'I won the overall battle with Vaughan'

That was the series where Michael Vaughan came out and said I'd target him, which was strange. He said he was their best batsman so I should aim at him. I'd never had a batsman say that about me before and he was prepared to take me on.

In the first Test he showed that instead of sitting back and waiting for me to bowl a bad ball he'd come at me a bit. He sort of ran at me and tried to hit me. He got a few away in the first Test [33 and 0] but I picked him up both times. It was the first time someone had a plan to come at me and that was interesting. I enjoyed that because it gave me more chance of getting him out. I felt he was playing away from his normal game and it worked in our favour.

During Adelaide he played well and had a little bit of luck [he scored 177 after being ruled not out to a Justin Langer catch at point on 19]. He was a bit unlucky in the second innings [McGrath took a flying catch at deep square-leg]. It was in the fourth Test that I reckon I won the overall battle because I'd knocked him over four times - twice in Brisbane, once in Perth caught behind off an inside edge and I bowled him in Melbourne - and I caught him once, which was more his bad luck than mine. And then there was a run-out in Perth. So that's four wickets, one catch, one run out, so I had it on him [he laughs].

Vaughan had a pretty good series, especially the way he finished with a century in Sydney, and they won that game. Overall he had a fair series, but the fact is we won the first three Tests pretty convincingly. We won the series in 11 days and there wouldn't be many results quicker than that. They went close in Melbourne - all of a sudden the pressure was off and the series was over - and they relaxed a bit and I thought they played well. Steve Harmison bowled well there.

It was the first time we saw Harmy. He looked like he had stacks of potential but seemed to get the yips a bit and lost the radar for a while. He seemed to have real potential and we saw that in the last series in England. He can bowl some lethal spells.

I didn't tear my side in Melbourne but I had some problems with it and I still don't know what was wrong. That put me out of Sydney. Missing Steve Waugh's hundred was a shame. I wasn't even at the ground so that was even worse, but I did see it on television. It would have been an amazing day there, just watching it was amazing enough. Getting his hundred on the last ball of the day.

It was quite an amazing series when you think of Vaughan getting three centuries in a team that was thoroughly beaten and Stephen's hundred. When you think of the potential the England team had, to have it over in 11 days was pretty special.