Australian cricket team in Australia in 1974–75

The 1974–75 Australians beat the touring England team 4–1 in the 1974-75 Ashes series. Labelled the Ugly Australians for their hard-nosed cricket, sledging and hostile fast bowling they are regarded as one of the toughest teams in cricket history. Don Bradman ranked them just after his powerful teams of the late 1940s, and Tom Graveney third amongst post-war cricket teams after the 1948 Australians and 1984 West Indians. The spearhead of the team was the fast-bowling duo of Dennis Lillee, whose hatred of English batsmen was well known, and Jeff Thomson, who outraged old fashioned cricketers by saying he liked to see "blood on the wicket".Wisden reported that "never in the 98 years of Test cricket have batsmen been so grievously bruised and battered by ferocious, hostile, short-pitched balls". "Behind the batsmen, Rod Marsh and his captain Ian Chappell would vie with each other in profanity", but the predatory wicketkeeper and Australian slip cordon snapped up most chances that came their way. Their batting line up was also impressive with the opener Ian Redpath spending over 32 hours at the crease in the series, followed by Rick McCosker, Ian and Greg Chappell, Doug Walters and Ross Edwards. Ironically, in the last Test of the series Lillee and Thomson were injured, the out of form England captain Mike Denness made 188 and England won by an innings.

There have been few shrewder captains than Ian Chappell, who knew how to squeeze the last drop out of any situation that might help give his team an advantage. He was an absolute master at putting pressure on the opposition with just the right run rate or with a field that could be almost impossible to pierce ... Some of his tactics were quite intimidatory and stank of out-and-out gamesmanship that made old pros like me wince. It was an open secret that he used to encourage his players to give a lot of verbal abuse to rival batsman when they were at the wicket in an attempt to break their concentration.

...
Wikipedia