The Scars of 2005: Why the 2006 Ashes Mattered
The Road to Redemption: Australia’s Dominant Summer
Ricky Ponting’s Masterclass and the Hussey Evolution
September 12, 2005, was one of the darkest days in Australian sports history. It's day five of the last Test of the 2005 Ashes held in London at The Oval, and England are leading the series 2-1. With the Test match being hounded by rain and bad light, Australia has been their own worst enemy in the field at a time when they needed to be at their best, helping England to tighten their grasp on the urn. Man of the match Kevin Peterson scores his first ever Test century, and deep into the fifth day, England sets Australia a total of 341 runs to save the series before the skies darkened once again. Umpires Rudy Kurtzen and Billy Bowden guided the players off the field due to bad light. They would re-emerge at 6:17 PM local time and walk out to the middle amongst an exuberant English crowd to confirm the inevitable: stumps have been called, and the Test match was over.
Like the cork of a million champagne bottles being popped all at once, England roared in delight and basked in the scale of this achievement. After 16 long years, England had finally won the Ashes, and today the urn would be staying at home with them. It would hurt any player to lose the Ashes, but of all the players on that Aussie team, Shane Warne had the right to feel the most aggrieved. Despite being on a losing side, Warne had an Ashes for the ages, being the highest wicket taker by a country mile, taking 40 wickets at an average of 19.9. He took fifers on three separate occasions, took 10 wickets in a match twice, and chipped in with some vital lower-order runs. What made this even more painful was that Shane was 36 at the time, meaning that this was his last Ashes in England. He had given his very best for Australia on this occasion, but it just wasn't enough.
600 Test match wickets for Shane Warne, and before the team even got back to Australia, a deluge of comments and criticisms were being published in the Australian local media. As captain and coach of the side, Ricky Ponting and John Buchanan copped the brunt of it, with both being called to quit their roles amidst an ongoing Cricket Australia review. The overall squad was being called too old by some, while cricketing greats like DK Lillee were saying how Australia was ambushed by England. Even the players' wives and girlfriends were being partly blamed.
Now, a level of soul-searching is natural in a situation like this, but it seemed that all this talk was doing more harm than good for the future of the squad. Yes, some of these players were in the twilight of their careers, but these Ashes aside, they were still operating at the height of their powers. I mean, just look at Shane.
Perhaps it was a combination of all of these things—the pain of losing the Ashes, the English celebration, and the backlash they received at home—that motivated them towards what they would do over the next 18 months, starting in the home summer of 2005-2006.
At the start of that summer, as Australia was the world's number one Test side, they were scheduled to play a one-off Test match against an ICC World XI at the SCG. Have a listen to this top seven: Graeme Smith, Virender Sehwag, Rahul Dravid, Brian Lara, Jacques Kallis, Inzamam-ul-Haq, and Andrew Flintoff, not to mention Daniel Vettori and Murali. It sounds awesome, but Australia won it within four days, and the attendance probably wasn't where they wanted it to be, so the ICC never ran it again. This non-contest against some of the world's best was almost a foreshadowing of what would happen for the rest of that summer.
As normal business resumed, six Tests were scheduled in Australia: a three-Test series against the Windies followed by a three-Test series against a strong South African side. Even with the bats of Lara, Chanderpaul, and Gayle, the Windies were whitewashed three nil by the Aussies, and debutant Michael Hussey averaged 120 with the bat. South Africa posed a greater threat, but they too were beaten two nil, but not before an enthralling New Year's Test where Australia chased down 287 deep into the fifth day. Captain Ricky Ponting, in his 100th Test match, scored centuries in both innings and chased down the total.
As the Aussie summer ended, eyes looked to the horizon to see who would be visiting in the next one. It would be none other than the old enemy, England.
Although England still had bragging rights over the Aussies, their Test form had not stayed at the heights of last September. First, traveling to Pakistan, they lost that series 2-0, including the last Test, which they lost by an innings and 100 runs. Then they drew their next two series, first to India in India and then at home to Sri Lanka. It wasn't until their last home series before the Ashes that they got back into winning ways against Pakistan, which included the controversial fourth Test at The Oval involving allegations of ball tampering, a team that wouldn't come out after the tea break, and an eventual match forfeit.
Meanwhile, Australia sharpened their skills away in South Africa, which they whitewashed three nil. The team was firing on all cylinders. Ponting was arguably in career-best form, with seven centuries in nine Test matches, and Warne, even in the pace-friendly conditions of South Africa, got better as that series went along. Following a series win in Bangladesh, the Aussies had amassed a run of 13 Test matches undefeated dating all the way back to that last September.
The Aussie steam train was powering along, and its next destination was Brisbane.
The unbeaten run had proven that they didn't need an overhaul after all, but instead what had happened was an evolution of the side. Ricky Ponting took on a more authoritative persona, most visible in his batting. Moreover, Australia made use of their deep domestic talent pool to bring in players like Michael Hussey to reinforce the middle order, while in the bowling department, Stuart Clark was another option brought in to support Glenn McGrath and Brett Lee. It was a complete team and still the best in the world.
The first Test was at the Gabba, and under a bright Queensland sky, Australia won the toss and chose to bat. But across two nations, a sense of nervous anticipation had set in. The 2006-7 Ashes series was about to begin.
If you know this story already, you know what happens next. The most unexpected start to an Ashes series. Harmison bowls wide, the first ball that ends up in second slip. The pressure seemed to be getting to everyone. Nonetheless, the Ashes were underway.
Australia defeated them in five days, but more strikingly, it was the way they did it. They scored 602 in the first innings, bowled them out for 142, but didn't enforce the follow-on and set England a final total of 648 runs to win. You would think that a 445-run lead would be enough to win the Test match, but that wasn't how this Australian team played. They punished them over five days, and it was just the first test.
At Adelaide, we saw the fighting qualities of this Australian side. England declared at 6 for 551 in the first innings, and Australia lost their openers cheaply, but Ricky Ponting, together with the middle and lower orders, managed to get Australia's total to 513, only 38 runs short of England's total. Then the Aussie bowlers took over and never let England breathe. A sensational bowling performance, and England were all out for 129 off 73 overs. Warne, in particular, had found his form, taking four for 49 off 32 overs with 12 maidens.
Australia had turned this game from a boring draw at best to a potential two-nil Ashes lead, and with one session to get 168 runs, Australia chased down that total to cap off an amazing comeback.
If it wasn't simply how they lost in Brisbane, the loss in Adelaide left some serious mental scars in the England camp. But the series was still up for grabs. It would take an amazing comeback, but England could still retain the Ashes.
Trying to save the series, new edition Monty Panesar, along with Steve Harmison, managed to bowl out Australia for under 250 runs. Unfortunately, though, their batters weren't able to capitalize, being bowled out for 215, and it was this opening that Australia pounced on in a game-turning innings. The knocks of nearly all of Australia's top five were high quality, including the centuries from Michael Hussey and Michael Clarke, but it was the knock from Adam Gilchrist that really pushed Australia out of reach. Gilchrist proceeded to cut, drive, and smash England out of the game with every four and six. Australia's chance to regain the sporting prize that they cherished the most was increasing.
Finishing on 102 off 57 balls, Gilchrist's century was, at the time, the second quickest in Test history. Australia set down an almost impossible task for England to save the Ashes: get 557 runs or bat out the remaining two and a half days to force a draw, keeping the series alive.
To their credit, a number of England batters fought hard and kept trying, but by the time Andrew Flintoff was bowled out and Ricky Ponting pulled off this amazing run-out, the writing was on the wall. And just as Rudy Kurtzen famously called stumps at The Oval in the beginning of our story, it was Rudy Kurtzen and his patented slow finger of doom that confirmed what had become inevitable. With Panesar bowled out, Australia had won back the Ashes.
And just look at what it means to them. The loss that had created so much anguish had finally been avenged. Up until that time, this was the shortest period of time that the urn had ever been held by England, just 462 days. Australia, as a cricketing nation, was finally whole again.
The Australians had played magnificently.
Now, this would be a great place to finish this Blog, but we still have two more tests to go. And although the Ashes have been decided, there was still one huge goal for one player to achieve.
In the gap between the third and fourth tests, two of cricket's all-time best players had decided to call time on their careers: Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne. Their last test for Australia would be in Sydney at the end of this Ashes series, and it was fitting in a way that they would play their last games winning the Ashes at home, playing some of their best cricket.
For Shane, this current Ashes performance had pushed his wicket-taking tally to 699 wickets. Like he had done earlier in his career, Shane was on the verge of breaking new ground for bowlers everywhere, this time becoming the first bowler to take 700 Test wickets in their career. And almost like the cricket gods willed it, it would be at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, his home ground, on Boxing Day 2006, where he could reach this record.
On that 26th of December 2006, nearly 90,000 people packed out the MCG to watch Shane make history, and I was privileged enough to be one of them. The roar of that crowd as Shane beat Andrew Strauss in flight to take his 700th wicket is the loudest that I've ever heard in a cricket stadium. This was a moment of world cricket history, with fans, regardless of nationality, celebrating a player who had inspired so many.
Australia would win that Test and the last one in Sydney, where a third player, Justin Langer, also called time on his career. Australia whitewashed the series five nil, and up until now, they are only one of three different teams that have ever whitewashed the series five nil, all of them Australian.
What is most profound for me, though, is that this would be the last time that these 12 men would wear the baggy green together in an international Test match. For many people, myself included, this was the strongest Australian team that they'd ever seen with their own two eyes. It included three players in the top 25 Test run scorers of all time, three of the top 30 highest-ever wicket takers in Test cricket, including two in the top 10, and a wicketkeeper who changed the wicketkeeping position forever.
By the end of those Ashes, the Aussies had gone 18 tests undefeated, and with the reject XI, Ricky Ponting would lead Australia to extend that streak all the way to 25 tests, going another year before losing again. That streak is only surpassed by three teams in Test cricket history, including the mythical West Indies of the 80s. That was the level of this side.
So if someone ever asks you how good this Australian team was, I've got one response for you: top to bottom, legends.
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