FIFTEEN
MICHAEL VAUGHAN
‘I don’t mind people thinking I’m this calm, laid-back bloke, but I have an inner steel as well.’
One of the pivotal moments of the greatest Ashes series of them all occurred at precisely 6.37 p.m. on 15 August 2005. England’s players trudged slowly from Old Trafford’s battlefield at the end of the third Test, limbs aching after seven hours of intense effort, heads bowed with disappointment for they had failed to take Australia’s last wicket in an epic encounter every bit as enthralling and exhilarating as their dramatic two run victory at Edgbaston the previous week.
Euphoria had been replaced by despair in just eight days and the momentum of the series had seemed to have swung cruelly back Australia’s way. Michael Vaughan, England’s captain, quietly gathered his spent troops together on Manchester’s famous turf, scene of Botham’s belligerent Ashes hundred in 1981 and Jim Laker’s 19 Australian scalps in the Ashes of 1956, and delivered a speech of which Winston Churchill – let alone Mike Brearley – would have been proud. ‘The boys were incredibly down, they were looking at the dirt,’ Vaughan said. ‘So I told them to take a look at the Australian players jumping around on the balcony and Brett Lee and Glenn McGrath hugging in the middle. These great Australian players were celebrating drawing a game of cricket! That had never happened before. I reminded my players that this match was for us to celebrate, as we had hammered them for a whole game. We had the belief and the positive aggression. The Ashes were there for the taking.’
It was a spontaneous call from Vaughan to address his players at that crucial moment, but it was typical of this highly astute captain. His strategies and tactics were to a large extent evolved in advance of the contest, often in conjunction with Duncan Fletcher, but his man-management skills were instinctive. That innate feel for the right time and the right words to shift your players’ mindset is what sets the great captains apart. With the series still level at 1–1, his intervention at Old Trafford was hugely significant. Before they even greeted their opposite numbers on the boundary edge, England’s players were transformed. As hands were shaken, they could look the Australians in the eye and know they had the psychological advantage. ‘We all thought we’d get the last wicket,’ said wicket-keeper Geraint Jones. ‘When we didn’t, the boys were flat, but to see the Aussies celebrating the draw gave us a huge lift. Things like that came from Vaughan’s always-thinking brain. That’s the way he operated: “What’s best for the team? How can I get the best from the players? How can I get them working towards the same goal?”’
There can be no doubt that Vaughan’s captaincy was a major factor in England’s Ashes success of 2005. In such a close series, where key Tests go down to the wire, the art of captaincy comes to the fore. And there can be no doubt that Vaughan out-captained Ponting throughout the most glorious of cricketing summers.
Vaughan had inherited the England Test side just two years earlier in 2003. Already England’s fledgling one-day captain, Vaughan was thrown the full job after Nasser Hussain – under whom the team had made real progress – called it a day after the first Test against South Africa. Despite a heavy first defeat against Graeme Smith’s side at Lord’s, Vaughan engineered a 2–2 draw and emerged from the series as a captain with real potential. Over the course of the next 12–18 months there was a changing of the guard as Hussain, Stewart, Butcher and Gough either retired or found themselves surplus to requirements as Vaughan ushered in a new era. The new recruits of Andrew Strauss, Geraint Jones, Ian Bell and a rejuvenated Simon Jones complemented the likes of Trescothick, Hoggard, Harmison, Giles and Flintoff, whose early grounding under Hussain had stood them in good stead. Hussain had instilled discipline and passion into his young charges, but Vaughan understood their needs had changed and took them forwards again. ‘Sometimes I think you have to give players the freedom to play,’ Vaughan said. ‘I used to think, “What would I want the captain to say to me? Release the shackles, just go and play, go and score.” To someone like Flintoff I might say, “Go and hit boundaries.” I knew if he got to 15 or 20 he’d find his defence. I am not a big one on technique. Once you’re at the highest level it’s been embedded for many years.’
This new approach paid huge dividends, as England swept all before them in 2004. England won ten out of eleven Tests playing an attacking brand of cricket, including home series whitewashes of the West Indies and New Zealand. With every victory, another building block of belief was slotted into the foundations that would yield an Ashes triumph. Harmison, whom Hussain always seemed to be berating like a frustrated schoolmaster, started to fulfil his potential after taking 7 for 12 in Jamaica, while his new-ball partner Matthew Hoggard went from steady swing bowler to canny match-winner as he expanded his repertoire of deliveries and ability to knock over left-handers.
It was Vaughan’s unlocking of Flintoff’s magic, though, that really allowed England to dream. Under Vaughan, an unshackled Flintoff became both the best all-rounder in the world and England’s big-hearted talisman. By the time England had conquered South Africa in their own backyard, thanks in large part to three hundreds from Strauss and Hoggard’s 7 for 61 in Johannesburg, England knew they had it in them to win cricket’s greatest prize.
Importantly, Australia held no fear for Vaughan. He had scored more hundreds against them in one series (three in 2002–03) than a combination of Michael Atherton and Alec Stewart had achieved throughout their whole careers. His sublime batting against Sri Lanka, India and Australia had seen him rise temporarily to the top of the world rankings. He was not under pressure for his place and he had nothing to prove as a batsman. It allowed him to concentrate on his captaincy. ‘For a long time as captain my own form with the bat didn’t matter to me,’ Vaughan said. ‘I wanted to play well to help the team, but I just wanted to win, which meant it was more important that I got the best out of the other players. I always thought that if I could get 10 per cent more out of each of them and my form dipped by 10 or 15 per cent then we’d gained a lot. I tried never to speak to them as a team when I knew I only needed to speak to one or two people. I spent a lot of my energies man-managing and trying to build the other players up, possibly to the detriment of my own game. I certainly didn’t put my batting to the top of the priority list.’
It is a very different approach to some of the other captains in this book. Gooch, Stewart, Ponting, Border and Waugh are all believers in getting your own game in order first before you put your captain’s head on. But Vaughan was England’s leader in everything he did and, with Fletcher, he started plotting Australia’s downfall. ‘Fletcher very much believed the captain was in charge,’ Vaughan said. ‘He provided the captain with strategy, force and a direction, but the captain was the leader of the whole team. In terms of personality, I was the more adventurous. I’m a bit of a punter and would often go to the extreme, wanting to declare to have a crack at winning, while Fletch was more conservative. We’d clash somewhere in the middle, which was perfect. It’s a wonderful, rare thing, the art of captaincy. For me, it’s all about making the right calls at the right time, but also it’s important that you’re given the power to devise the strategies and make decisions involving the team.
‘The year before the Ashes, Fletch and I had a vision of what the team would look like and what scoring rates we would need to go at. The Aussies were scoring at 3.7 an over, so there was no point thinking we could win scoring at 3 per over as we’d have to bat for 30 more overs just to achieve parity, which against their attack wasn’t going to happen. We had to match their scoring rate and back our bowlers to bowl their batters out. We had to have a go and be aggressive.
‘As the series approached a lot of focus was put on enjoying the moment, the fact that we had a good team, that everyone was fit and playing well. If we could beat them or match them in a few one-dayers, it would raise the confidence of all our team. It’s all right talking about being aggressive but doing it is the answer.’
The two sides first locked horns at the Rose Bowl for the Twenty20 international. While the Australians approached the match as an opportunity to blow away a few cobwebs, Vaughan knew it was a chance for England to practise what he preached, an opportunity to put down a marker for the rest of the summer. Indeed, the team’s focus on the bigger picture was perfectly illustrated by Gough, who, despite having retired from the Test arena, struck a psychological blow as important as at any time in his Ashes career. On a hat-trick, with Australia on the ropes in front of a packed Rose Bowl, any cricket connoisseur worth his salt would have put money on Gough bowling a full swinging delivery at the stumps. Gough was not shy of the limelight and would have surely loved to add another Australian hat-trick to the one he famously picked up at Sydney in 1998–99. Andrew Symonds, the new batsman, certainly expected the full ball, as he lunged blindly on to the front foot. Gough, though, banged in a quick bouncer, which struck Symonds a painful blow on the shoulder. The big Queenslander didn’t flinch but Gough, like a mad British bulldog, stared him down from three yards away. It was the personification of England’s intent.
The extended run of one-day games before the main event then enabled England’s young side to familiarise themselves with some of the legends of the world game. The hype surrounding the Ashes was everywhere, but thrashing it out with Australia in the one-day arena helped burn off England’s nervous energy and demystify the opposition. ‘Because we had played against them in the Twenty20 and the one-dayers, the teams got used to each other,’ said Geraint Jones. ‘We tied the one-day series so we knew there wasn’t much between us, and we’d played them seven times before the Test series started so we approached the first Test without the fear factor.’
One of the interesting Ashes sub-plots was whether England would prefer the audacious Kevin Pietersen to the dependable Graham Thorpe at number five in the order. Pietersen announced himself on the one-day international scene earlier in the year against his native South Africa, scoring 454 series runs including three hundreds at an average of more than 150. He had no Test experience but had also taken a shine to the Australians at Bristol, scoring a brilliant 91 not out in the first NatWest Series match. Thorpe, who had played the first two Tests of the summer against Bangladesh and had a good record against the old enemy, remained favourite right up to the eve of the Test but that was to underestimate Vaughan’s adventurous streak.
‘As quite a conservative person I was advocating Thorpe,’ said Marcus Trescothick, England’s unofficial vice-captain and a key member of the Vaughan/Fletcher think-tank. ‘He’d done well against them before and was useful to have coming in at number five to dig us out of trouble. Mick, however, was much more positive and preferred to play someone who might put us in a winning position over someone who would salvage a situation. I was a bit reserved about it, but it proved to be one of the best selections England had made for a long time.’
After what had seemed like an eternity the most eagerly awaited of Ashes series finally got underway on 21 July under light-grey skies at Lord’s. England’s captain had been planning for this battle for the best part of two years. The preparation done, the team at full strength, they now had to go out and perform. ‘I said to them, “Just trust your games and go out and play.” I think the most important thing on the first day of any Test series is to trust your game – all your preparation and practise has gone, you have to watch the ball and back yourself,’ Vaughan said.
On a Lord’s pitch that was spicier than usual, Ponting won the toss and elected to bat. Vaughan threw the ball to Harmison who, roared on by a capacity crowd, bowled fast and straight. He dealt Langer a painful blow to the forearm and, after Hoggard had bowled Hayden with a beautiful in-swinger, greeted the Australian captain with a quick bouncer that clanged him on the side of the grille. Play was stopped for several minutes while the physio stemmed the trickle of blood from Ponting’s ear, which only added to the tension. None of the England players enquired as to Ponting’s well-being – this was Test cricket at its most brutal.
Vaughan, in his undemonstrative way, pulled the strings from mid-off. Attack and aggression were the order of the day, but the Australians met fire with fire, Langer reeling off boundaries without ever looking secure as Australia scored at nearly five an over. Harmison accounted for Ponting and then Langer went for one big shot too many, splicing a pull shot off Flintoff straight up in the air.
The last time Simon Jones experienced Ashes action, at the Gabba, he was carried off on a stretcher, having torn his knee ligaments. A long recovery ensued but he was now the final piece of Vaughan’s jigsaw. Bowling from the Nursery End, and using the famous Lord’s slope to help to take the ball away from the right-handers, he accounted for Damien Martyn caught behind and Michael Clarke lbw to leave Australia 87 for 5. Adam Gilchrist threatened to counter-attack his way out of trouble, but he was undone by Flintoff, who perfectly executed Fletcher’s plan of taking the ball away from the left-hander from around the wicket. Warne and Katich pushed Australia towards 200, but Harmison returned to finish off the tail for a total of 190.
At tea on the first day England were cock-a-hoop. They had bowled out arguably the most formidable batting line-up in world cricket for under 200 runs, and Strauss and Trescothick had negotiated six overs relatively untroubled. The evening session, however, belonged to the Aussies and, not for the first time at Lord’s, to Glenn McGrath. At his unerring best, McGrath gave a lesson in how to exploit the seam movement and variable bounce offered by the pitch. From the Pavilion End, he moved the ball down the slope at decent pace to have England’s left-handed openers both taken at slip before slicing through the defences of Vaughan, Bell and Flintoff, who were all bowled by fast off-cutters. England’s world was in tatters at 21 for 5.
In many ways, it was the perfect script for Pietersen, who at the fall of the third wicket strode out like a knight from medieval times to begin his legend. All that was missing was a noble steed and a sponsored jousting lance. The damsel in distress, England, needed a new hero and he sought immediate retribution on her oldest sworn enemy. Pietersen silenced those who doubted his technique was fit for Test cricket by getting across to off stump and playing well forward to negate McGrath. When Warne, his Hampshire teammate, entered the fray, he used his long levers to good effect by launching him over mid-wicket. He found an energetic ally in Geraint Jones (30) and the pair set about repairing the damage, adding 58 for the sixth wicket. Pietersen hit McGrath straight for six to bring up his fifty and only finally departed when Martyn pulled off a stunning catch on the mid-wicket fence. The gamble on Pietersen had proved correct; he looked every inch a world-class star in the making.
Australia had been given a scare in the first innings, but their riposte with the ball had drained some of England’s confidence. Vaughan’s fast men were less hostile the second time around and Australia’s middle order fired, racking up 384. Warne and McGrath then dismantled England in all too familiar fashion, sharing eight wickets as only Pietersen offered any resistance. Despite his 64 not out, England could muster just 180 to go down by a whopping 239 runs.
The media sharpened their knives and prepared to stick them in but, behind closed doors, Vaughan’s relaxed demeanour demonstrated to his players that he still believed. This was not a time for self-recrimination. ‘I just emphasised the positives,’ Vaughan said. ‘The start we made was positive; Pietersen’s debut had been very impressive and Harmison’s bowling outstanding, so there was nothing to be too downhearted about. Yes, we’d lost the first match, but our bowlers had shown Australia we could get 20 wickets and if you can get 20 wickets, you can win games of cricket. It gave us a boost.’
Vaughan was never one for a lot of detailed post-match analysis. He went away for a few days and worked at correcting some minor technical flaws in his batting with Fletcher. By the time the England team regrouped ahead of the Edgbaston Test, he was clear what needed to happen. ‘It is always key how you respond to losing a game,’ Vaughan said. ‘We had dealt with the negativity in the press well and now we had to turn it round. My message was to go forward, have a go, be aggressive. When we batted, I wanted us to tee off and try to take the game to them. When Warne came on, I wanted us to get after him because at Lord’s, with the exception of KP, we were all a bit tentative against him. I said I didn’t mind if we got out having a whack, but I wanted him to go at between four and five runs per over.’
England were up for the challenge of levelling the series and were given a real boost ahead of the game when McGrath trod on a ball in the warm-ups and badly damaged his ankle. Ponting’s plan had been to bowl first on winning the toss, but surely with his premier fast bowler injured a re-think was needed. ‘I was having a massage when the toss took place,’ said Trescothick. ‘Straussy and I were watching it on TV. We couldn’t believe it when Ponting elected to bowl. We were delighted to get in first. We knew it was going to get harder and harder.’
‘Ricky winning the toss and sticking us in was nice,’ said Vaughan. ‘McGrath falling over helped. But our mentality also helped. Because we were all up for it and willing to give it a go; you make your own luck. If you’re a bit timid and scared, things don’t go your way.’
England flew out of the traps determined to make amends for their poor showing at Lord’s. Without McGrath, Ponting didn’t have the control he was used to and Australia were caught unawares. ‘We smashed them in the first session,’ Trescothick said. ‘I was 77 not out at lunch. It was like they were in shock and totally taken aback by what we did. We were growing by the over and they were almost wilting by the over.’
England’s three most explosive players, Trescothick (90), Pietersen (71) and Flintoff (68) all made half-centuries at around a run a ball as Australia’s bowlers were put to the sword. As Vaughan had requested, Warne did go for nearly five an over – and he was the most economical. ‘I know I wanted us to be aggressive, but I didn’t envisage 407 in less than 80 overs!’ Vaughan said.
Australia batted three overs fewer than England in their first innings but conceded a lead of 99, as if to reinforce Vaughan’s earlier point regarding run rates. As at Lord’s, though, Ponting’s men fought back hard in the third innings of the game, knocking England over for 182. Warne and Lee shared all ten wickets, but Flintoff muscled his way to 73 before he was last out, adding a crucial 51 for the last wicket with Simon Jones.
Australia needed 282 to take an almost unassailable lead in the series. Langer and Hayden put on 47 for the first wicket but then Flintoff yanked the game England’s way with a ferocious spell that accounted for Langer and Ponting. The Australian captain won’t face a better over of fast bowling if he plays until he’s 40: Flintoff, fired up and operating at speeds well above 90 mph, found enough reverse-swing to be nigh on unplayable. Having edged a ball in front of gully and survived two close shouts for lbw, Ponting got a faint touch to the last delivery of the over, which held its line and bounced; he was gone for nought.
England were relentless. The quicker bowlers hammered away at Australia, taking wickets at regular intervals, while an economical Ashley Giles proved a useful foil by always asking questions of the batsmen by landing the ball consistently in the rough. When Gilchrist chanced his arm against the left-arm spinner, only to hole out to Flintoff cleverly positioned by Vaughan at deep mid-on, Australia were 136 for 6. Gillespie immediately followed, pinned in front by Flintoff, but all the while Michael Clarke and Warne were together Australia held fleeting hopes of a miracle. The final act of an incredible third day saw Harmison bowl Clarke with a beauty of a slower ball. Australia closed at 175 for 8; England were on the verge.
The denouement to the Edgbaston Test will live long in the memory. It was a piece of sporting theatre so great and so nerve-racking that you remember where you were when you watched it. I sat glued in front of the television in my mother-in-law’s front room, having just walked the dogs. My mother-in-law, meanwhile, was sitting on the edge of her seat in an Edgbaston hospitality box. I still wonder how that happened. ‘That last morning we thought we were going to cruise it,’ said Trescothick. ‘The way Fred and Harmy had been bowling, the fact it was spinning out of the rough – I thought, “They can’t score.”’
Warne and Lee had other ideas, however. Needing 107 more runs to pull off one of the great wins, in front of a feverish full house, they picked their moments to attack and battled magnificently. Warne skipped down the pitch to Giles to launch him straight for four and six, and Vaughan was forced into shuffling his attack. At such moments captains rely on their main men and Flintoff didn’t disappoint, accounting for Warne albeit through a huge slice of luck. Warne, who had been improvising to good effect, bizarrely trod on his stumps shaping to flick to the leg-side, departing for a valiant 42. And 62 runs were still needed – surely the game was up now for Australia? Not a bit of it, as Lee and now Kasprowicz mixed some lusty blows with some scampering between the wickets to inch ever closer to the finish line. ‘Like any situation where tail-enders are in at the death, the closer they get to the target the more they panic,’ Vaughan said. ‘When they’re 30–40 runs short, they’re just swinging, they don’t believe they’re going to win. When they get to within ten or fifteen, you can sense that they start to play differently. They were talking more. I knew we’d get a chance.’
That chance came when Flintoff, whom Vaughan had swapped to the City End, persuaded Lee to cut high to third man. Simon Jones seemed to pick it up late and, diving forward, put down a tough chance. ‘That was the opportunity and when Simon dropped it I thought we were gone,’ said Vaughan.
‘I do remember it going very quiet during the last ten runs or so,’ said Geraint Jones. ‘It was a bit like shell-shock. Tres said to me, “If we lose this, we’re not getting out of this ground alive.” It was just very quiet.’
Throughout all the drama and amid all the raging emotion, Vaughan kept his cool. His calm demeanour hadn’t changed at any stage. His predecessor, Hussain, by his own admission a nervous wreck at the best of times, could hardly bear to watch from the commentary box. ‘The whole country seemed to want us to win so badly the pressure was huge,’ Hussain said. ‘I wouldn’t have been able to breathe in that atmosphere. Vaughany kept a calm air throughout. It goes back to what Fletcher said: your players are always watching you.’
‘Vaughan’s biggest strength is his level-headedness,’ said Jones. ‘He was never vocal on the field. Even after that dropped catch you could just see him quietly thinking and working out where the game was going.’
Vaughan harnessed his two quickest bowlers, Flintoff and Harmison, who proceeded to throw everything bar the kitchen sink at the last pair. Yorkers, ‘rib-ticklers’, bouncers all at 90 mph were somehow negotiated. When they got to within one hit, Harmison bowled Lee a wide full toss, which he smashed towards the cover fence. The Australian players all jumped up, their view partly obscured in the pavilion, but Vaughan had kept his off-side sweeper in place: one run.
Harmison turned at the top of his mark with Australia needing three, took a deep breath and hurtled in again towards Kasprowicz. He banged the ball in short with every ounce of energy he had left. Kasprowicz tried to evade Harmison’s thunderbolt, but it was expertly directed and upon him too quickly. He flinched ever so slightly as his glove instinctively pushed it away from his throat. Geraint Jones dived forwards and wrapped two gloves around the ball inches from the turf; England had won. ‘Shell-shock became pandemonium in the space of a few seconds,’ said Jones, who set off on a bizarre, euphoric run to answer some of the earlier barracking he had received from sections of the crowd, before being engulfed by the rest of the team.
‘I got back to the dressing-room and remember feeling sick and drained from all the emotion, and then thinking, we’re right back in the Ashes,’ said Trescothick.
Ironically, Vaughan and possibly the two bowlers were the calmest men in the ground. It happens that way when you’re controlling the action, because you get absorbed in the present and forget about the possible repercussions or things out of your control. Even looking back at that dizzy morning in Birmingham, Vaughan remains quietly philosophical. ‘Everything happens for a reason,’ he said. ‘That whole series was meant to unfold that way. It was like being part of a soap opera. I am led to believe that that was the first time the press room had cheered. The unwritten rule in the press room is that you don’t clap or cheer, but when that catch happened everyone cheered and I think it’s because it gave everyone a lift – they knew they were going to get a great series, great coverage. I’d wanted us to be in with a chance of winning the series with two Tests to go. We were back in it; the series was very much alive.’
Back-to-back Tests meant the two teams hardly had time to catch their breath before they were slugging it out all over again. If Edgbaston had felt like a phenomenal atmosphere, then Old Trafford was something else. ‘It was in seeing the full house at Old Trafford, where there were thousands more locked out, that it dawned on us how much this Ashes series had captured the nation,’ Vaughan said. ‘It was a very special atmosphere and gave everyone a great buzz.’
Vaughan won the toss, elected to bat and found himself entering the arena to accompany his old mate Trescothick in just the tenth over. His highest score of the series up to that point had been the 24 scored in the first innings at Edgbaston. England now needed Vaughan the batsman as much as Vaughan the captain. ‘It was crucial for me to get some runs at Old Trafford, as I hadn’t got any in the first four knocks of the series,’ he said. ‘I started to hit the ball better at Edgbaston so I had a lot of belief going into Old Trafford, and you gain belief from winning, too, as you’re in the series. I had luck: I was dropped, then bowled off a no-ball. The crowd were just inviting attacking cricket. It was like they were urging you on; it was almost impossible to block a ball. I just attacked, we got 360 on the first day at four an over – that’s great cricket.’
England played the attacking style of game that had characterised their performances over the previous two years. Vaughan had been telling his players to express themselves and be aggressive, and now he was doing exactly that by leading from the front. By the time he passed fifty he was back to his sublime best, nailing cover drives and pulling balls that were just a fraction short. He was particularly severe on Jason Gillespie, a bowler the England players had targeted ever since the one-dayers. ‘We talked about getting on top of Gillespie from the start,’ said Trescothick. ‘He wasn’t quite firing and was obviously under the pump. Michael played brilliantly. He’d always been a thorn in the Aussies’ side. He had that great series in 2002–03 where he got those three big hundreds, and was the best player in the world at the time, and I think they feared him. He had proved he could stand up to the best team in the world.’
Not since Alec Stewart, at Melbourne in 1998–99, had an England captain scored an Ashes hundred. Rarely had a Lancashire crowd accorded a Yorkshireman (albeit one born in the red rose county) such an ovation on reaching the milestone. Vaughan scored 66 more runs off just 52 balls, as he found it impossible to rein himself in. Ian Bell was playing beautifully alongside his captain and the crowd roared its approval. It was heady stuff and perhaps got the better of the normally ice-cool Vaughan, who holed out off the part-time bowling of Katich.
Vaughan, though, had made another bold statement. His hundred – the first in the series on either side – meant England bossed the game for the remainder of the match. Ponting scored a brilliantly defiant 156 on the last day as Australia hung on for the draw, but the contrasting centuries symbolised the shifting balance of power in the series. Vaughan’s captaincy and now his forthright batting had helped change the whole context of the Ashes in the space of a few weeks. As he said to his team at the end of the match, ‘The Ashes are there for the taking.’
As captain in 2005, Vaughan sought any means he could to let Australia know he was no pushover. Right from the outset of the series he had politely refused to accept Australia’s request to take a fielder’s word on the legitimacy of disputed catches. Vaughan was of the opinion that if it was available then technology should be used and he stuck to his guns. He was aware, too, that England’s use of substitute fielders to allow the bowlers time to change shirts had riled the Australians.
‘The Australians always try to bully you,’ Vaughan said. ‘I knew we were getting under their skin by the way we were playing anyway and I was very confident with the players I had. I don’t mind people thinking I’m this calm, laid-back bloke, but I have an inner steel as well. There was no way I was going to back down to any catches or sub fielders because I knew it was annoying them. The more external thoughts they had the more it was going to affect their game, the more they weren’t going to watch the ball and react. You could see the Haydens and Langers getting more and more frustrated by our tactics and by our manner on the pitch.
‘The lads all backed each other. If there was a confrontation, you sensed that three or four would come in to help. It wasn’t anything nasty. It’s all about psychology. If you can affect the game of the likes of Hayden, who is such a massive player for them, by 1 per cent, you are doing a decent job and I think we affected it probably more so in that series. When it’s 11 versus 11, if you go out with the right attitude you’ve got a chance because everyone is human. I think England teams of the past have maybe looked at them as not being human, as being some invincible team. If you think they’re invincible, you’re going to get smashed; you’re not giving yourself half a chance.’
Australia’s composure finally cracked at Trent Bridge. England rattled along at four an over to post their biggest score of the series: 477. At 241 for 5 the game had been in the balance, but Flintoff and Jones swung it England’s way with a partnership of 177, Flintoff scoring a brilliant hundred and Jones 85.
Australia then subsided to 218 all out as Hoggard and Simon Jones exploited the overhead conditions to find some lavish swing. Vaughan turned the temperature up on Ponting by inviting Australia to follow on, the first time they had suffered such a fate for 17 years. Ponting, determined to repeat his Old Trafford heroics, was playing well and approaching fifty when Martyn called him for a sharp single to cover. England’s substitute fielder, Gary Pratt, on the field because of an injury to Simon Jones, swooped on the ball and beat Ponting with a direct hit. As he returned up the pavilion steps, Ponting boiled over and gave Fletcher – who appeared suddenly on the England balcony sporting a huge grin – a verbal volley about England’s use of substitutes.
England bowled Australia out on the stroke of tea on the fourth day for 387. They would need 129 runs to win to take a 2–1 lead in the Ashes. ‘Sometimes those small targets are trickier than bigger ones because you go out and try to finish it early,’ Vaughan said. ‘Then suddenly a couple of wickets fall and a few doubts set in.’
After Trescothick and Strauss got England away to their now customary fast start (32 in five overs), Warne picked up Trescothick at silly point with his first ball. He quickly added Vaughan for a duck and then, with the score on 57, Strauss, who waited for confirmation from the third umpire about the legitimacy of Hayden’s catch taken at leg-slip. After Bell top-edged a hook off Lee, Flintoff and Pietersen took England to the brink but neither could see the team home. Lee, charging in like a man possessed, found Pietersen’s edge and then produced arguably the ball of the series, which ripped back through Flintoff’s defences at 94 mph to trim the off bail. When Geraint Jones lofted Warne to long-off, England were 116 for 7 and in danger of choking the game away.
Two more dependable men in a crisis than Giles and Hoggard you couldn’t wish to find, however, and the unsung duo calmly knocked off the remaining 13 runs to start the celebrations. England were 2–1 up with just the Oval Test to come. Avoid defeat and it was the Ashes.
England had ten days to prepare for the Oval Test, yet Vaughan could contemplate little else. As captain, you’re so used to having to think the whole time that it can be difficult to switch your brain off, let alone when the biggest prize in the game is almost within your grasp. ‘I was totally absorbed by only one thing: winning back that little urn,’ Vaughan said. ‘I didn’t spend one hour of any day without thinking about who we were going to pick, how we were going to play the five most important days of our cricketing lives to date. Would I win the toss? How would we play the genius of Warne? Would McGrath produce the kind of spell that rocked us at Lord’s in the only match we had lost? Could I get another hundred?’
The biggest question was, of course, surrounding team selection. Simon Jones had badly injured his ankle at Trent Bridge, so in would come either James Anderson as a like-for-like replacement or Paul Collingwood. ‘We were of the opinion that it wouldn’t swing too much so we bolstered our batting and fielding by including Collingwood,’ Vaughan said. ‘We wanted his all-round game, not just his batting. He could bowl a few overs if necessary and there are few better fielders in the game – if any. With Colly coming in at number seven, it looked a formidable line-up.’
‘Colly was a safe pick,’ said Trescothick. ‘If we’d have been 1–1 or 1–0 down, we’d have probably gone with Jimmy. It was different being one up to one down in terms of approach. It’s a slightly different game, but we knew that we had to be positive. There was no way we were going to go out and block it, as we’d be sitting ducks.’
‘I told them just to ensure they expressed themselves, to go out and play as normally as they could,’ Vaughan said. ‘I didn’t want the fact we only needed a draw to affect the way we approached and played the game. We had to take them on and play in a positive manner, whether we were batting or bowling, and to make sure our body language was good at all times.’
In such a ding-dong series it was no surprise that the fate of the Ashes would not be known until the final session of the last day of the last Test. Warne and Flintoff had both been immense for their teams in the first half of the match, the former taking six wickets, the latter scoring 72 and taking 5 for 78, but the result hinged on whether England could bat for most of the last day. Forty runs in front of Australia overnight, for the loss of just Strauss, could England be bold enough to keep playing their shots and stretching their lead?
Vaughan again set the tone, playing fluently for 45, but McGrath turned the game on its head by removing England’s captain, caught behind, and then Bell, who pushed tentatively at the very next ball and edged to Warne at first slip. England were 67 for 3 and in danger of undoing all the good work of the summer.
Cometh the hour, however, cometh KP. If England needed him at Lord’s, they really needed him now, and the adrenalin was pumping through his veins. ‘When Kev came out to bat, I was at the other end,’ said Trescothick. ‘He was facing Warnie, it was turning big; the pressure was immense. The game and the series hung right on that moment. He came to me and said, “I’m not going to block him any more, I’m going to slog him,” and the next two balls went for six. I thought, “You just can’t do things like that.” His confidence and belief are frightening.’
Warne picked up Trescothick for 33 and Flintoff for 8, while Lee blasted away at Pietersen in a ferocious spell just before lunch. Pietersen survived, but England lunched uncomfortably on 127 for 5; two more quick wickets and Australia would be favourites. ‘Before the break KP looked like he might get out to Lee, who bowled quicker than he had all summer,’ said Vaughan. ‘I told him he had to stay positive and look to take him on as he was more likely to get out playing defensively. I also knew that an hour of him being positive would go a long way to making the game safe.’
Australia chipped out Collingwood, but he had batted for over an hour for his 10 runs and helped Pietersen to add 50. Shaun Tait then flattened Geraint Jones’s stumps to give Ponting renewed hope, but Pietersen was not to be denied his finest hour. Heeding Vaughan’s advice, he returned everything the Aussies threw at him with interest, bringing up his maiden Test hundred off just 124 balls with ten fours and four sixes. At tea England were 221 for 7. The team, the crowd and the nation could begin to relax.
For Michael Vaughan, soon to be seen as the architect of England’s finest Ashes series win of all time, it was a proud moment. One of his closest friends and staunchest allies, Giles, was out in the middle with the new kid on the block, leading England home to Ashes glory. Vaughan had played a significant role in both their England careers as, indeed, he had with every member of his team.
Yes, he knew all about tactics and the strategic nuances of the game, but his real gift was the ability to inspire those around him. He gave his players the freedom to express themselves and the belief that an entirely different type of game was possible. He gave them permission to be aggressive, to make mistakes along the way without fear of recrimination. But he also harnessed his players’ collective expression and threw it in the face of the old enemy. Under Vaughan, England would be bullied by Australia no longer. The boy hails from Sheffield, you see: steel country.