8th - 12th September- Click Here for Day 2 Report | Day 3 Report | Day 4 Report | Day 5 Report

Day One - Match Scorecard

Day one belonged to two men; namely Shane Warne with five wickets and Andrew Strauss with a fine century.

Michael Vaughan won the toss for the third time in a row and opted to bat, the fourth Test in a row England had the honour of batting first, the Oval offering up an excellent batting strip. Trescothick and Strauss took the attack to Australia with selective aggressive shots aided by wayward bowling from the pacemen, McGrath the pick of the bowlers early on. Glenn McGrath returned for Australia after recovering from an elbow injury, while Paul Collingwood replaced the injured Simon Jones for the hosts.

Warne who was introduced by Ponting in the first hour of play in the 13th over ended the day with five wicket from his 34 overs at a cost of just 118 runs, a truly magnificent performance from the highest wicket taking bowler in Test history. He decimated the England top order and accounted for Strauss, Trescothick, Vaughan, Bell and Pietersen with only Strauss holding his own during his seventh century (129).

Trescothick was the first to fall, Hayden taking a good catch at slip in the 18th over, with the score on 82. Vaughan became Warne's second victim when he tempted the captain to spoon a simple chance to Michael Clarke at mid-wicket for 11, Strauss having just cut England to three figures. Two runs later Warne dismissed Bell without scoring, trapped in front of the wicket in what has been a rather disappointing series for Bell who frankly has looked like a fish out of water for the better part.

Warne accounted for his good friend and County team-mate Pietersen when he failed to judge the drift and was embarrassingly bowled by the Victorian for 14. Flintoff joined Strauss and together the pair took the game away from Australia with a superb 143 stand before McGrath on his return had Flintoff (72) caught at slip by none other than Warne. Strauss was fortunate to survive a clear caught behind when on 114, another umpire mistake, this time Rudi Koertzen turning down the appeal.

Tait back in the attack managed to bowl fast and garner some reverse swing, both of which accounted for Collingwood, trapped leg before for just seven runs. He was rather unfortunate as replays showed he was hit outside the line and not for the first time this series,he was given his marching orders.

The final wicket of the day to fall was Strauss and it was left ironically to Warne to secure a five fer in his final Test match in England for Australia. Giles and Jones steered England to the close without further loss, England closing the day at 7 for 319.

Day Two - Match Scorecard

For the first time this summer, Hayden and Langer shared in a century partnership, ending the day undefeated on 112, 261 runs behind England's first innings total and in so doing beat their previous best partnership of 58.

Earlier in the day Jones fell to a superb swinging ball from Lee and was clean bowled with just five runs added to the overnight total. However Giles and Harmison both wagged and by the time Warne had bagged his sixth victim to close the innings, England had scored a modest 373 all out on what is proving to be a decent batting strip. Giles was fortunate not to have been given out caught behind when he was on 23 by Rudi Koertzen after he missed a clear edge to Gilchrist. However when he was finally given out a little later on by Bowden leg before to Warne, it did appear to have been another error by the umpires.

Warne ended the innings with a mouth watering 6 for 122 off 37.3 overs, a magnificent performance. he now rests on 34 wickets for the series.

After battling for 20 minutes before lunch and the afternoon session, light was offered to the Australian batsmen and play ended two hours early as rain then came in to halt the game prematurely. Langer had looked in magnificent form hitting Giles for 14 in his first over, an over that cost him 14 runs in total. Langer scored his 29th half century with a straight drive, Flintoff's fielding error allowed Langer to go back for a second run.

Collingwood who was in for Simon Jones caused the batsmen some trouble and indeed Trescothick dropped Langer off his bowling on 53. Langer went on to end the day on a positive 75 and Hayden despite a nervous start ended on 32 not out.

Day Three - Match Scorecard

It was a tale of two players and mother nature today and despite two cracking centuries from Langer and Hayden, mother nature won! England's bowlers do seem void of any ideas as Australia piled on the runs when play was allowed following long breaks due to the wet stuff, and no I don't mean Fosters!

Running out of time and a slow over rate Australia are running out of time, not surprising given the number of rain dances happening all around England since Thursday.

Australia closed the day on 2 for 277 just 96 runs behind England's first innings total, the day reduced to just 45.4 overs. Hayden was left unbeaten on 110, hist 21st century and his first since July 2004. The partnership between him and Langer accounted for 185 runs, Langer scoring 105 before he played on to his wicket, Harmison the bowler,

Earlier in the day Hoggard caused Langer a few problems with movement and swing, Langer fortunate to survive an early appeal. The running between the wicket early on was laboured and offered England the best chance to capture a wicket.

Langer scored his 22nd Test century and in so doing moved into eighth place in Australia's all-time leading scorer's list, passing Sir Donald Bradman in the process. The fifth ball of a ferocious over from Harmison cramped Langer for room and he edged the ball into his body and onto the stumps and before another ball was bowled, the heavens opened and the covers were called for.

Andrew Flintoff claimed England's other strike of the day, skipper Ricky Ponting for 35, before, for the second day in a row, Australia accepted the umpires' offer to leave the field for poor light, this time 5.2 overs ahead of time.

Ponting was fortunate to survive an appeal for a magnificent reaction catch at bat pad by Bell, the ball clearly hitting the bat but Bowden failed to see the deflection. With more run forecast for the final two days a positive result for Australia looks unlikely with England profiting from the poor weather. Only time will tell.

Day Four - Match Scorecard

Sunday was a strange day as days go in Test cricket, mainly down to the light and then some ferocious bowling from England capitalising on the poor light and optimal conditions. At the close on day four, England were 1 for 34, just a short step away from securing the Ashes in what would be a remarkable victory following the first Test drubbing at Lord’s.
 
Continuing from the their overnight total of 2 for 277, Australia looked to bat positively in what can only be described as dark and gloomy conditions, miners helmets wouldn’t have been out of place in the middle! With overcast conditions and a desire to push the run rate along Australia collapsed in grand fashion with four of the batsmen trapped leg before in helpful bowling conditions. 
 
Hayden playing for his Test future scored a magnificent century and cemented his place for the near future at least despite an indifferent series. Hayden’s 138 lasted a mammoth 416 minutes and 303 balls before falling to Flintoff, trapped leg before. In a great example of sportsmanship Hayden congratulated Flintoff as he passed the Englishman with the delivery and in return Flintoff uttered “Well played mate”. This example has typified the entire series and a great return to hard cricket played in the best spirit. 
 
Flintoff bowled 14.2 overs unchanged from the Pavilion End either side of lunch, with a day four return of 4-30 and Hoggard finished with 4-97, with plenty of swing available in overcast conditions, light poor for batting. 
 
Gilchrist showed a glimpse of what has been missing all series with a brisk 23 off just 20 balls but even his short lived performance failed to rescue Australia in their hour of need. When Lee fell to a good catch by Giles in the deep, it signalled the end of a fighting Australia innings. It wouldn’t be enough to hurt England but they did at least show a fighting spirit. 
 
Warne took his 167th wicket in Ashes history at 1410BST equalling Dennis Lillee’s record, Strauss the victim caught at bat/pad by Katich for one run. At the close brought about by poor light, England were 1 for 34.

Day Five - Match Scorecard

England have won the Ashes following the inevitable draw brought about by two major factors; poor light and Kevin Pietersen. Pietersen playing in his first Test series smashed his way to his maiden century with a dazzling 158 despite being dropped twice early on.

Ashley Giles shared in a pivotal partnership with Pietersen scoring 59, his fourth Test half century of his career. The partnership vital to England’s cause following a superb bowling effort from Warne and McGrath, arguably Test cricket’s greatest bowling partnership.

The draw concluded a fascinating series full of nail biting drama, skill and an enormous amount of good sportsmanship on and off the field. England have won the series for the first time since 1987 and not since that time has the English nation been so behind the home team.

Pietersen was dropped twice in his innings, once by Gilchrist behind the stumps and Hayden failing to take the rebound but arguably the easiest chance fell to Warne fielding at first slip.

Earlier in the day McGrath struck twice in consecutive balls, Vaughan the first to fall for 45 and Ian Bell, who like many of the Australian players battling for his place, fell to Warne at slip leaving McGrath on a hat trick. A superb decision by Bowden gave Pietersen a life when the ball hit his shoulder and went flying to Ponting to claim the catch.

Warne like so many times this series was magical, mesmerising and accurate. Bowling 32 consecutive overs from the Vauxhall End, he accounted for Trescothick (33) trapped leg before and Flintoff (caught and bowled) for not many. Collingwood then fell for just 10 runs but his partnership of 60 runs vital. The quick wickets threatened an Australian fight-back but a partnership between Pietersen and Giles took England to relative safety.   

In his final Test in England, Shane Warne took the last two wickets to finish with 6-124 and 12 wickets for the match, taking his career haul of England wickets to a record 172.

McGrath took the final wicket of the innings and with a 314 run lead, the Ashes were safe and sound, regained for the first time in 18 years. It was left for Warne and McGrath to walk off together with an arm around each other, soaking up the adulation from a knowledgeable partisan crowd.

Warne was named Australian player of the series and Flintoff England’s. Flintoff was also awarded player of the series for his contribution with bat and ball throughout. Warne’s 4o wickets in the series signalled his best ever series return against England, remarkable considering this was his last English tour.

The Queen and Prime Minister Tony Blair led the tributes to captain Michael Vaughan and his victorious team after the match.

London will stage a victory parade for them on Tuesday, but the champagne flowed as soon as Vaughan lifted the tiny brown Ashes urn aloft and they were showered in ticker tape and streamers.

The players then completed a victory lap of the Oval pitch to salute the 23,000-strong crowd that had roared them on all day.

Fans had spread onto the roofs and balconies of houses around the south London ground, and also celebrated in style, as did the country at large. Ashes 2005 - 3 Disc Highlights DVD - Order The DVD Now

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