The Ashes 2005: Settling the Score
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Image source, Getty ImagesEvery single time I saw Shane Warne bowl at England I expected a wicket every single over.
He was just unplayable. It's a cliche to say someone was larger than life but he really was.
What a cricketer.
Leading wicket takers
The best there is, the best there was, the best there ever will be.
And it's not even close. Is it?
Shane Warne. So, so, so, so good...
Image source, Getty ImagesLeading wicket takers in the series
Shane Warne - 40 (FORTY)
Andrew Flintoff - 24
Brett Lee - 20
Glenn McGrath - 19
Charles Dance
Acting legend
Image source, Getty ImagesNo-one has ever bowled leg spin like Shane Warne. The hair blonde, the shoulders broad. The earring. The wry grin.
A cricketer lit by flashbulbs. He moved in a whirl - from pitch to party, from back page to gossip column. You could never escape him. You’d never want to anyway.
Warne lived as he bowled - with constant variation.
And he was a thinking man as much as a playboy... who could rearrange your brain and then your stumps.
England had to survive Shane Warne in the second innings.
Easier said than done!
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I was working in an office at the time, in the canteen there was a TV where let's say some more mature ladies ruled the remote. On my lunch break I changed from the soap they were watching to the cricket and all hell broke loose, I tried to explain feebly that it was live and they could catch up on soaps anytime...my name was mud. By the fourth Test I went into canteen and the same ladies were watching the cricket, asking me questions and good luck if anyone suggested it was switched over. Amazing times!
Jasper in Verwood
Andrew Flintoff hit a ton in the first innings at Trent Bridge. A whirling dervish of a cricketer, he was massive with bat and ball in 2005.
Remind you of anyone?!
Wow! You don't get a better advert for the power of sport than that.
Hats off to you Sophie.
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The 2005 Ashes series was what got me into cricket. Free-to-air television and TMS. If it wasn’t for this series, I would never have started umpiring, and would never have made my international debut on field as the reserve umpire (kicked into action!) during the Women’s Ashes Test at Trent Bridge in 2023.
Sophie McLelland
That's 1-1 in the series with two Tests to go, by the way.
England had not held the Ashes since 1986. Chance passed up?
Charles Dance
Acting legend
Image source, Getty ImagesAs all England sighed, Australia rejoiced in their great escape, in the heroism of their captain Ricky Ponting.
Meanwhile the other skipper gathered his frustrated players together in the middle. And Michael Vaughan pointed at the Australians celebrating not a victory, but a draw.
The world, he said, had changed.
Another stand from the Australia tail frustrated England. This time there was no Harmison moment though.
Australia held on for a stoic, superb draw.
Image source, Getty ImagesMichael Vaughan hit 166 at Old Trafford, Andrew Strauss 106. England were in control as a monster crowd gathered for another epic finale...
A reminder that sporting anniversaries are much more than that to some. The background noise to the biggest moments in our lives, at times.
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Any mention of the 2005 Ashes series will always remind me of the third Test at Old Trafford. I visited my brother who had terminal cancer. We watched on telly the final session of day two. That was the last time we spent time together as our dear Dave passed away on 17 August. The only good thing I can say about that period of time is that we no longer had to hark back to Mike Gatting and 1987.
Gary in Ripley, Derbyshire
Ceefax. The sport platform of Kings.
And so on to Old Trafford! The series was locked at 1-1.
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Image source, Getty ImagesI was deployed to the Falkland Islands that summer and had to “watch” the entire series on BBC Ceefax. There were only two channels for the Forces at the time and some fool thought it would be a waste to devote eight hours a day to Test match cricket.
Anon
Michael Vaughan
Former England captain
"It's been an epic game. I think most of my guys thought it had gone but we fought hard.
"We were 1-0 down and you can't afford to go 2-0 down against Australia. We've won and it sets up the series.
"I firmly felt if we had lost the game, gone 2-0 down, I don't think we'd have come back from that."
Charles Dance
Acting legend
Image source, Getty ImagesIn the middle of the jumping, screaming delirium - the wild joy of victory - there was one island of tender calm.
Brett Lee, the last undefeated Australian, was crouched in despair.
Regret and pain etched on his face. And on his shoulder, the consoling hand of Andrew Flintoff.
The Englishman, who’d just enjoyed the match of his life, had found time for the beaten man.
The image would become an emblem, a living statue to the spirit of cricket.
The Ashes can turn its players into cartoons - heroes and villains.
Here, one moment that reminds us they are all gloriously human.
Image source, Getty ImagesThe power of sport!
Kasprowicz eventually gloved one down the leg side, Geraint Jones took the catch and England won by TWO RUNS.
Epic.
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If it hadn’t been for the 2005 Ashes, I’m not sure I’d ever have gotten into cricket. My fondest memory is watching the final wicket fall in the Edgbaston Test on a tiny TV in the foyer of the Regal Cinema in Cromer, alongside my dad and brother. We missed the start of the film (I’ve no idea what we were meant to be seeing), but I’ve never forgotten that moment – I was 12 at the time. Since then, cricket has become such an important part of my life, and that moment and the entire series is the reason I love the game so much.
Sean in East Finchley