HISTORIC MOMENT OF ASHES

The first match between the two countries was played on 15th March 1877, where Australia won by 45 runs, and the first
official Ashes Test was held at the Kennington Oval on 29th August 1882, the ninth match between the two sides.
Australia won that too.

1882 Australian Ashes team. NB. Tom Garrett (front row) is the great grandfather of Peter Garrett the former Midnight Oils
frontman and current politician.

The first man to score a double century in Test cricket, WL Murdoch (pictured left conversing with W G Grace) led Australia
in three series (1880, 1881-2, and 1882) before the Ashes were formally known as the Ashes. He then lost in the 1882-3
and 1884 series, but his return to the captaincy for the 1890 series (which he also lost) makes him, in longevity terms
at least, one of the Ashes greats.

The Australian Ashes team of 1890. Captain WL Murdoch is standing at the back wearing a top hat

The Ashes, 1902, 3rd Test, Bramall Lane, Sheffield. 3,4,5 July 1902 (3-day match)

The Big Ship ...Warwick Armstrong leads his men out at Trent Bridge in 1921
From December 1920 until January 1925, under the leadership of Armstrong and Herbie Collins, Australia
remained unbeaten for 13 consecutive Test matches against England, including 11 wins and two draws. These numbers,
in eight Tests at home and five in England, put the record of the 2006-07 Australia team into the shade.procession.
Along with Bradman’s 1948 Invincibles, Ian Chappell’s XI in the 1970s and Steve Waugh’s side of the late 1990s, the
Australia side of the early 1920s is regarded as among the greatest in history.

Warwick Armstrong bats in his final Test match, England v Australia, 5th Test, The Oval, August 16, 1921.

rare photo of the 1928 Australian Ashes team walking onto the feild at the Gabba. A young man named
Don Bradman was making his test debut and can be seen at the very back to the left of the keeper Bert Oldfield

"I've not travelled 6,000 miles to make friends. I'm here to win the Ashes." These words were uttered by England captain
Douglas Jardine on the now infamous tour of 1932-33. England won the series 4-1 but that only tells half the story. The
Australians were incensed at Jardine's use of Bodyline tactics and after the tour several of the laws of cricket were
altered to ensure the same tactics could not be repeated. Here, W M Woodfull of Australia ducks to avoid a rising ball
from Harold Larwood of England during the fourth Test match at Brisbane on March 15, 1933.

Douglas Jardine leads England out during the 3rd Ashes test of the infamous Bodyline Series in 1932 at Adelaide.

England's Len Hutton holds the record for the highest Ashes innings of 364 in, 1938
Aged just 22, Hutton batted for an extraordinary 13 hours and 17 minutes at The Oval (pictured) to break Wally Hammond's
record for the best score in a Test match. The neophyte's innings remained unsurpassed until Brian Lara's 365 against
England in 1994. Hammond had said he wanted 1,000 runs on the board, and Hutton stayed in until England had
brought up 770. They eventually finished on 903-7

Bradman's 1948 Invincibles

Great Stuff Viresh
this is really AMAZING STUFF

As Don Bradman walked out for his final Test innings at The Oval in August 1948 he was applauded to the wicket and given
three cheers by England's fielders before he took guard. "That reception had stirred my emotions very deeply," he later
wrote Noticeably discoformted by the reception , Bradman was bowled for a duck second ball by Eric Holies, playing
outside a googly. He walked off in total silence, which was followed by polite applause. Four runs would have left him
with a Test average of 100. As it is he remains marooned in incomplete perfection on 99.94.

Most wickets in a Ashes series, Jim Laker 46 during 5 tests in 1956.
Laker's record effort was helped in no small part by his 19 wickets at Old Trafford - 9-37 and 10-53 - the only time
a bowler has taken more than 17 wickets in a first-class game. Laker is pictured being presented with the balls
he used to take the 19 wickets at Old Trafford

Richie Benaud (Australia, 1958-1963)
In a broadcasting career spanning five decades, Benaud became known to many as the voice of cricket.
His reputation as a sharp, canny, and fair-minded reader of the game was crystallised during his highly
successful tenure as Australian captain. Benaud always said that captaincy was 90 per cent luck, but never
denied the possibility of greatness being defined in the remaining 10 per cent. In his first series as captain,
Australia reversed three successive Ashes series defeats to reclaim the Urn for the first time since 1950-51.
He took 31 wickets himself at 18.83, solidifying his reputation as one of the finest all-rounders of all time

Four runs
a SINGLE STRIKE
made that man doesnt reach a MAGIC FIGURE

The 1964 touring Australian cricket team
Australia lead by Bob Simpson won the series by one test to nil with four matches drawn to retain the Ashes, which
they had held since 1959 and another seven years were to pass before England won the series again.
Victory in the third Test at Headingley was enough to clinch the series for Australia, although England enjoyed their
own highlight in the final game at the Oval when Fred Trueman became the first bowler to take 300 Test wickets.
Whislt in the same test Australian skipper Simpson made a huge score of 311.

Ian Chappell (pictured front) is widely considered on the best Australian Ashes captains.
He lost to Ray Illingworth's men in 1972, but beat the much-derided Mike Denness' men in 1974-5 and then Tony
Greig's team in 1976-7. He could boast the raw pace of Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thomson, who at the start of their
careers were among two of the fastest bowlers in cricket history.Described by commentator John Arlott as "a
cricketer of effect rather than graces", Chappell's stubborn presence at the crease and brilliant fielding at slip
(he became the fourth player to take one hundred Test catches) earned him plaudits. He guided Australia
through years of minor turmoil and was a mentor to several of their future greats.

The Ashes has produced its share of heroic one-off performances. Few more imposing than that of Bob Massie, who took
record Test debut figures of 16–138 at Lord's in 1972. Massie was a medium-fast swing bowler who hit a perfect storm of
ideal conditions and a tactic of bowling round the wicket at England's batsmen. Australia won the Test to level the series
and, oddly, Massie disappeared just as quickly. He played only five more Tests,
his last in 1973. Within two years he had retired.

Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, if Thompson doesn't get ya Lillee must.....
The formidable bowling partmership of Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thompson created havoc for most English batsmen from
1975 to 1982. Thomson took exactly 100 wickets in 21 Tests against the auld enemy at a miserly 24.18, but even that
exemplary record fades to mere brilliance in comparison to Lillee's devastating Ashes figures.
In just 29 Ashes tests Lillee took 167 wickets at just 21.00 and in 1975, he and Thomson bagged 37 England
wickets as the Australians won the four-Test series by a 1-0 margin.

Following the 1977 Centennial test which Australia won by 45 runs England regained the Ashes from Australia in the
following series 3-0. The England team pictured -
Derek Randall, Dennis Amiss, Robert Woolmer, Bob Willis, Chris Old,, Graham Barlow,
Derek Underwood, Keith Fletcher, Mike Brearley, Tony Greig, Alan Knott.

Single Tests are often dubbed after players, but the 1981 Ashes series has gone down in history as "Botham's Ashes".
The drama started at Headingley with the visitors on the verge of wrapping up an easy win within four days to go 2-0 up.
Up stepped Ian Botham with a gung-ho 149 to at least make Australia bat again, when an inspired Bob Willis swept
through their line-up with 8-43. It sealed a remarkable 18-run win and signalled an about turn in the series which
England went on to win 3-1.

England Ashes team 1986-7
England celebrate their win in the fourth Test at the MCG in 1986, which they won by an innings and 14 runs.
It would their last series win on Australian soil for 25 years.