The 1st Test

England decided to go with 5 bowlers for the first Test at Brisbane, Croft being preferred to Crawley (although the roles were reversed for the second Test). Michael Kasprowicz came in for Jason Gillespie.

Mark Taylor playing in his last Test Series against England continued his phenomenal run by winning the toss and electing to bat on a fast Brisbane pitch. Taylor and Slater were cautious throughout the first hour of play, however England through Mullally made the breakthrough shortly after the first drinks break, Slater slashing wildly at a ball outside off stump and caught by Butcher at slip. Langer followed shortly scoring only 8 after being given out to a dubious Leg Before decision. Mark Waugh and Taylor both fell in quick succession with the score on 106 to Cork and Mullally. Ponting was the next to go after helping Australia make a small recovery with Steve Waugh, becoming Cork's second wicket of the day and Butchers 2nd catch. Healy and Waugh took the score to 5 for 246 at the close of play, Waugh 69 and Healy 46, both not out. The Australian batsmen continued the following morning, both reaching centuries in an unassuming style. The pair had added 187 runs for the 6th wicket when Mullally struck again, twice in three balls, first Waugh and then Kasprowicz without scoring, both caught by Alec Stewart behind the wicket. Fleming joined Healy and the pair added a 50 run partnership before Fraser had Healy caught on 134. Fleming went on to record his highest Test score of 71 and Australia's innings closed at 485. Mullally bowled well, taking his first five-wicket haul in Test cricket.

At the close on the second day England were 1 for 53, having lost Atherton to McGrath for a duck. Butcher played well for his century all the while his team-mates struggled with McGrath's accurate and fast bowling. Hussain fell shortly after the luncheon interval to Kasprowicz and Stewart followed closely behind. Thorpe and Butcher steadied the ship with a 72 run partnership before Butcher became Mark Waugh's first victim. Weather brought the 3rd day to as premature close with over an hour left of play, England on a match saving 4 for 299. Glenn McGrath took 5 of the 6 wickets to fall on the 4th morning, England's last 5 wickets falling for 60 runs, leaving them 110 runs behind Australia's first innings. McGrath finished with 6 for 85. Australia declared their second innings on 3 for 237, Slater scoring his 113 in a quick fire 139 deliveries. England needing 348 runs to win little over 1 full day managed to see out the last 7 overs of the day, Butcher and Atherton guiding them safely to the close on 26 without loss. Atherton once again fell to McGrath and when Stewart, Thorpe and Hussain fell England adding only 43 runs, Australia pushed for victory. Unfortunately for Australia, the weather that had claimed delays earlier in the game came back to end the day prematurely and the match was drawn, England finishing on 6 for 179.

The 2nd Test

Australia sent England in to bat in the second Test of the series at Perth, the condition's favouring the bowlers early on. Butcher was the first to go, caught by Healy (the first of his 5 catches) off Fleming. Atherton and Hussain soon followed, again to McGrath with England finding themselves in all sorts of trouble at 3 for 19. McGrath took his third wicket when Stewart played on with the score at 62 after he and Ramprakash had steadied the match with a partnership of 43. England lost their last 6 wicket for 50 runs, Fleming taking 5 wickets in the innings. The tourists were all out just before tea for 112 - the 3rd lowest Test score at the WACA Australia failed to make the most of a good opening partnership of 81 between Taylor and Slater, loosing wickets steadily through their innings, no one taking control as has often happened in past matches. Tudor bowled well on debut and finished with figures of 4 for 89, Australia all out for 240 - 128 runs ahead of England. Fleming added to his 5-wicket haul early on in England's second innings, taking the first three wickets to fall with only 15 runs on the board. Many wondered if Australia would have to bat again in the Test match, and when he added Atherton's wicket to his match total it seemed all over for the visitors. When Atherton fell with the score on 40, he had scored 35 of the team's total. Miller took the final wicket to fall on the 2nd day, England hanging on with Mark Ramprakash and Graeme Hick till stumps on 5 for 126, 2 runs behind. Australia didn't take long to close England down, Mark Ramprakash finishing not out on 47, England scoring 191 all out only 63 runs ahead. Australia lost 3 wickets in their 64 runs chase, and required only 23 overs to make the score. Australia led the series 1-0, Taylor fully justified in putting England in to bat.

The 3rd Test

The Ashes moved on to Adelaide for the Third test of the series. Mark Taylor won his third toss in a row and decided to bat on a good wicket. In Australia's final total of 391, scored in 125 overs, Justin Langer scored 179 off 350 balls, hitting 13 4's. Mark Taylor and Steve Waugh offered support, both scoring half centuries. In reply, England had a bad start-loosing Butcher early on with the score on 18. Two more wickets followed at 82 and 83 and Australia were in control of the match, needing a win to retain the Ashes for the 5th series in succession. Hussain and Ramprakash took the score on, and at one point looked as if England could match the Australian total. Unfortunately for the visitors, Ramprakash fell shortly after putting on 103 for the 4th wicket, and became another victim to McGrath with his individual score of 61. England lost her last 6 wickets for 40 runs, Australia taking a valuable and match winning lead of 164. Slater scored another century (103) in Australia's second innings score of 5 for 278 with both Langer and Steve Waugh adding 50's to the proceeding. With all the Australian bowlers contributing, England were bowled out for 237, the last 4 wickets failing once again, this time adding only 16 runs. The home side under the captaincy of Mark Taylor won the match by 205 runs, the series by 2-1 therefore retaining the Ashes for the 5th time.[Stewart shown congratulating Mark Taylor on his success]

The 4th Test

For the first time in many Ashes Tests in Australia, the first day was abandoned without a ball being bowled thanks to the unpredictable Victorian weather. When play finally started on the 2nd day, Mark Taylor (who for the 4th time this series won the toss) sent England in to bat. Within three overs, McGrath had taken two English wickets, Atherton and Butcher failing to score. Stewart and Hussain put together a stand of 77 (Hussain scored 19) before Matt Nicholson took his first Test wicket, catching the edge of Hussain's bat and with it Healy took his 350th catch of his first class career. When Stewart fell to MacGill (bowled around his legs), he had reached 107, his first century against Australia. The team collapsed in his absence and were finally dismissed for 270 runs, 70 runs after his wicket had fallen. Gough bowled well in Australia's innings taking 5 wickets for 96 and with Steve Waugh (122 not out) top scoring he kept the Australian lead down to 70 runs. The home side batted well and with great depth, MacGill adding to his 4 wickets in the first innings scoring 43 runs, his highest Test score. After loosing 2 wickets for 26 runs, Australia must have surely been pleased with the outcome of their first innings.

Atherton secured the first Test pair of his career after being bowled by Fleming for a duck in his second innings. Stewart scored another 50 to add to his century in the first innings, as did Hussain and Hick batting lower down the order. The three main scorers took England's score to 244 before Mullally was caught and bowled by McGrath for 16. Australia required 175 to win in a low scoring game, and with the pitch helping the bowlers, it would prove difficult to achieve. Dean Hedley ripped through the Australian middle order, ending with figures of 6 for 60. Australia lost the Test match by 12 runs and after reaching 103 for the loss of two wickets, they would have been very annoyed at throwing away an already won match. The last 8 wickets fell for 59 runs, the top 5 batsmen all making double figures but not one of them went on to steady the innings.

The 5th Test

Predictably, Mark Taylor won his 5th toss of the Series for Australia who went into the final match at Sydney with just one pace bowler (McGrath) and three spinners (Warne, MacGill and Miller). Atherton was 'unavailable' due to a bad back for the final Test after his poor run and was replaced by Mark Butcher. After Dean Hedley and Tudor had taken three quick wickets including the Australian Captain, the Waugh twins put on a fine partnership worth 190. Steve Waugh was the first of the brothers to fall, 4 runs shy of yet another Ashes century when he was bowled by Peter Such. Australia took the score t0 5 for 319 and looked set to take the game beyond England. Dean Hedley took Mark Waugh's wicket with the next ball for 121 that included 10 4's. Darren Gough bowling from the other end then took Ian Healy on the 4th ball of the following over. MacGill walked to the crease and took guard, looked around at the field placing and was ready to face the 5th ball of the over. Gough ran in and beat MacGill for pace, the Australian playing a loose shot, clean bowled; Gough was on a Hat trick. Miller was the next batsman in and faced Gough on his Hat trick ball. The tail ender had no answer to the speed of the Yorshireman's yorker and was on his way back to the pavilion, a victim of Darren Gough's first Test Hat trick. Australia were bowled out in the next over by Headley for 322 having lost their last 4 wickets for 1 run and the last 5 wickets for 3 runs!

England batted for the first time in the match on the 2nd morning. The innings proved to be anticlimactic after Darren Gough's Hat trick the previous day. Stuart MacGill out bowled Shane Warne and ended with figures of 5 for 57 in 20 overs. Only Hussain and Crawley managed to score past 40 and the tourists failed yet again for only 220 facing a deficit of 102 runs. If it hadn't been for Michael Slater's 123 in the second innings, there would be no doubt Australia would have lost the final Test and after dominating the series, it would have been unacceptable. Dean Hedley took 4 wickets and Peter Such 5 as Australia were bowled out for only 184 runs. Mark Waugh was the only other batsman to reach double figures with his knock of 23. England chasing 287 to win started well putting on 57 for the first wicket. Stewart and Hussain played well for their knocks of 42 and 53 respectively but it wasn't enough. England collapsed not for the first time in the series from 4 for 131 to 188 all out. Stuart MacGill took a further 7 wickets in the innings to finish with 12 wickets conceding 107 runs in total, and Man of the Match. He totally out-bowled Shane Warne in the Test; the latter disappointed with his form after returning from his shoulder operation. We had not heard the last of Shane Warne! Steve Waugh was named Man of the Series.