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England celebrate another close victory ... this time at the MCG in 1982
© Getty Images
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After three-and-a-half days of unremitting tension, it's finally safe to
climb off the edge of your Edgbaston seat and check for fragments of
fingernail. I can't remember a Test match like it for sustained drama,
when it was so dangerous to look away for an over or two for fear of
missing a vital twist.
It was
the closest finish by a runs margin in any Ashes Test, beating the
three runs of Old Trafford 1902 and Melbourne 1982-83. By a fluke - or
impressively shrewd judgment, perhaps - I was there for that
MCG epic too.
That was another nerve-wracking game, although the tension wasn't quite as
omnipresent as in this match. Even so, all four totals then were between
284 and 294, a uniquely close grouping, and the first three innings
neatly occupied a day apiece.
But where the two Tests really come together is in the tale of two epic
last-wicket stands. At Melbourne it was Allan Border and Jeff Thomson:
today it was Brett Lee and Michael Kasprowicz. Border was a recognised
batsman, albeit early in his career and out of form to boot. When they
came together on the fourth evening Australia needed 74 more to win, and
you sensed that England's champagne boys - Botham, Gower, Lamb - were
already ordering the bubbly.
Bob Willis, England's captain, decided to give Border singles in order to
get at the less accomplished Thomson. By the close, exactly half the
target of 74 had been knocked off, meaning that 37 more runs were needed
on the final morning.
On that last day, Melbourne proved its boast to be the sporting capital of
Australia when 18,000 people turned up for what might have been just one
ball. (I seem to remember my family thinking I was mad for trekking into
town, too.) Still the runs dripped down. Now it's 30 wanted, 20, 10 ...
Just as at Edgbaston today the tension was terrific. Few people spoke,
hardly anyone moved. All along I had expected England to win - but
suddenly it was just four runs needed. Just one shot. The last pair had
somehow put on 70. Now I wasn't so sure ...
And then it happened. On came Ian Botham, and Thomson edged his first ball
head-high to second slip. Game over ... except Chris Tavare, white as a
sheet, dropped it. He only parried it over his head - but Geoff Miller ran
behind him from first slip and scooped up the ball before it touched terra
firma, setting off the sort of celebrations that were repeated today when
Geraint Jones fastened on to a similarly looping chance.
Up in the Melbourne pavilion everyone stood up and shook hands with the
person next to them, just because they were there. There was a bit of that
in the press-box at Edgbaston today, too. Those 18,000 Melburnians got it
right: if you were watching the match on television at home you would have
missed the juggling climax, as Channel 9 were late returning to the
action. All the viewers saw at the vital moment was an advert for
spanners. One doubts if so many cans of XXXX have ever been thrown at the
screen in unison since, unless Jonny Wilkinson was the target.
Eerily, my own feelings at the end at Edgbaston were exactly the same as
that December day in 1982. England were obviously going to win, weren't
they, until suddenly Australia were within one shot - one edge for four,
or some jammy leg-byes - surely now they're going to nick it?
They didn't, again, but it was magnificent to watch, and sets up the
series beautifully. Better not tell the Barmy Army who took the series in
1982-83, though ...
Steven Lynch is the deputy editor of the Wisden Group