The Ashes get interesting again
By the time 2005 rolled in, even Australian fans were heartily sick of seeing their team win all the time. Everyone was crying out for a contest in the Ashes. But towards the end of the series Australian fans were sending messages of support to the team - probably for the first time since 1989•Hamish Blair/Getty Images
Those numbers, however, did look a bit meagre when you consider Australia hadn't lost a series since 2001: 37 wins and six losses from 51 Tests. Going into this series, they lost an ODI to Bangladesh and were spooked by ghosts in Lumley Castle, but what would haunt them later was Glenn McGrath's Ashes prediction: 5-0 to Australia•Getty Images
England ratcheted up 407 runs on day one and took a lead of 99. But in their second innings, things looked distinctly and familiarly bleak as Shane Warne began running through the batting order. Andrew Flintoff, who had scored a half-century and taken three wickets in the match till then, top-scored this time with 73, and Australia were set 282•Getty Images
When Ricky Ponting's magnificent 156 helped save the third Test, another nerve-shredder, at Old Trafford, Australia celebrated it like a victory•Getty Images
England had won the Ashes after 16 years and 42 days. Cue an open-top bus parade through London, a meeting with the prime minister, raging hangovers and MBEs all round. Cricket, it was said, was sexy again•Getty Images
There were "Dad's Army" jokes about the Australian side (average age 33, not unlike Armstrong's 1920-21 team), but age was definitely an advantage to them against a team in which only three players - Hoggard, Harmison and Ashley Giles - had previously toured Australia•Getty Images
By 2009, Matthew Hayden and Adam Gilchrist had also retired from internationalcricket. And six months before the Ashes, Australia had lost a home series to South Africa for the first time. Between the two Ashes series England had won ten and lost seven of their 29 Tests; Australia had won 11 and lost six of their 21. Here, Ben Hilfenhaus, Marcus North and Phil Hughes make their Test debuts in South Africa ahead of the Ashes•Getty Images
Australia won big at Headingley - Mitchell Johnson and Peter Siddle took five-fors, and Marcus North scored his third hundred of the series, but the series went to England 2-1•Getty Images
Australia levelled the series in Perth - Mitchell Johnson and Ryan Harris the chief destroyers with six-fors each•Getty Images
England's celebrations weren't as wild as in 2005, but they were probably more synchronised•Getty Images
Though it was customary for English fans and media to be hopeful at the start of every home Ashes series, this time perhaps the optimism was well founded. Under Michael Vaughan the team had won its last five series, including in the West Indies and South Africa•Clive Mason/Getty Images
It didn't sound all that implausible when, despite being bowled out for 190 in the first innings at Lord's, Australia won the first Test by 239 runs. To rub salt into England's wounds, McGrath took nine wickets and got to the 500-wicket milestone•Getty Images
By the start of day four, England needed only two wickets to level the series. Fans watched riveted as Australia's last-wicket pair of Brett Lee and Michael Kasprowicz slowly dragged the match away from England. So agog was everyone that BBC Radio felt compelled to delay its shipping forecast to continue coverage of the Test•Getty Images
But at Trent Bridge they were served a downer when Simon Jones and Matthew Hoggard forced them to follow on for the first time since 1988-89. It was also the Test where Gary Pratt rose to fame for running out Ponting in the second innings while on the field as a substitute. Lee and Warne made England sweat before they finally got to the target with three wickets in hand•Getty Images
The 2006-07 series was equally historic but certainly not as sexy or enjoyable for England, given Australia whipped them 5-0 - the first Ashes whitewash since 1920-21, when Warwick Armstrong's Australia inflicted heavy defeats on Johnny Douglas' England•Getty Images
England lost the first Test by 277 runs but it was in Adelaide that England's spirit was truly crushed. By the end of day four, 1123 runs had been scored for the loss of 17 wickets; a double-hundred by Paul Collingwood; hundreds by Pietersen, Ponting and Michael Clarke; a seven-for to Hoggard. All that ceased to matter on the final day when Warne convinced England's batsmen that he and the pitch were unplayable. England were bowled out by tea and Australia chased down 168 in one session•Getty Images
Australia dominated the first Test, in Cardiff, with four big hundreds, but England escaped with a draw after Paul Collingwood batted more than five and a half hours for 74, and when he was dismissed, their last pair - Monty Panesar and James Anderson - survived 11.3 nail-biting overs•Getty Images
More brutal retribution from Australia Down Under? The first day of the 2010-11 Ashes suggested that, as Peter Siddle, on his birthday, took a hat-trick in his 6 for 54 to dismiss England for 260. But in the second innings England racked up 517 for the loss of one wicket and drew the Test•Getty Images
On Boxing Day in Melbourne, Australia were bowled out for 98. Not since 1936 had they scored a lower Ashes total at home. England retained the Ashes in Australia after 24 years, inflicting an innings-and-157-run defeat. It was the first time Australia had lost two Tests in a home series by an innings, and the margin was their worst defeat in Australia in 98 years•Getty Images
Alastair Cook scored 766 runs at 127.66, with three hundreds, including an unbeaten double-century•Getty Images
So even the most magnanimous England fans must have grinned a little when news came in before the toss at Edgbaston that McGrath had been ruled out after accidentally treading on a ball during practice. There was more to celebrate when Australia's captain, Ricky Ponting, ignoring local opinion on the weather and the pitch, chose to field first under cloudy conditions•Getty Images
Australia needed two runs to get what would have been a spectacular victory when Kasprowicz gloved a short ball from Steve Harmison and was caught down leg by Geraint Jones. There was some doubt over whether Kasprowicz made contact with the ball but it was the sort of decision that would have been 50-50 on DRS too•Getty Images
At The Oval, England only needed a draw to regain the Ashes, and while weather favoured their plans, it was Kevin Pietersen's sublime 158 that took the game away from Australia. On day five Pietersen faced a steaming Lee, and batted with an insouciance quite unbecoming under the nervy circumstances to get his maiden Test hundred. Warne, who had dropped him on 15, applauded the innings. In his last series in England, the legspinner took 40 wickets•Getty Images
Flintoff, the hero of 2005 with 402 runs and 24 wickets, captained the side in all five Tests after Michael Vaughan had to pull out early due to a knee injury. Another big blow to the touring party was the loss of Marcus Trescothick, who left the tour struggling with stress•Andrew Miller/Getty Images
"In 140 Tests this was the greatest I have played in," Warne said of Adelaide. He probably thought it couldn't get any better and chose to retire from international cricket at the end of the series whitewash. McGrath, who had combined with Warne to take 44 wickets in the series, followed suit in Tests, as did Justin Langer and Damien Martyn•Getty Images
At Lord's, Flintoff's 5 for 92, nursing a dodgy knee, gave England their first Ashes win at the venue in 75 years. Flintoff brought back memories of 2005, though this time his only other major contribution was crucially running out Ponting in the 197-run win at The Oval. It was the last time he played competitive cricket•AFP
In Adelaide, they exorcised the ghosts of 2006, scoring 620 for 5, after which Graeme Swann mesmerised Australia the way Warne had England four years before. The last time they had beaten Australia by an innings was in 1986-87. They went on to do it twice more in this series•Getty Images
The misery wouldn't end just yet. They lost Ponting (now the first Australian captain since 1890 to lose three Ashes series), out with a broken finger for the final Test, in Sydney. Michael Clarke's initiation into the Test captaincy was not pleasant. Australia were bowled out for 280 and 281 and lost by an innings and 83 runs•Getty Images
Australia were no more to be faced with dread or even some amount of trepidation. They had been well and truly vanquished•Getty Images
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