England’s Stuart Broad has claimed the last two Australia wickets to secure a dramatic 49-run victory for his team in the final Ashes Test at The Oval cricket stadium and leave the series locked at 2-2 after five gripping matches. Broad, playing his final Test, removed Todd Murphy and Alex Carey, both caught by wicketkeeper Jonny Bairstow, to dismiss Australia for 334 and deny them their first Ashes win in England since 2001.
Australia, who won the first two Tests and had already retained the urn, moved to 238-3, chasing 384 to win before a two-hour rain delay halted their progress and England took the last seven wickets in just over two hours for the victory. Chris Woakes was the pick of the bowlers with figures of 4-50, and Moeen Ali took three wickets before the 37-year-old Broad completed the job in a perfect swan song two days after announcing his retirement. Broad expressed to the media that “The crowd were unbelievable. It was so loud and we just jumped on the back of that. To contribute to the team with two wickets is very special. “When you make that decision [to retire], you wonder what your last ball will be so to take a wicket to win an Ashes Test match was cool. Australia had started the day with high hopes of victory after Usman Khawaja and David Warner’s unbroken opening partnership of 135 on Sunday 30th of July. The pair looked to continue to bat with positive intent, but under grey skies, the ball moved around for the England bowlers from the start.
Although, England couldn’t win the series, but they managed to level the series. The 2023 Ashes series was a series of Test cricket matches played between England and Australia for The Ashes, in June and July 2023. The five, in match order, venues were: Edgbaston, Lord’s, Headingly, Old Trafford and final match played at The Oval. Australia were the holders of the Ashes going into the series, having won in 2017–18, drawn in 2019 and won in 2021–22. The series was a part of the 2023–2025 ICC World Test Championship.
The series was the 73rd Ashes series and the 37th to take place in England. This series also marked the first time in the Ashes’ 139-year history that no Test took place in August in an Ashes series hosted by England. The series was brought forward to June and July so as not to clash with The Hundred tournament. For the first time in Ashes history, Australia played no tour matches against county teams, although they did play the 2023 ICC World Test Championship final against India in London a week before the Ashes series. The series finished drawn at 2–2, with Australia retaining the Ashes.
Story of the ‘Ashes’?
The basic rules of cricket which were made 150 years ago are still there with a few changes and they have been improved with the help of technology but not changed. The most traditional and oldest cricket competition is the Ashes series which is played every two years between England and Australia. Five Tests are played between the two countries in this series which is based on a war situation. The fans of both the teams continue to attack each other outside the ground in these matches, due to which the media outside the ground is also playing a series.
Why was this series named Ashes?
Can the ashes of burnt wood also be the name of a cricket series? maybe not! But that’s how it is. The Ashes, which have no use and no future, remain cricket’s biggest title even after more than a hundred years. Cricket officially started in 1877 with a Test series between Australia and England in Melbourne, but in 1880 when England defeated Australia at the Oval, the game of cricket became famous in England. After the debacle at the Oval, English fans assumed that the England team was invincible. It was a time when legendary players like Sir WG Grace were part of the team.
In 1882, when Australia toured England for the second time, the Test was again played at the Oval on 29 August. The English spectators were convinced that they would win but the England team, on the last day of the Test with 85 runs needed and seven wickets to spare, scattered like dry leaves and only ten runs remained when the last wicket fell. There was mourning in England over this defeat. The British fans were so shocked by the loss that they began to express their anger on the field. In the British newspapers, sarcastic articles were written comparing this defeat to the ‘death of the English cricket team’.
On September 2, a newspaper in London, ‘The Supporting Times’, wrote a full obituary in which it was written: ‘In memory of English cricket, who died on August 29 at the Oval and his body The ashes will be taken to Australia after setting them on fire.” Three weeks after this defeat, the English team, under the leadership of Eve Blay, made a return tour of Australia with the determination to defeat their rival team and bring back the ashes of English cricket to their homeland.
The ‘condolence news’ published in the British newspapers also passed through the eyes of Australian citizens. The English team toured Australia on 11 November 1882, where they played three Tests, two of which were won by the visitors, including the final Test in Sydney. At the end of the Sydney Test, three women, including the wife of Melbourne Cricket Club president Sir William Clarke, his music teacher Florence Murphy and Janet, entered Sydney Stadium and set fire to the bails placed on the wickets. After that, his ashes were taken and preserved in a vase. After the series ended, Florence Murphy presented the six-inch vase-shaped trophy to Eve Bly, the England captain, at a function at the Melbourne Cricket Club on the eve of the Easter festival, which the guests were told represented the defeat. The ashes of the deceased Australian team have been preserved, which are being presented to the English team in the form of a ‘winning trophy’. The English captain decorated this vase in his native house after reaching home. The most interesting incident that this Ashes has to offer is that English captain Ive Blay married Florence when he toured Australia again in 1884. The Ashes trophy remained in his home until 1927, but after Blay’s death in 1929, his widow, Florence, gave the trophy to MCC, which is still preserved in the museum at Lord’s Ground.
Does the trophy really contain Bells’ ashes?
It is a mystery that no one knows the truth, but a relative of Bally claimed that this vase does not contain the ashes of Belles, but the ashes of Florence’s headscarf. She was interested in Balai and offered this vase of ashes to get closer to him and their purpose was fulfilled which culminated in marriage.
The formal start of the Ashes
The Test series of 1882 started a war between cricket’s two arch-rivals, the weapons of ball and bat. From one to seven Test matches have been played in this series, but in 1998 this series was limited to five matches and both countries play a series based on five Test matches in each other’s country at an interval of two years.
In the Ashes series, 71 series have been played so far, in which Australia has won 33 and England has won 32, while six series have been drawn. An interesting aspect of the Ashes is that if the series is drawn, the trophy is awarded to the winner of the previous series.
The highest run-scorer in the Ashes is held by Sir Don Bradman, who has scored 5028 runs, while Shane Warne leads the way with 195 wickets. If you look at the history of the Ashes and the events connected with it, the cricket field seems to present a scene of conflict and the bitter and bitter things that happen in the media during the Ashes are not seen on the field. All in all, the Ashes series is the form of cricket without which the history of cricket cannot be complete or filled with colour.
