England hosted the 43rd meeting between the two countries, the visitors arriving under the leadership of Ian Johnson - Peter May captained the home side. Trent Bridge was the scene of the first Test and saw Peter Richardson's debut, he scored two half centuries in the match, 81 in the first and 73 in the second. England scored 217 with the loss of 8 wickets and declared, mainly due to the inclement weather. The second day was a washout and Australia struggled under the poor conditions , making only 14. Neil Harvey once again top scored with 64 and Jim Laker took 4 wickets for 58 runs. England again declared in their second innings, trying to push a victory, unfortunately for the home side, the visitors managed to hold out for the draw. Burke top scored with 58.

Australia looked a lot more comfortable at Lord's and so it proved. Burke and McDonald scored a 130 partnership for the first wicket, but Australia only managed a further 155 and closed their innings on 285 all out. Australia then suffered a major blow in as little as the 5th over with new Australian bowler Crawford breaking down injured unable to continue. However Miller was once again in the wickets (5 for 72) and England collapsed to 171 all out. The visitors were in trouble finding themselves 6 wickets down for only 112 runs, Benaud then made a swashbuckling 97 and they were eventually all out for 257. Miller then bowled England well out of the game by taking a further 5 wickets to add to his 5 in the first, and in doing so took 10 wickets in a match for the only time in his career. England fell to a 185 run defeat, with Archer taking 4 of the other wickets to fall.

England recalled selector Washbrook who hadn't played Test cricket for 5 years but even so found themselves up against it at 3 for 17 on the first morning. Washbrook then joined May and both batsmen took the score to 174 before loosing another wicket. In the partnership of 157, May scored a fine century and Washbrook fell two runs short of his on 98. England were finally bowled out for 325 setting Australia a daunting task to overhaul their score on a turning wicket. Laker took 11 wickets in the match as Australia fell to an innings and 42 run defeat, only Harvey showed any resistance in the second innings with a knock of 69.

With the series level at one rubber each, the 4th test match at Old Trafford would never be forgotten due to the phenomenal bowling of Jim Laker. The rev David Sheppard was recalled to the English team and duly scoreed a century and along with Richardson's century England made 459 runs. The pitch was turning and Laker went through the Australian innings taking all but one of the wickets to fall for 37 runs, Australia scoring 84 runs. Forced to follow on asutralia struggled once again, although it did look at one point that the weather was going to save the tourists as only two hours of play was possible on days three and four. On the 5th and final day, Laker continued where he left off and took all the Australian second innings wickets to finish the match with figures of 19 for 90 overall. England took a 2 -1 lead in the series as they took the last wicket with only an hour left of play.

The final match at the Oval would always be an anticlimax after the events at Manchester and the game ended in a draw. Laker took a further 7 wickets in the match and set an Ashes record with 46 wickets in the Series. Only Barnes has beaten that total when he took 49 wickets in a tour of South africa in 1913 - 1914.