The 2005 Ashes Test series was widely acclaimed as the greatest ever and will live long in the memory, especially for England fans after Michael Vaughan's men came from behind to clinch a 2-1 victory and reclaim the famous urn.
First Test, Lord’s: Australia won by 239 runs - Scorecard
England were under orders to get in the faces of Australia straight away and they made a dream start to the series.
The shell-shocked tourists were dismissed for only 190 - with back-to-form Steve Harmison taking five wickets.
Unfortunately, despite a half-century on debut for Kevin Pietersen, the home batting fluffed its lines and conceded a first-innings deficit of 35 runs.
Australia
Michael Clarke, Damien Martyn and Simon Katich ensured the tourists consolidated their advantage and three more wickets from Harmison could not prevent Australia posting 384.
Glenn McGrath then finished with a nine-wicket match haul, reaching 500 Test wickets in the process, and an unbeaten 64 from Pietersen was not enough to stop Australia claiming the early honours.
Second Test, Edgbaston: England won by two runs - Scorecard
A contest described in dispatches as the greatest in Ashes history.
The preface was perhaps the most telling moment of the whole series, McGrath’s untimely collision with a stray cricket ball during his warm-up robbed Australia of their peerless pace bowler - and for good measure, Ricky Ponting mis-read conditions by putting England in first on a good pitch.
Pietersen’s third consecutive Test half-century was one of a trio in an England first innings which was indebted to a 112-run opening stand between Marcus Trescothick and Andrew Strauss.
Australia’s concerns over the form of Matthew Hayden grew when he fell for a first-ball duck as they finished 99 runs in arrears on first innings.
Six second-innings wickets for Shane Warne hassled England out for 182 second time round, despite Andrew Flintoff’s 73, and the momentum headed back towards Australia.
England celebrate
Instead, Flintoff eked out four more wickets. Yet after Warne, Brett Lee and Michael Kasprowicz had added 104 between them for the ninth and 10th wickets, the Aussies needed only three more runs to sneak over the line - only for Harmison to have the number 11 gloving a leg-side delivery behind to Geraint Jones to give England a famously narrow win.
The sight of Flintoff consoling a dejected Lee became the image of the summer.
Third Test, Old Trafford: Drawn - Scorecard
Another epic. England captain Michael Vaughan produced a vintage innings of 166 to help his team to 444, after winning an important toss.
Warne - with his 600th wicket under his belt in the shape of Trescothick - produced a rearguard 90 with the bat but cannot stop the Aussies trailing by almost 150 runs following a six-wicket return from reverse-swing king Simon Jones.
But in front of a sell-out Monday crowd, a tour-de-force 156 from Aussie captain Ponting was just enough to help his team hang on for a draw - Lee and a fit-again McGrath holding on with one wicket standing.
Fourth Test, Trent Bridge: England won by three wickets - Scorecard
A tight win which put England in an enviable position heading into the decider.
Flintoff’s first-innings hundred - and an important stand with wicket-keeper Jones - helped to put 477 on the board.
Five more wickets from Jones saw England run through the Aussies for only 218 - and, in the unaccustomed position of following on, Ponting lost his cool after being run out by substitute fielder Gary Pratt.
Ashley GilesHis team nonetheless managed to set England a tricky 129 to win, and Lee and Warne made it as awkward as they could.
England lost seven wickets and nerves were frayed but Ashley Giles and Matthew Hoggard saw them over the winning line for a 2-1 series lead.
Fifth Test, The Brit Oval: Drawn - Scorecard
A rain-affected contest which hinted at the drama of its predecessors but in the end settled for delivering the glory of a home series victory.
England struggled to make the most of wonderful batting conditions after winning the toss and made 373, which included a timely hundred from Strauss.
England were in danger of a last-day collapse to open the door for Australia until Pietersen, dropped by Hampshire team-mate Warne at slip early on, mades a match-saving and series-clinching maiden hundred.
Hey folks, get others you know interested. No matter if they are english or aussie, as long as they're willilng to support the team. Lets get this series underway yeah?
If we send in Australia to bowl first and England to bat, we'll have enough players. We can sub in batters for bowlers in subsequent innings if we don't get enough new signups. I'll look towards having the first list of games out by next weekend.
Yeah, but at this stage I"ll take anyone just to get underway
haha
Uhm I've had to make a slight change. I've noticed on my plan of wickets, I had 12 wickets each innings... so I've eliminated the wicket keeper positions. It's just bowlers vs batsmen
Wicket keepers have been put into other spaces in their team, so no-one misses out on games and everyone gets the same number now. (nice)
So, The first games are being created as I speak, I will be posting them soon and pm ing all of you with the passwords. Please only join your games (game nubmers will be listed in next post along with who is in each game).
Please post the results (score, not just who won/lost but by how much, (check the first page)) and I will keep a running total vs fall of wickets.
Okay, so here are the games for Australia's first batting innings, Test 1 at Lords.
Wicket 1 Tieryn and Battle-Rage vs Balsiefen and CallofDuty on the pitch of 889562
Wicket 2 Tieryn and Llluuukkkeee vs CallofDuty and The Chosen on the pitch of 889565
Wicket 3 Tieryn and Skittles! vs The Chosen and Hijay on the pitch of 889566
Wicket 4 Tieryn and dfp2dep vs Hijay and Englishkiller on the pitch of 889567
Wicket 5 Battle-Rage and Llluuukkkeee vs Englishkiller and Balsiefen on the pitch of 889568
Wicket 6 Battle-Rage and Skittles! vs Balsiefen and The Chosen on the pitch of 889569
Wicket 7 Battle-Rage and dfp2dep vs CallofDuty and Hijay on the pitch of 889570
Wicket 8 Llluuukkkeee and Skittles! vs The Chosen and Balsiefen on the pitch of 889571
Wicket 9 Llluuukkkeee and dfp2dep vs Hijay and Balsiefen on the pitch of 889572
Wicket 10 Skittles! and dfp2dep vs Englishkiller and CallofDuty on the pitch of 889573
Passwords will be coming soon.
Remember there are 4 games each, Please find all 4. If you are non-premium, join as many as you can, and join the rest when possible. We'll try and get an innings every week or two. (we might be here for a while!)
Game are go folks. If we can get 2 more players to take bowling spots for australia, I can start up englands first innings concurrently, might make the tourney flow a little faster (I know, it sounds more like 20-20 cricket this way, the fast pace and action excitement) but really, who wants to sit around for several weeks while one innings goes, without playing any!
The system is such that batting and bowling are independent, so we can set up both at once. I think it's a better idea
Hey guys, I need two more players willing to bowl for australia, so we can get innings 2 underway in some reasonable time. What are peoples thoughts on having players bat and bowl for a team? All rounders perhaps? I'm not too phased about it, but I want your opinions.