricket team and an opposing national team which is touring Australia that summer. It begins annually on Boxing Day and is played at the Melbourne Cricket Ground...
at the MCG
Melbourne Cricket Ground
The Melbourne Cricket Ground is an Australian sports stadium located in Yarra Park, Melbourne and is home to the Melbourne Cricket Club. It is the tenth largest stadium in the world, the largest in Australia, the largest stadium for playing cricket, and holds the world record for the highest light...
. Pietersen continued a fine tour with relatively subdued 60 not out.
Attendance for the five days was 103,440, breaking the 1970 record of 84,142.
The victory gave Australia an unbeatable 3–0 lead in the best of 5 series.
Fourth Test: 26–28 December, Melbourne
Day OneWeather conditions were poor with heavily overcast skies and patchy showers. Andrew Flintoff
Andrew Flintoff
Andrew "Freddie" Flintoff MBE is a former English cricketer who played for Lancashire County Cricket Club, England and the Indian Premier League team Chennai Super Kings. A tall fast bowler, batsman and slip fielder, Flintoff according to the ICC rankings was consistently rated amongst the top...
won the toss and elected to bat. The start of the first session of play was delayed by 30 minutes due to rain, commencing at 11:00 local time (00:00 UTC). The pitch was damp and unpredictable with a lot of seam movement. Although England managed to survive through to lunch at 1/36, Bell fell shortly after the luncheon interval to a Clark LBW. Collingwood and Strauss appeared to have embarked on a good partnership and brought the score to 2/101. Lee then removed Collingwood with a Ponting slips catch. Two balls later Warne took his 700th test wicket by clean bowling Strauss, who had just reached 50. England subsequently collapsed and finished all out for 159 with Warne taking a further four wickets. England had lost their final eight wickets for a mere 58 runs. When Australia commenced batting it appeared that Langer and Hayden might run away with the match, and England's frustration was compounded by the rejection of a number of creditable LBW appeals. However Flintoff restored considerable confidence when he had Langer and (nightwatchman) Lee caught behind on successive deliveries in the 10th over. Australia finished the day at 2/48.
Day Two
Day Three
Like the morning session of the previous day, England initially gave themselves some grounds for optimism. The wicket of Symonds fell early and only Warne provided any resistance as the tail was cleaned up, with Australia all out for 419 (a lead of 260). The originally bowler-friendly pitch appeared to have flattened out considerably, and the total did not appear as imposing as it might have otherwise been. Unfortunately for England the four Australia bowlers gave no quarter, and England went from 0/41 to 3/49 as the pacemen ripped through the top order. The pressure did not relent, and ultimately England succumbed midway through the final session to be all out for a mere 161 runs. The victory margin was an innings and 99 runs, giving Ponting his first innings victory in an Ashes test match, in what was clearly England's poorest performance of the series thus far. Brett Lee took his best wicket haul of the series with 4–87. Shane Warne
Shane Warne
Shane Keith Warne is a former Australian international cricketer widely regarded as one of the greatest bowlers in the history of the game. In 2000, he was selected by a panel of cricket experts as one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Century, the only specialist bowler selected in the quintet...
was named Man of the Match for his bowling figures of 5-39 and 2–46, and his resilient 40* with the bat. Warne's dismissal of Harmison was also his 999th International wicket (combining Test and ODI wickets), leaving him one shy of becoming only the second player in history to reach the 1000th International wicket milestone (after Muttiah Muralitharan
Muttiah Muralitharan
Muttiah Muralitharan , often referred to as Murali, is a former Sri Lankan cricketer who was rated the greatest Test match bowler ever by Wisden Cricketers' Almanack in 2002...
).
Attendance over the three days at the Melbourne Cricket Ground totalled 244,351 fans, which is the largest test crowd for a match of less than five days duration. This included a crowd of 89,155 fans for day one of the fourth Test, a record for the Ashes and also a record for a Boxing Day match at the ground, just shy of the official all-time mark of 90,800, (set at the MCG when Australia played the West Indies during the 1960–61 season.
Fifth Test: 2–5 January, Sydney
The 5th Test at the SCG marked the 300th Ashes Test. England made one change to their side from the fourth test, with Jimmy AndersonJames Anderson (cricketer)
James Michael "Jimmy" Anderson is an English cricketer. He plays first-class cricket for Lancashire County Cricket Club and since bursting onto the scene in 2002/03, before his first full season of county cricket, Anderson has represented England in over 50 Test matches and over 100 One Day...
coming in for Matthew Hoggard
Matthew Hoggard
Matthew James Hoggard MBE is an English cricketer. The 6' 2" Hoggard is a right arm fast-medium bowler and right-handed batsman. He played international cricket for England cricket team from 2000-2008, playing both Test cricket and One Day International cricket. He is currently the captain of...
, who had sustained a side-strain. Australia named the same side that won in Melbourne. To recognise the careers of retiring Australian Players Glenn McGrath
Glenn McGrath
Glenn Donald McGrath AM , nicknamed "Pigeon", is a former Australian cricket player. He is one of the most highly regarded fast-medium pace bowlers in cricketing history, and a leading contributor to Australia's domination of world cricket from the mid-1990s to the early 21st century...
and Shane Warne
Shane Warne
Shane Keith Warne is a former Australian international cricketer widely regarded as one of the greatest bowlers in the history of the game. In 2000, he was selected by a panel of cricket experts as one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Century, the only specialist bowler selected in the quintet...
, "Thx Glenn" and "Thx Shane" were painted on the ground in place of the "mobile" part of the 3 Mobile logos ("Thx" being SMS language
SMS language
SMS language or textese is a term for the abbreviations and slang most commonly used due to the necessary brevity of mobile phone text messaging, in particular the widespread SMS SMS language or textese (also known as txt-speak, txtese, chatspeak, txt, txtspk, txtk, txto, texting language, txt...
for "thanks"). When Justin Langer
Justin Langer
Justin Lee Langer AM is a former international cricketer who represented Australia in 105 Test matches and the current Assistant Coach and Batting Coach of the Australian cricket team. A left-handed batsman, his opening partnership with Matthew Hayden was one of the most successful of all time...
also announced his retirement, a "Thx Justin" sign was painted on the ground also.
Day One
Andrew Flintoff
Andrew "Freddie" Flintoff MBE is a former English cricketer who played for Lancashire County Cricket Club, England and the Indian Premier League team Chennai Super Kings. A tall fast bowler, batsman and slip fielder, Flintoff according to the ICC rankings was consistently rated amongst the top...
elected to bat first. Play commenced at 11:40 local time (00:40 UTC). Andrew Strauss
Andrew Strauss
Andrew John Strauss, OBE is an English cricketer who plays county cricket for Middlesex County Cricket Club and is the captain of England's Test cricket team. A fluent left-handed opening batsman, Strauss favours scoring off the back foot, mostly playing cut and pull shots...
was dropped on 21 by Justin Langer
Justin Langer
Justin Lee Langer AM is a former international cricketer who represented Australia in 105 Test matches and the current Assistant Coach and Batting Coach of the Australian cricket team. A left-handed batsman, his opening partnership with Matthew Hayden was one of the most successful of all time...
, but was out 8 runs later to an easy Adam Gilchrist
Adam Gilchrist
Adam Craig Gilchrist AM , nicknamed "Gilly" or "Churchy", is an Australian international cricketer who currently captains Kings XI Punjab and recently captained Middlesex. He is an attacking left-handed batsman and record-breaking wicket-keeper, who redefined the role for the Australian national...
catch off a miscued cut shot against Brett Lee
Brett Lee
Brett Lee is an Australian cricketer.After breaking into the Australian Test team, Lee was recognised as one of the fastest bowlers in world cricket...
. England reached lunch on 58 for 1, but Alastair Cook
Alastair Cook
Alastair Nathan Cook, MBE is an English international cricket player. He is a left-handed opening batsman who plays county cricket for Essex and International cricket for England, where he is their ODI captain. Cook played for Essex's Academy and made his debut for the first XI in 2003...
departed for 20 shortly after the restart when he edged a Stuart Clark
Stuart Clark
Stuart Rupert Clark is an Australian International cricketer who plays domestic cricket for the New South Wales Blues. He plays as a right-arm fast-medium bowler...
delivery to Gilchrist.
Kevin Pietersen
Kevin Pietersen
Kevin Peter Pietersen, MBE is a South African-born English cricketer. He is a right-handed batsman and occasional off spin bowler who plays for England and Surrey...
then joined Ian Bell at the crease and the two batted for nearly all of the middle session, for a partnership of 108 including 70 from Bell. Shortly after tea, with England on 2/166, McGrath took Pietersen's wicket for 41 when he top-edged a pull for a Michael Hussey
Michael Hussey
Michael Edward Killeen Hussey is an Australian cricketer, a left-handed specialist batsman. Hussey is also widely known by his nickname Mr Cricket. Hussey was a relative latecomer to both the one-day international and Test Australian teams, debuting at 28 and 30 years of age in the respective...
catch. After Paul Collingwood
Paul Collingwood
Paul David Collingwood MBE is an English cricketer. He has been a regular member of the England Test side, was captain of the One Day International team 2007–2008. He is also vice-captain of his county, Durham County Cricket Club. Collingwood is a batting all-rounder, whose batting...
came to bat, Bell only lasted one more run before McGrath clean bowled him in his next over, leaving England at 4/167. Collingwood (25*
Not out
In cricket, a batsman will be not out if he comes out to bat in an innings and has not been dismissed by the end of the innings. One may similarly describe a batsman as not out while the innings is still in progress...
) and Flintoff (42*) then steadied matters until bad light forced an early end to the day's affairs.
Day Two
Play started 11 minutes earlier than normal (1019 local time, 2319 UTC 2 January) to recover some of the time lost on the first day.
Less than a half-hour in, shortly after Flintoff got his half-ton, McGrath took Collingwood's wicket off an edge to Gilchrist. Within 20 minutes, Lee took the wickets of Chris Read
Chris Read
Christopher Mark Wells Read is an English cricketer, a wicket-keeper who is the captain of Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club...
for 2 and Sajid Mahmood
Sajid Mahmood
Sajid "Saj" Iqbal Mahmood is an English cricketer of Pakistani descent...
for a duck off consecutive balls, reducing England to 257 for 7. Flintoff and Steve Harmison
Steve Harmison
Stephen James Harmison MBE is an English cricketer. Primarily a fast bowler, he represented England in 63 Tests, 58 ODI's, and 2 T20's. He also plays county cricket for Durham....
stayed at the crease for 25 runs before Harmison was given out lbw
Leg before wicket
In the sport of cricket, leg before wicket is one of the ways in which a batsman can be dismissed. An umpire will rule a batsman out LBW under a series of circumstances which primarily include the ball striking the batsman's body when it would otherwise have continued on to hit the batsman's...
to Clark. Just before the lunch break, Flintoff fell for 89 after trying to slog Clark but edging to Gilchrist. A clearly out-of-sorts Shane Warne
Shane Warne
Shane Keith Warne is a former Australian international cricketer widely regarded as one of the greatest bowlers in the history of the game. In 2000, he was selected by a panel of cricket experts as one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Century, the only specialist bowler selected in the quintet...
was able to pick up his 1000th international wicket to end the England innings on 291, trapping Monty Panesar
Monty Panesar
Mudhsuden Singh Panesar, known as Monty Panesar , is an English cricketer who currently plays for Sussex. A left-arm spinner, Panesar played Test and one-day cricket for England until 2009. In English county cricket he played for Northamptonshire until 2009...
lbw for a duck.
The Australian openers Justin Langer
Justin Langer
Justin Lee Langer AM is a former international cricketer who represented Australia in 105 Test matches and the current Assistant Coach and Batting Coach of the Australian cricket team. A left-handed batsman, his opening partnership with Matthew Hayden was one of the most successful of all time...
and Matthew Hayden
Matthew Hayden
Matthew Lawrence Hayden AM is a former Australian cricketer, and was signed to the Chennai Super Kings in the IPL until the 2010 season. Hayden is a powerful and aggressive left-handed opening batsman, known for his ability to score quickly at both Test and one day levels.Hayden holds the record...
started confidently, but Langer faltered on 26, gloving an Anderson ball to Read. Ponting and Hayden found batting easy against a defensive field setting until Hayden played a foolish stroke and top-edged a Harmison ball to Collingwood. Ponting appeared supremely confident against the bowling, but was undone by the fielding when an Anderson throw found him well short of his ground, and he departed for 45. Clarke was then caught behind off a sharply rising Harmison delivery. Symonds and Hussey then batted very defensively during the rain-interrupted remainder of the final session.
Day Three
Hussey fell in only the second over of the day to a Read catch off Anderson. With this England appeared to have made a contest of it with Australia at 5/190, still trailing by over 100 runs. But as on so many previous occasions in this series, Australia retaliated in a fearsome manner.
Symonds and Gilchrist added a steady 70 runs before Symonds saw his stumps tumble to a superb Panesar ball. Warne then joined Gilchrist at the crease and put England's bowling to the sword, with a 58 run partnership in only seven overs, including a four and six off the first two balls Warne faced. Gilchrist was given out caught behind, although replays indicated the decision was a bad one. Lee joined Warne at 7/317 but departed quickly, and Clark then delivered a sparkling tail-ender innings of 35. Warne's fairy-tale dream of a maiden Test century in his final match ended when he was easily stumped after swinging wildly at a Panesar ball, but he had earned the top-scorer mantle with 71, and England found themselves with a deficit of 102.
The English second innings began dismally with Cook edging to Gilchrist off Lee with the score only at 5. Hopes were faintly restored when Strauss and Bell appeared to be settling in, but after Clark trapped Strauss LBW and Bell edged Lee to Gilchrist, England were looking fragile at 3/64. Collingwood soon departed cheaply, and Flintoff was sent to the pavilion after an agonizingly close—but fair—stumping decision by the 3rd umpire. Flintoff's dismissal would later prove to be the final wicket of Shane Warne's illustrious Test career. Panesar was then sent in as nightwatchman
Nightwatchman (cricket)
In the sport of cricket, a nightwatchman is a lower-order batsman who comes in to bat higher up the order than usual near the end of the day's play...
, and survived to the end of the day.
At the end of the day, England were facing the grave prospect of a 5–0 Ashes whitewash after closing a mere 12 runs ahead of Australia with only five wickets remaining.
Day Four
Australia's brief second innings was paradoxically the time that England delivered some of the finest bowling of the series. Langer was given a guard of honour by the English team as he walked out to his final innings, but he was then clearly tested by a series of superb rising deliveries from Harmison. Regardless, the match outcome was inevitable, and it was Hayden who lofted a six, followed by a single, to conclude the innings, the match and the series 5–0 whitewash, the first since 1920/21.
Records and statistics
The series produced some notable records.- In the first test, Australia, achieved a first-innings lead of 445 runs on the first innings, after making 602 for 9 declared and then dismissing England for 157. Rather than send England in again, Ponting chose to bat, making the lead of 445 the largest ever in Test history where the follow-on has not been enforced. Australia went on to win the Test.
- In the second test, England batted first and made 551 for 6 declared. However, Australia went on to win the test. The English first innings score thus became the largest ever to be attained by a team batting first and declaring only to lose the match.
- In the third test, Adam Gilchrist's century in the second innings, scored off only 57 balls, became the second fastest century in any Test match (after Viv Richards' century in 56 balls for the West Indies v England at St John's, 1985–86), and the fastest in any Ashes test. Gilchrist scored 24 runs off one over from Monty Panesar (026646), the greatest number of runs taken off one over in Ashes cricket. This took Gilchrist's total number of sixes in his Test career to 97, the greatest number hit by any batsman.
- By losing the third test, England ceded the Ashes to Australia. England's holding the Ashes urn for only 15 months made this the shortest period in Ashes history that a team has held the coveted honour of 'holding the Ashes'.
- In the fourth test, English wicket-keeper Chris Read took six catches in one Australian innings, equalling the greatest number of dismissals by an English keeper in an Ashes test. Read repeated the feat in Australia's innings in the fifth test (this time with five catches and one stumping).
- In the fourth test, Australian leg-spinner Shane Warne snared his 700th wicket, the first bowler in Test history to do so.
- By winning the fifth test, Australia won the series 5–0, only the second team to win a "whitewash" in Ashes history. The feat had previously been achieved only by Warwick ArmstrongWarwick ArmstrongWarwick Windridge Armstrong was an Australian cricketer who played 50 Test matches between 1902 and 1921. An all-rounder, he captained Australia in ten Test matches between 1920 and 1921 and was undefeated, winning eight Tests and drawing two...
's Australian team in 1920-21English cricket team in Australia in 1920-21An England team toured Australia between November 1920 and March 1921. The tour was organised by the Marylebone Cricket Club and matches outside the Tests were played under the MCC name...
.
Post-Series
The series was notable for the retirement of Australia's Shane Warne, Justin Langer, Damien Martyn and Glenn McGrath. Additionally, the Australian coach John BuchananJohn Buchanan (cricketer)
John Marshall Buchanan is the former coach of the Australia national cricket team and of Kolkata Knight Riders team in the Indian Premier League. John Buchanan is a King's Old Collegian and is also an old boy of The Southport School, located in Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia...
along with McGrath had announced prior to the Ashes series that his retirement would be effective after the ICC Cricket World Cup 2007 series (of one-day internationals), so that the Ashes was his last series of test matches as coach.
Major concern was raised in England after a dramatic capitulation just 15 months after winning the coveted urn. As a result, many have criticised Andrew Flintoff
Andrew Flintoff
Andrew "Freddie" Flintoff MBE is a former English cricketer who played for Lancashire County Cricket Club, England and the Indian Premier League team Chennai Super Kings. A tall fast bowler, batsman and slip fielder, Flintoff according to the ICC rankings was consistently rated amongst the top...
's captaincy and the resultant pressure placed on him in lieu of Michael Vaughan
Michael Vaughan
Michael Paul Vaughan OBE is a retired cricketer who represented Yorkshire and England. A classically elegant right-handed batsman and occasional off-spinner, Vaughan was ranked one of the best batsmen in the world following the 2002/3 Ashes, in which he scored 633 runs, including three centuries...
being injured.
The next series was the 2009 Ashes series
2009 Ashes series
The 2009 Ashes series was that year's edition of the long-standing and storied cricket rivalry between England and Australia, and was part of the Australian cricket tour of England in 2009. Starting on 8 July 2009, England and Australia played five Tests, with England winning the series 2–1...
, in which England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
successfully won back the Ashes in a 2-1 test victory.
Media coverage
Coverage of the 2006–2007 Ashes Series was broadcast as follows:Television Networks Nine Network
Nine Network
The Nine Network , is an Australian television network with headquarters based in Willoughby, a suburb located on the North Shore of Sydney. For 50 years since television's inception in Australia, between 1956 and 2006, it was the most watched television network in Australia...
(Live) WIN
WIN Television
WIN Television is an Australian television network owned by the WIN Corporation that is based in Wollongong, New South Wales. WIN commenced transmissions on 18 March 1962 as a single Wollongong-only station, and has since expanded to 24 owned-and-operated stations with transmissions covering a...
(Live) NBN
NBN Television
NBN Television is a television station based in Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia. The station was inaugurated on 4 March 1962 as the first regional commercial television station in New South Wales, and has since expanded to 39 transmitters throughout the northern half of New South Wales and...
(Live) Fox Sports (Highlights) Sky Sports
Sky Sports
Sky Sports is the brand name for a group of sports-oriented television channels operated by the UK and Ireland's main satellite pay-TV company, British Sky Broadcasting. Sky Sports is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland...
(Live) BBC Two
BBC Two
BBC Two is the second television channel operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It covers a wide range of subject matter, but tending towards more 'highbrow' programmes than the more mainstream and popular BBC One. Like the BBC's other domestic TV and radio...
(Highlights) SKY Sport
SKY Network Television
Sky Network Television Limited , , is a New Zealand pay television service. On 30 June 2011, Sky had 829,421 subscribers, which comprises:*808,617 digital subscribers*20,840 other subscribers...
(Live) SuperSport
Radio ABC Radio
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly referred to as "the ABC" , is Australia's national public broadcaster...
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
BBC Five Live Sports Extra
BBC Five Live Sports Extra
BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra is an additional digital radio service provided by the BBC via DAB Digital Radio and the digital satellite, digital terrestrial, IPTV and digital cable television services in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland. It is not available via analogue radio...
Radio Sport
Radio Sport
Radio Sport is a New Zealand sports radio network and the talkback sister network of Newstalk ZB. It has commentary rights for most cricket matches, international and domestic rugby union games, some NRL rugby league games, trans-Tasman basketball and New Zealand tennis tournaments. The network...
Internet audio stream
Ball-by-ball web commentary
- Cricinfo - 1st Test, Cricinfo - 2nd Test, Cricinfo - 3rd Test, Cricinfo - 4th Test, Cricinfo - 5th Test
- Yahoo7
- Foxsports
- BBC Cricket
- Stick Cricket
Over-by-over web commentary
Internet Video Highlights
See also
| Preceded by: 2005 in England 2005 Ashes series The 2005 Ashes series was that year's edition of the long-standing and storied cricket rivalry between England and Australia. Starting on 21 July 2005, England and Australia played five Tests, with the Ashes held by Australia as the most recent victors... |
Ashes series 2006–07 Ashes series |
Followed by: 2009 in England 2009 Ashes series The 2009 Ashes series was that year's edition of the long-standing and storied cricket rivalry between England and Australia, and was part of the Australian cricket tour of England in 2009. Starting on 8 July 2009, England and Australia played five Tests, with England winning the series 2–1... |