OTD | The 2013 Ashes ended with England winning the nail-biting series

Ashes has always been a fascinating series as the two traditional rivals England and Australia play some exciting cricket. In 2013 there were two Ashes series being played one in England and one in Australia towards the end of the year.

The first Test of the series was played in Nottingham and the game lived up to its billing. The Aussies nearly pulled off an incredible win as they fell short by just 14 runs and gave the hosts a run for their money.

England batting first scored 215 with Jonathan Trott top scoring with 48 as Peter Siddle picked 5/ 50 from his 14 overs. In reply, the Aussies scored 280 as they were placed at 117/9 at one stage. Debutant Ashton Agar scored 98 while Phil Hughes was not out on 81 as the last wicket pair added 163 runs to give Australia a lead of 65 runs.

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England hold their nerves to win the Test.

The home team seemed in trouble once more as Mitchell Starc removed Joe Root and Trott in successive balls. Skipper Alastair Cook with 50 and Kevin Pietersen with 64 then added 110 runs for the third wicket.

It was Ian Bell who was the star for England with the bat as he scored 109 off 267 balls with 15 hits to the fence. Stuart Broad hung in to score 65 runs from 148 balls as England were bowled out for 375 with an overall lead of 310.

Needing 311 to win, the Australians got a good start thanks to openers Shane Watson (46) and Chris Rogers (52). The 84 runs stand was broken when Stuart Broad and James Anderson removed the duo. Anderson kept striking at regular intervals as Australia were reduced to 231/9.

That’s when Brad Haddin and James Pattinson came together as yet another last-wicket pair frustrated the English bowlers for the second time in the game. With the game finely poised Brad Haddin went on the offensive and waged a lone battle. Pattinson held up one end as he scored 25 from 57 balls with 2 fours and a six.

In the end, Anderson got his 5th wicket and won the match for England when he removed Haddin for 71. The Aussie had hit 9 fours in his knock which came off 147 balls in a stay that lasted 215 minutes. England won the match by 14 runs in the most dramatic fashion and also went on to win the Ashes before being trounced 5-0 later that year down under. 

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