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When Ian Healy helped Australia retain the Ashes for the fifth consecutive time

On August 10, 1997, Australia retained the Ashes for the fifth consecutive time when they beat England by a mammoth margin of 264 runs at Trent Bridge. Ian Healy’s blistering 63, backed up by seven dismissals as a wicketkeeper, sealed the deal for the visitors. Karthik Parimal looks back at that largely forgettable Test for England.

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Five in a row! From left: Steve Waugh, Mark Taylor and Ian Healy celebrate Australia’s fifth consecutive Ashes series victory after the fifth Test at Trent Bridge in 1997 © Getty Images

On August 10, 1997, Australia retained the Ashes for the fifth consecutive time when they beat England by a mammoth margin of 264 runs at Trent Bridge. Ian Healy’s blistering 63, backed up by seven dismissals as a wicketkeeper, sealed the deal for the visitors. Karthik Parimal looks back at that largely forgettable Test for England.

When England and Australia arrived at Trent Bridge for the fifth Test of the 1997 Ashes series, many, wisely, decided to refrain from placing bets on the home team. It was in the summer of 1985 that England last savoured the sight of the urn in their backyard. Ever since the ‘worst team to leave Australian shores’ thumped them in 1989, England failed to get a stranglehold. A victory in the first Test at Edgbaston and a draw at Lord’s in the 1997 series certainly raised hopes, but once Australia responded with a 268-run and an innings win, reality swiftly set in.

Desperate measures

Australia’s mammoth victory at Old Trafford confirmed their turning of corner. Despite the warning signals, the English selectors at the time decided to firmly throw their weight behind the chosen unit. However, after Leeds painted a similar picture in the fourth Test, Mark Butcher, Mark Ealham and Mike Smith made way to the debutants in Hollioake brothers — Adam and Ben — and Andrew Caddick. Devon Malcolm made a comeback too. Adam and Ben Hollioake were born in Melbourne and moved to England in 1983, and it was here that their skills in the sport were honed. As Wisden noted, the Hollioakes were “left to bask in the public’s adulation since their Texaco Trophy heroics, [and] were asked to give the [current English] side some of their Australian-bred self-confidence.”

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Adam Hollioake (left) and his brother Ben (right) collect their England caps from England captain Mike Atherton before their Test debut in the fifth Test against Australia at Trent Bridge, Nottingham. Sadly, less than five years later, Ben died in a horrific accident in Perth when his Porsche 924 crashed into a brick wall. He was just 24 © Getty Images

It showed that the think-tank, led by skipper Michael Atherton, had positive intentions, but to expect much from two debutants on a stage as big as the Ashes was stretching it a bit far. Australia won the toss and chose to bat first, and it soon became evident that hardly anything had changed since Leeds.

Australian top-order cashes in

In Darren Gough’s absence, the English bowling attack lacked teeth and the Australian openers duly made merry. A 117-run stand between Mark Taylor and Matthew Elliott ensued. Fresh off the 199 he amassed in the previous Test, Elliott looked set to broach another three-figure mark, but managed to edge one behind to wicketkeeper Alec Stewart off Dean Headley when on 69. Unfazed by the fall of wicket, Taylor kept plundering the frail bowling unit and had an able partner in Greg Blewett at the other end. The two added 43 before Taylor was castled by Caddick. At 160 for two, Mark Waugh strode out to the middle.

Meanwhile, Blewett dropped anchor at the other end and trudged to a fifty. It was then that Atherton decided to let the Hollioake brothers bowl in tandem and Ben promptly replied with Blewett’s wicket. Steve Waugh, the tour’s best batsman, made his way to the centre and it was now a case of the Waugh brothers against the Hollioake brothers. The younger Waugh was the only batsman in the Australian batting line-up to have not scored a century during that series. This time around, he dug in and looked set to break the dry spell. He struck seven boundaries, but was trapped dead in front of the stumps by Caddick, again, on 68.

Steve, though, extended his purple patch. He was almost ruled out of the tournament owing to a neck injury (obtained from trying to bring down a professional footballer with a head-on tackle, thanks to the extra booze during a party after the victory at Leeds), but recuperated a hundred per cent to don the whites and put on the helmet. Walking in to bat at 225 for three, he cut, drove and pulled with finesse, and albeit looking edgy for a brief period when England took the second new ball, he put on a handsome 75. Australia’s top five batsmen had all registered half-centuries and a lower-order collapse meant that their first innings total was a formidable 427. The English already had their task cut out.

Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne come together

Australia’s score looked unassailable considering England’s out-of-form batsmen, but Alec Stewart opened and put his willow to good use. He blazed his way to 87; an innings that took 107 balls to etch and was inclusive of 14 boundaries. At the other end, Atherton stayed away from the limelight and played his role to perfection. Resurgence looked likely. It was then that Warne’s genius was called into play and, not for the first or the last time, he struck twice to dismiss the openers. Stewart was caught behind in what was Ian Healy’s 300th catch in Tests. Forty balls later, Nasser Hussain’s nightmare came to an end when he was bowled by the spinner for two off 22 deliveries. Glenn McGrath was then recalled and he packed John Crawley back to the hut.

At 141 for four, Graham Thorpe and Adam Hollioake stitched together a defiant stand, but once the 102-run partnership ended, England collapsed from 243 for five to 313 all-out. Ben Hollioake’s 29-ball 38, five fours included, was the only noteworthy innings. McGrath took four wickets for 71 runs and Warne bagged the same number conceding 86.

The Ashes retained

Australia’s second innings began assertively and yet again the top three batsmen were among the runs. Although none of them got to the three-figure mark, their scores added on to the 124-run lead and effectively knocked England out of the match. The Waugh brothers failed to impress this time around, but the side was cushioned by Ricky Ponting’s 45 and Healy’s blistering 63 (nine fours). Once that stand ended, Warne came in and smacked a six in his 20. They finished on 336, leaving England an impossible 451 to get in the remaining two days.

 

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Alec Stewart (left) watches as Australian wicketkeeper Ian Healy catches him. Healy took the Man of the Match award after inflicting seven dismissals © Getty Images

“The Aussies put this [inflicting heavy and consistent defeats] down to their mental toughness and them having a hoodoo over us, but I think it’s more to do with the fact that we have always struggled to take 20 wickets in a Test against Australia,” wrote Nasser Hussain in his autobiography Playing With Fire. Well, on this occasion, England did manage to take 20 Australian wickets, but the target was so daunting that, apart from Thorpe’s unbeaten 82, none of the batsmen fought back and the team succumbed to a total of 186, thereby conceding defeat and, more importantly, the Ashes, by 264 runs. “It was an innings with no visible plan, a strange mix of strokeless submission and devil-may-care defiance,” Wisden rightly opined. For the fifth straight time, the Australians retained the urn.

Healy was awarded the man-of-the-match for his 63 and seven dismissals behind the stumps in the Test.

Brief scores:

Australia 427 (Mark Taylor 76, Steve Waugh 75, Matthew Elliott 69, Mark Waugh 68, Greg Blewett 50; Dean Headley 4 for 87) and 336 (Ian Healy 63, Ricky Ponting 60; Andrew Caddick 3 for 85) beat England 313 (Alec Stewart 87, Graham Thorpe 53; Glenn McGrath 4 for 71, Shane Warne 4 for 86) and 186 (Graham Thorpe 82*; Glenn McGrath 3 for 36, Shane Warne 3 for 43, Jason Gillespie 3 for 65) by 264 runs.

(Karthik Parimal, a Correspondent with CricketCountry, is a cricket aficionado and a worshipper of the game. He idolises Steve Waugh and can give up anything, absolutely anything, just to watch a Kumar Sangakkara cover drive. He can be followed on Twitter at https://twitter.com/karthik_parimal)

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