The 2005 Ashes
| 2005 Ashes series | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Part of the Australian cricket team in England in 2005 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
A ticker-tape reception for the victorious England players
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| Date | 21 July 2005 – 12 September 2005 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Location | England | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Result | England won the five-Test series 2–1 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Player of the series |
Andrew Flintoff (Eng) and Shane Warne (Aus) Compton–Miller Medal: Andrew Flintoff (Eng) |
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| Teams | |||
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 England
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 Australia
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| Captains | |||
| Michael Vaughan | Ricky Ponting | ||
| Most runs | |||
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Kevin Pietersen (473) Marcus Trescothick (431) Andrew Flintoff (402) |
Justin Langer (394) Ricky Ponting (359) Michael Clarke (335) |
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| Most wickets | |||
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Andrew Flintoff (24) Simon Jones (18) Steve Harmison (17) |
Shane Warne (40) Brett Lee (20) Glenn McGrath (19) |
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The 2005 Ashes series was that year's edition of the long-standing cricket rivalry between England and Australia. Starting on 21 July 2005, England and Australia played five Tests, with the Ashes held by Australia as the most recent victors. The final result was a 2–1 series win for England, who succeeded (for the first time since 1986-87) in their biennial attempt to win the urn.
In March, Australia's captain, Ricky Ponting, said that this Ashes series would be the closest since Australia's dominance began in 1989. Since 1989, when Australia started their winning Ashes streak, England had only come within one match of the title once, in 1997: Australia were the pre-eminent side in the world, while England had dropped from being the top-rated in 1981 to sixth for much of the 1990s. They reached a low point in 1999 with a series loss to New Zealand leaving them bottom of the unofficial Wisden Cricketers' Almanack rankings. However, since the previous series in 2002–03, England had improved on their fifth place in the official rankings, and were second before this series. Australia were still top-ranked, but England had won 14 and drawn three of their 18 previous Test matches since March 2004, and had won six successive series. Nonetheless, before the First Test some Australians, including fast bowler Glenn McGrath, were suggesting that a 5–0 win in the series for Australia was a serious possibility.
The BBC reported on the day after the series that it was "hailed as the most thrilling series ever". Individual matches were very closely fought, with one match decided by a two-run margin, one match drawn with only one wicket remaining, and one match won by three wickets. The outcome of the contest was not decided until the very last day of the series.
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