The 2023 Ashes series has been nothing short of spectacular so far. All three test matches contested so far have delivered days of tension and drama. And the best part is that there are still two tests to go.
Australia currently has a narrow 2-1 lead in the series. An inspiring performance with pace bowler Pat Cummins’ bat was enough to narrowly get his side over the line at Edgbaston. His team then managed to stop another inspiring innings by England captain Ben Stokes at Lord’s to secure a 43-run victory, but that win was not without controversy.
Lord’s battle
The drama resulted from the punching of England wicketkeeper Jonny Bairstow. With the Yorkshireman regularly patrolling out of his fold at the height of each delivery, Aussie keeper Alex Carey took matters into his own hands and managed to successfully punch his counterpart. The wicket made headlines around the world and even saw British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese take part in friendly banter at the recent NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania.
Perhaps spurred on by that controversy, England managed to fight their way back into the game by securing victory in the third must-win Test match at Headingley. Captain Ben Stokes was again the star of the show and his batting of 80 in the first innings successfully dragged his side back into contention. Mark Wood then took over and his blistering form with both bat and ball saw him cross the line for England and earn him the man of the match award.
Heading into the Fourth Test at Old Trafford, the Ashes are on the line. Australia know that a victory in Manchester will see them win a series on English soil for the first time in 22 years. Despite, Canadian sports betting websites make them even money outsiders for the Northwest game, making the hosts slim -130 favorites.
With the current series on the cutting edge, we decided to take a look back at some other narrow series from days gone by. Here we take a look back at the 2019 Ashes Series, the first series to end in a draw in 47 years.
2-2 draw sees Australia keep the urn
Prior to the ongoing, the most recent Ashes Series took place on English soil in 2019. England hosted their closest rivals just weeks away from their crowning glory, beating New Zealand at Lord’s to secure the Cricket World Cup for the first time in their illustrious history. As a result of that success, many of the house believers considered them the favorites to beat off the Aussies and get the urn back, and indeed they would go out of their way to do just that.
However, all hopes of being considered favorite were extinguished in the first Test. Sparkling centuries from Steve Smith in both his first and second innings saw the tourists take a resounding 261-run victory. The Second Test ended as a draw after appalling conditions at Lord’s, meaning the Baggy Greens knew victory in the Third Test at Headingley would give them an unassailable 2–0 lead.
And it looked like that win was in after they bowled out the hosts for just 67 runs in their first innings. And after five wickets fell in less than an hour during a chaotic afternoon session on day four, victory seemed all but certain. But the tourists hadn’t counted on Ben Stokes’ genius.
With England still needing 72 runs with only one wicket in hand, the current England captain continued to bat the Australian bowlers all over the pitch, picking up boundaries left, right and centre. His unbeaten 136 has deservedly become one of the greatest test match innings of all time, and the red-headed all-rounder single-handedly kept the Ashes alive. That was at least for a week.
In the Fourth Test at Old Trafford, the tourists would once again run to victory and take a 2-1 lead with just one Test remaining. England would win that at the Oval and the series would end at two apiece. However, since Australia were the Ashes holders, they were the ones to take home the urn after one of the greatest runs of all time.
The awards
Steve Smith’s heroic performance earned him the Compton-Miller Medal, awarded to the official player of the series. The Sydney-born star hit two centuries, a double century and more strokes of 80 and 92. In total, he scored an impressive 774 runs over the course of the series, fifth all time.
And if that wasn’t impressive enough, he scored those points in just four games. He was forced to miss the grid for the Third Test at Headingley due to a concussion, but that didn’t stop him from piling up the runs. During the summer he averaged no less than 110.57 runs per inning.
Ben Stokes was named England’s player of the tournament and next his brilliant match-winning knock on HeadingleyThat too was not surprising. He top-scored for his country, hitting a total of 441 runs, 51 runs away from lead-off hitter Rory Burns and behind only the alien Smith, whose performance was otherworldly.
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