Greatest Tests: The Trent Bridge thriller vs Brett Lee's all-round brilliance
A late Australia fightback or Lee and Kasprowicz's finishing act? Which Test was better? Vote now!
ESPNcricinfo staff
16-May-2025 • 7 hrs ago
In the lead-up to the WTC final between Australia and South Africa at Lord's from June 11, ESPNcricinfo, Star Sports and JioHotstar are inviting you to help us pick the greatest Test of the 21st century. There are 32 contenders, with two Tests pitted against each other until we identify the winner. Get voting now!
It was a Test of two halves.
The first 11 sessions were about England's march to a 2-1 lead in the fourth game of the Ashes. The 12th and final session, in which England were chasing a small(ish) target, was dragged into a great fight from the time Shane Warne took the wicket off his first ball. Had Australia won, they would have retained the Ashes with a game to spare.
England were so dominant that they forced Australia to follow on after being bowled out for 218 inside 50 overs. Andrew Flintoff's 102 off 132 balls and Geraint Jones' 85, had propelled England to 477. In the third innings, Australia rode on half-centuries from Justin Langer, Michael Clarke and Simon Katich to post 387 and set England a target of 129.
It wasn't a cakewalk for England, though.
The fourth innings lasted only 31.5 overs, where Brett Lee and Warne led a courageous Australian fightback. There was a period of calm when England moved from 32 for 1 to 103 for 4. But when Lee dramatically dismissed Kevin Pietersen and Flintoff to leave England at 111 for 6, Australia sensed a comeback. In the next over after Flintoff's dismissal, Warne - who had by then picked up three wickets - removed Jones. It was left to Ashley Giles and Matthew Hoggard to fight it out. Slowly, they picked off the runs even as Lee peppered Hoggard with a mixture of bouncers and yorkers. Giles hit the winning runs, a flick through the onside for two, to the delight of a joyous England balcony.
The white-ball leg of this series was remembered for the 438 game, but in Tests, Australia earned a 3-0 clean sweep against South Africa.
After two dominating performances in Cape Town and Durban, Australia were challenged in Johannesburg. In a scene of Edgbaston revisited, Brett Lee and Michael Kasprowicz buried their Ashes nightmares with a 19-run eighth-wicket partnership to secure victory in a fascinating Test.
In the first innings, Lee scored a fighting 68-ball 64 at No. 9 after Michael Hussey's 72, to stretch the visitors' total but they were eventually all out for 270, thanks to Makhaya Ntini's six-wicket haul. This was after South Africa posted 303 in the first innings.
Set 292 for a win, Hussey's 89 and Damien Martyn's 101 had laid a platform for Australia. However, Australia stumbled at the fall of Hussey's wicket, going from 198 for 2 to 275 for 8. Kasprowicz walked out to meet Lee with 17 to go.
The duo overcame the 2005 flashbacks as Lee finished with an unbeaten 24 and Kasprowicz remained 7 not out.