Breaking news: A nation celebrates as England win the Ashes

Blackleaf

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Oct 9, 2004
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Millions of Englishmen will be waking up with sore heads tomorrow after celebrating their cricket team winning the Ashes.

The Ashes urn may only be about 5 inches high, but to English sportsfans it's the one trophy they would like their country to win more than any other other than football's World Cup. It's also the trophy Aussie cricket fans value above all else, and is seen by both sets of fans as more important even than the cricket World Cup.

The Ashes has been fought between England and Australia every few years since the 1880s.

In 1882, at the Oval (where this Fifth and Final Test was played), England lost against Australia for the first time ever in England.

The crowd was silent, scarcely believing its team had lost to a colony.

An English newspaper then did a mock obituary for English cricket.

The obituary stated that English cricket had died, and the body will be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia. The English media dubbed the next English tour to Australia (1882–83) as the quest to regain The Ashes.

During that tour a small terracotta urn was presented to England captain Ivo Bligh by a group of Melbourne women. The contents of the urn are reputed to be the ashes of an item of cricket equipment, possibly a bail, ball or stump.

Some Aborigines hold that The Ashes are those of King Cole, a cricketer who toured England with a team of Aborigines in 1868.

The Dowager Countess of Darnley claimed recently that her mother-in-law, Bligh's wife Florence Morphy, said that they were the remains of a lady's veil.

Since then, every time England and Australia face each other in Test matches, they compete for the Ashes urn and its disputed contents, arguably the greatest prize an England team can win after the football World Cup.

England won them in 2005, their first Ashes win since the 1987 series.

But then the Aussies won convincingly - 5-0 - in the 2006/07 series, now the English have won them back.

The Ashes is a series of 5 matches, each lasting a maximum of 5 days. Before this fifth and final Test, the series was even at 1-1, with two draws, so this was a decider.

England scored 332 in the First Innings. The Aussies then went in to bat but couldn't live with the devastating England bowlers, and could only make 160.

England's fans have been very partisan, with every Australian wicket that their team has taken being greeted with a huge roar that must have been heard for miles around. The Aussies must have been intimidated.

In the Second Innings, England scored 373-9, before deciding that their lead of 545 was enough and declared to put the Aussies into bat.

The Aussies needed a mammoth 546 to win - a world record, and surely beyong them.

They ended yesterday on 80-0.

However, their best hope would have been to keep batting, and not get all out, until the end of tomorrow, which would have been the last day's play and, if they did that, the match would have been a draw and that would have been enough for the Aussies to retain the Ashes as the holders.

However, the England bowlers were on top form again, taking all ten wickets they needed to win, to leave the Aussies with a Second Innings total of 348.

England have won by 197 wickets, to win the Ashes.

And Ricky Ponting is the first Aussie captain since the 1880s to lose the Ashes twice to England.

Victorious England regain Ashes

The BBC
Sunday 23rd August 2009

The Ashes



Fifth and Final Test (at the Brit Oval, London)

1st Innings
England: 332
Australia: 160

2nd Innings
England: 373-9 dec
Australia: 348

England win by 197 runs, and win the Series 2-1.

ENGLAND WIN THE ASHES

England: Strauss (C), Cook, Bell, Collingwood, Flintoff, Prior (W), Broad, Swann, J Trott, Anderson, S Harmison

Australia: S Watson, Katich, Ponting (C), M Hussey, M Clarke, North, Haddin (W), M Johnson, Clark, Hilfenhaus, Siddle



You beauty!!: Andrew Strauss (right), England's captain, can scarcely believe it as the last wicket fell to give his team Ashes victory Photo: REUTERS


Champagne moment: England pop the corks at The Oval as Strauss lifts the Ashes


Sealed with a kiss: England captain Andrew Strauss finally gets his hands on the Ashes urn


England regained the Ashes with a momentous 197-run win in the deciding Test to seal a 2-1 series triumph.

After losing 5-0 in Australia in 2007, victory in The Oval sun was reminiscent of England's legendary 2005 Ashes win.

Australia resumed on 80-0 needing a further 446 for a world record win but twice lost two wickets in two overs.

Andrew Flintoff, in his final Test, brilliantly ran out Ricky Ponting (66) and Mike Hussey was last out at 1749 BST having made a gritty century.

The target of 546 had never been achieved in any first-class match, and only once had a team scored more than 500 batting last in a Test.

Ashes winners since 1981

1981 - England
1982/83 - England
1985 - England
1986/87 - England
1987/88 - England (to celebrate the bicentenary of permanent white settlement in Australia, so NOT counted as an Ashes Series).
1989 - Australia
1990/91 - Australia
1993 - Australia
1994/95 - Australia
1997 - Australia
1998/99 - Australia
2001 - Australia
2002/03 - Australia
2005 - England
2006/07 - Australia
2009 - England


Out! England's Steve Harmison celebrates taking the wicket of Australia's Mitchell Johnson


Hats off: Andrew Flintoff is mobbed after dismissing Ricky Ponting


We've done it!: Graeme Swann celebrates the final wicket of Mike Hussey


High times: Steve Harmison claimed two quick wickets late on


Australia still harboured hopes of making history, however, but only 15 minutes into day four Simon Katich made a fatal error of judgement.

He offered no stroke to a quicker arm ball from Graeme Swann that he was expecting would turn away, the ball thudded into the pad and was plumb lbw.

The old adage of one bringing two was quickly demonstrated again when Shane Watson departed four balls later, pinned on the back foot by the persistent Broad.

Watson appeared disgruntled and waved his bat, but replays showed he had little grounds for complaint as any contact with the bat was made after the ball struck his pad.

Ponting was given a standing ovation as he made his way to the crease, while Hussey was fidgety and struggling for confidence given the dip in his average from over 80 two years ago to barely over 30 in more recent times.

With Broad attempting to grip the ball in the surface and utilise any uneven bounce by bowling a lot of slower balls, old fashioned fields were set.

Often there was only one slip for the seamer as men were stationed in front of the bat instead.

As expected Ponting soon got into his stride and looked in complete control in partnership with the gritty Hussey.

Unusually for such an accomplished fielder Paul Collingwood was guilty of three dropped catches standing close at slip, and Graeme Swann was the unfortunate bowler on each occasion.



Quick thinking by Strauss ran out Clarke in the over after Ponting's exit

Hussey was put down on 21 and Ponting when 51, both of which were devilishly tough chances, the ball dipping low, but Hussey should have been taken at a more regulation height when he edged the probing Swann again on 55.

With the batsmen set it needed a moment of magic and fittingly it came from Flintoff.

Hussey thought the big man was labouring in the field when he called for a run, and he was right, but he forgot that Flintoff's throw was still as strong as ever and Ponting was out by six inches as a stump came cartwheeling out of the ground.

Astonishingly there was another run-out five balls later and this time it was down to captain Andrew Strauss.

Michael Clarke's clip off his toes ricocheted off Alastair Cook's ankles at short-leg, but Strauss reacted quickly, as did wicketkeeper Matt Prior, who got himself out of the way to allow the skipper to underarm the ball into the stumps.

Third umpire Peter Hartley ruled after numerous replays that Clarke's bat had not got over the line when the bail was dislodged and when the dismissal registered on the big screens, celebrations intensified.

Swann got the second wicket he deserved courtesy of more alertness from Prior, who collected a steepling ball expertly at head height but was still able to take off the bails, with Marcus North's foot rooted to groove on the line of the crease and unable to edge back.

Umpire Billy Bowden was confident enough to give the batsman out without the need for the third official's involvement, and England were five wickets from victory with more than 30 overs left in the day.

Hussey, who had gone 28 innings without a Test century, proved his powers of resolve had not deserted him and ground out a defiant 10th hundred.

Brad Haddin was determined to play his shots throughout, even after being dropped at mid-wicket by substitute Graham Onions, but having scraped his way to 34 he swiped at Swann and was comfortably caught by Strauss in the deep.

Steve Harmison then came to the fore with three wickets, with Collingwood atoning by diving sharply to his left at second slip to snare Mitchell Johnson's edge.

Peter Siddle spooned to Flintoff at mid-off and next ball Stuart Clark fended to short-leg for a duck.

There was to be no hat-trick but the scenes that followed after Swann had Hussey caught at short-leg were as memorable as any cricketing moment.


Another one down: Andrew Strauss celebrates the catch to dismiss Brad Haddin of Australia with Stuart Broad and Graeme Swann

news.bbc.co.uk/sport
 
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