A generation ago, Australia – then the strongest Test side in the world by a distance – went into the final day of an Ashes Test at Edgbaston on 175-8, still needing another 107 for an improbable victory and a 2-0 series lead. On June 20, 2023, Australia began the final day in Birmingham on 107-3. Their target was 281, just a run less than what it had been in 2005, a Test that would spawn The Greatest Test DVDs within days of getting over.
This is how the Wisden Almanack described the finish of that game, which had begun with Glenn McGrath sidelined after stepping on a ball in the outfield during the warm-ups. “But finally, with just three wanted, Harmison banged one into the left glove of Kasprowicz, who hunched down horrified as the ball looped down the leg side and Geraint Jones plunged for the winning catch, the signal for tumultuous celebrations,” said the Almanack. “A mournful Kasprowicz said afterwards, ‘It just got big quick, and I didn’t see too much of it.’ Nor did umpire Bowden.
“After umpteen TV replays, it was possible to conclude that Kasprowicz’s left hand was off the bat at the moment of impact and, technically, he was not out. Bowden, however, would have needed superhuman vision to see this, and an armed escort involving several regiments to escape the crowd had he actually refused to give it out.”
Some Australians have carried that sense of injustice for nearly 18 years, and it was impossible to ignore the parallels as Pat Cummins, the captain, and Nathan Lyon inched closer to victory on Monday evening. In 2005, it had been a legendary spinner and an ace fast bowler that took Australia to the brink. The late, great Shane Warne made 42, and Brett Lee was left unconquered and inconsolable on 43.
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Nearly 18 years on, Cummins was the pace ace whose second-innings spells had set up a possible pursuit of victory. He finished on 44 not out, with the telling blows coming straight down the ground off Joe Root’s part-time off-spin. Lyon, another slow bowler assured of his place in the Hall of Fame alongside Warne, didn’t make as many runs as his predecessor, but his assured 16 not out gave Cummins the confidence to pinch every single they could.
The crucial difference was in the performances of England’s box-office all-rounders. In 2005, Andrew Flintoff was in his prime, and pounded in like a charging rhino for 22 overs, and four wickets. Though his body would buckle under the strain over the next four years, Flintoff in 2005 was every bit as influential as Ian Botham had been in 1981.
England needed something similar from Ben Stokes in 2023, especially with Jimmy Anderson doing little more than a holding job. But Stokes bowled just seven overs in the second innings, and his celebration after he had induced an inside edge from the obstinate Usman Khawaja was that of a man who could barely walk. At times, Stokes seemed so stiff he might as well have been auditioning for a role in a Terminator movie.
Ultimately, the 2023 contest was also unique because of the contrast in styles. England are wedded to the Bazball philosophy now, and scored at a rate of 4.61 an over across their two innings. Australia’s scoring was more in keeping with traditional Test rhythms, with the runs coming at 3.2 an over. It was the biggest such difference in an Ashes Test since 1904, when England, scoring at 2.3 an over, thrashed Australia, who had rattled along at 3.81 during a 185-run defeat at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
As England seek to pick up the pieces from a game they seemed poised to win on more than one occasion, they could do worse than listen to Allan Border, who had wrested the Ashes back for Australia in 1989 – setting in motion an era of utter dominance. Back in 2005, on commentary for Fox Sports, Border had cautioned Australia against going hard all the time.
“It’s the way they’ve been playing the last five to ten years, but against quality bowling you’ve got to give it respect,” he had said. “They might have to grind out a hundred rather than get one in 120 balls.”
At Edgbaston, in the second innings, ten England batters got to double figures, but the highest score was only 46. Bazball may make for catchy headlines, but Test matches are seldom won by cameos alone.
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