Buoyed by a Devon Malcolm-inspired, eight-wicket victory over South Africa at the Oval, England had high hopes of winning the Ashes for the first time since Mike Gatting's 1986/87 vintage.
Third Test, Sydney
England (309 & 255-2d) drew with Australia (116 & 344-7)
Atherton (88) and John Crawley rescued England from 20-3 before the 'Darren Gough show' began, the Yorkshireman striking 51 off 56 and skittling Australia with 6-49. Keen to press home England's advantage, Atherton declared with Graeme Hick on 98no, setting Australia 449 to win. Taylor and Slater put on 208 before Fraser gave the tourists a window of hope...
ATHERS: "Gough was always an ebullient character with lots of self-belief and he was enjoying the tour - and why not? It was his first foray into international cricket so he played with a lot of freedom and little self-doubt. Australia was his kind of place and the Australian public took to him. He bowled well in the first two Tests - one of the few saving graces - and was finding a bit of decent form, with ball and bat. No-one had really seen him bat so when Australia pitched it up he whacked it back over their heads with a lot of exuberance. Later, when they started to bomb him by bowling a little shorter, he didn't handle things quite so well, but he put us in a decent position - one I wanted to reinforce by declaring before tea on the fourth day. It was still a pretty good pitch at that point - I'd say it was the equivalent of a second day pitch - and we needed maximum time to bowl them out. I wasn't greatly surprised to see them get to lots for none but then it started to drizzle on the final day and the pitch started to be receptive to the seamers. It was unseasonal weather for Sydney but it was perfect for Gus, who had been brought into the side because of the injuries, and he bowled really well."
Fourth Test, Adelaide
England (353 & 328) beat Australia (419 & 156) by 106 runs
Mike Gatting's first Test century for eight years bolstered an England team ravaged by injury but at 181-6 in their second innings - a lead of just 115 - the tourists were still on the ropes. Enter Phil DeFreitas, who seized the initiative with 88 off 95 balls, before Devon Malcolm (4-39) rattled Australia's top-order and Chris Lewis (4-24) mopped up...
ATHERS: "It was a bizarre game because we only had 11 fit players left so we had to go into the Test with a fairly scratch side. It meant we played an extra bowler, though, which certainly helped once we'd scored enough runs. The game was very much in the balance when DeFreitas went in and I remember saying 'just go out and try to grab the game by the scruff of the neck'. Devon played a few shots too and whacked Warne for a six and that just gave us enough breathing space to set them a decent total. Devon bowled quickly on the final day and Chris Lewis got the ball to reverse because the pitch was very dry, bare and abrasive. All in all it was a victory very much against the odds; I don't think anyone really gave us a prayer going into that game, although it's true that we had almost won in Sydney. So despite the injuries and the rather shambolic nature of the tour we were actually playing a little bit above ourselves."
Fifth Test, Perth
Australia (402 & 345-8d) beat England (295 & 123) by 329 runs
England began the fifth and final day on 27-5, after their pre-Test hopes of levelling the series undone by more belligerent Australian batting. Graham Thorpe (123) and Mark Ramprakash (finally called up after Gatting was selected ahead of him) resisted with a first-innings stand of 158 but after Greg Blewett's second ton in as many Tests, McDermott (6-38) and McGrath (3-40) polished things off...
ATHERS: "Ramprakash was flown in from an A tour to give us the extra batsman that we didn't have due to the on-going injury problems and he played very well on a bouncy pitch. But what I chiefly remember about the Test was our atrocious fielding. I thought we actually bowled quite well - and Perth is always helpful to the faster bowlers - but we dropped nine or 10 matches which let Australia get away from us. I remember Thorpey dropping one at slip and then booting the ball in disgust past cover and they ran two or three afterwards, which rather summed up the fielding performance.
"Looking back on the series it's clear that Australia - with Warne to the fore - were the stronger side even allowing for our horrendous run of injuries. I remember MJK Smith, who was the manager, saying at the end of the tour 'I hope you get the opportunity to captain in Australia again' because there's not much you can do if you've got six or seven players flying home with injury and the team constantly changing'. Given the extent of the disruption it was quite an achievement to win in Adelaide and almost win in Sydney but in between there were some fairly shambolic performances as well which reflected the difference between the teams."
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