The 2009 Ashes series was a cricket series between England and Australia, whilst being part of the Australian cricket tour of England in 2009. Starting on 8 July 2009, England and Australia played five Tests, with England winning the series 2–1. England thus regained The Ashes from Australia, who had won the previous series in 2006–07. Andrew Strauss became just the second England captain in 20 years, alongside Michael Vaughan in 2005, to win the Ashes.
The first Test was held at the SWALEC Stadium in Cardiff, the first Test match ever to be held at the ground, and resulted in England saving a draw with one wicket to spare, and Ricky Ponting surpassing 11,000 Test runs, becoming Australia's leading Test run scorer as the series progressed. The second Test at Lord's was preceded by the announcement that Andrew Flintoff would be retiring from Test cricket at the end of the series. The England all-rounder then took his first Lord's five-for to seal a 115-run victory, England's first against Australia at the ground in 75 years. Rain prevented play for large amounts of the Third Test at Edgbaston, including the entire third day, making the draw an inevitable result. Australia pegged the score back to 1–1 with an innings victory at Headingley after bowling out England for 102, their lowest Ashes total since they were bowled out for 77 at Lord's in 1997. This left the Fifth Test at The Oval to decide the series.
Australia began the match needing only a draw to retain the Ashes, but an inspired bowling performance from Stuart Broad to remove Australia for just 160 runs, and a maiden Test century for Jonathan Trott in England's second innings left Australia chasing 546 with two days left to play. An innings of 121 from Michael Hussey gave the Australians hope, but he gradually ran out of partners before losing his own wicket to give England a 197-run win in the match and a 2–1 series victory.
Background
The 2009 Ashes series began with Australia leading by 31 series to 27, with five drawn series. Australia had won nine of the last 10 Ashes series, including winning the most recent series 5–0 in 2006–07, but the 2005 series, the last to be held in England, was won 2–1 by the home team.
Australia's last two Test series before the Ashes were played against South Africa, the first in Australia and the second in South Africa. Although South Africa won their tour series 2–1, Australia recovered to win the return series by the same scoreline.
Meanwhile, England warmed up for the 2009 Ashes with two Test series against the West Indies, the first in the West Indies and the second in England. The first series comprised five matches and was won 1–0 by the West Indies, but the second only included two Tests, England winning both.
The immediate preparation for the Ashes consisted of the 2009 ICC World Twenty20, held in England in June 2009. Australia struggled in their group, losing to the West Indies and Sri Lanka by seven and six wickets, respectively, and were eliminated at the first hurdle. England also suffered a shock four-wicket defeat to the Netherlands in their first match, but they recovered by defeating Pakistan by 48 runs to qualify for the Super Eights. There, they were paired with South Africa, India and the West Indies, but defeat to South Africa and a narrow victory over India meant that they needed a victory against the West Indies to reach the semi-finals. They lost the match via the Duckworth–Lewis method, and were eliminated.
Australia completed their Ashes preparations with tour matches against Sussex and the England Lions, but both matches finished as draws. Meanwhile, England's schedule was completed with a draw against Warwickshire.
Squads Andrew Strauss (c) Alastair Cook (vc) James Anderson Ian Bell Ravi Bopara Stuart Broad Paul Collingwood Andrew Flintoff Steve Harmisona Graham Onions Monty Panesarb Kevin Pietersenc Matt Prior (wk) Ryan Sidebottomd Graeme Swann Jonathan Trotte Ricky Ponting (c) Michael Clarke (vc) Stuart Clark Brad Haddin (wk) Nathan Hauritz Ben Hilfenhaus Phillip Hughes Michael Hussey Mitchell Johnson Simon Katich Brett Lee Graham Manou (wk) Andrew McDonald Marcus North Peter Siddle Shane Watson
Notes Note A: Steve Harmison was called up as cover for the Second Test after an injury concern regarding Andrew Flintoff. Note B: Monty Panesar was dropped for the Fourth Test and allowed to return to his county, before being recalled for the Fifth Test. Note C: Kevin Pietersen was dropped from the England squad after the Second Test after undergoing surgery on an injury to his Achilles tendon. Note D: Ryan Sidebottom was called up for the Fourth Test squad, taking Monty Panesar's place in the England bowling attack. Note E: Jonathan Trott was called up as batting cover for the injured Andrew Flintoff for the Fourth Test.
Matches
First Test
England won the toss and captain Andrew Strauss chose to bat. England slumped to 90/3 early but recovered with a fine partnership of 138 runs between Pietersen and Collingwood. Hauritz dismissed Pietersen for the crucial fifth wicket when he offered a simple catch to short leg, attempting to sweep from outside the off stump. England ended the day at 336/7 after Siddle picked up two crucial wickets in the last four overs of play.
Swann's unbeaten 47 off 40 balls took England to 435. Australia's openers started brightly facing eight overs before lunch. Flintoff, the fastest bowler in the match, captured the only wicket when Hughes' bottom-edge was well caught by Prior. Katich and Ponting steadily took control with sensible batting. Ponting reached a major milestone in his career scoring his 11,000th run and joining Sachin Tendulkar, Brian Lara and Allan Border. By the end of the day both batsmen had scored centuries, Katich's first against England and their unbeaten partnership of 189 runs had Australia at 249/1 at stumps.
Katich and Ponting added 50 runs to the overnight total before their partnership was broken by Anderson who had been given the new ball earlier. Anderson collected his second wicket of the day (Hussey) when Prior took an easy catch. Ponting was soon to follow, chopping the ball onto his stumps as he attempted a cut shot off Panesar's bowling. After lunch, Australia consolidated their position without losing a wicket and passing England's total and at tea were 458/4. Play was delayed unexpectedly for two hours due to rain and when play resumed it was under lights – the first time artificial light was used in a Test Match in Britain. At stumps Australia were in a strong position with 5 wickets in hand and a lead of 44 runs.
Resuming in fairly muggy, heavy clouded conditions North and Haddin punished the English attack. North reached his deserved century scoring centuries on both his Test and Ashes debuts. At lunch Australia had reached 577/5. After lunch, Haddin became the destroyer-in-chief, flicking three successive Anderson deliveries to the boundary and closed in on his second Test ton with booming sixes off the ineffective English attack. When Haddin was finally dismissed, Ponting declared the Australian innings at 674/6, the largest total against England since 1934 and fourth highest in The Ashes series. In the short time before tea England failed miserably to hold on, losing Cook and Bopara. The rain started as tea was taken and play ended for the day with England 219 runs behind and in dire straits to save the match.
Resuming on 20/2, England lost three wickets in the first 90 minutes of play, collapsing to 70/5 and with a humiliating defeat seeming almost certain. However, Flintoff and Paul Collingwood batted doggedly in response and reached lunch on 102/5. Flintoff tried playing more positively after the interval, with some typical booming boundaries taking his and Collingwood's partnership past 50, before Flintoff edged to Ponting at second slip for 26. Collingwood, meanwhile, continued to provide obdurate opposition to an increasingly hostile Australian bowling attack. Broad was trapped LBW by Hauritz for 14, before Siddle roughed up Swann with some vicious short pitched bowling. However, England continued slowly adding runs and surviving into the final session of the day, before with just 19 overs left in the day and still 18 runs behind, Swann was plumb LBW for a well made 31 to a Hilfenhaus delivery that kept low. Collingwood continued with grim determination, lasting a staggering 245 balls and batting for five hours and 43 minutes before being caught at gully by Michael Hussey for 74, the ninth wicket to fall with England still trailing by 6 runs with just 11.3 overs left in the match. The last man partnership of James Anderson and Monty Panesar not only managed to preserve England's 10th wicket, but crucially managed to bat England into a lead, meaning that two of the remaining overs would be lost to account for the change of innings. With every dot ball cheered, England managed to bat until 18:40 to secure the unlikeliest of draws, ending the day at 251/9, leading by just 13 runs. Australia captain Ricky Ponting later accused the England team of time-wasting by allowing their 12th man, Bilal Shafayat, and physiotherapist, Steve McCaig, to twice run onto the pitch.
Second Test
England started the day with the news that former captain and talisman Andrew Flintoff was going to retire from Test cricket after the Ashes, Monty Panesar had been dropped in favour of Graham Onions and Steve Harmison had been left out of the squad. England won the toss and chose to bat first. They started exceptionally well with Strauss and Cook opening and going in for lunch 126/0. There was bad luck for the Australians after the interval when Strauss hit a ball back towards bowler Nathan Hauritz who, in trying to take the catch, dislocated his finger. England's pre-lunch form continued into the afternoon, until, with the score 196/0, Cook was dismissed LBW by Johnson just short of his century on 95. England soon lost Bopara for 18 and, from 222/2, England started to collapse: the next four middle order batsmen fell for just 74 with Australia's bowlers looking far better than they had done earlier in the day. Strauss continued past 150 to reach 161 with Broad on 7 going into day 2 and England on a possible shaky 364/6.
England started the way they had finished on day 1 – with fast wickets for few runs. Strauss was eventually bowled out on his second ball of the day for his previous day's total of 161. After that, two quick wickets meant that England were on 378 with only one wicket left. Onions and Anderson started slowly but gathered confidence with a partnership of 47 until Anderson was caught by Hussey ending England's innings on 425 all-out. The Australians had just under an hour before lunch and James Anderson claimed two wickets with the crucial wicket of Ricky Ponting. A 93 run partnership seemed to have the Australians back in the game but 6 wickets for 53 runs put England into a very strong position going into day 3 with Hauritz and Siddle on 3* each.