Most Memorable Ashes Innings

Found this on cricinfo.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/the-ashes-2013/content/story/659241.html

Ponting's was the most pressurised, and ultimately the best, imo.

Hmmm, no room for Pietersen's 158 from the same series?

Ponting's was certainly a masterclass, and I wouldn't argue too severely against it being considered the best, all things taken into account.

I would personally have Steve Waugh's 1st hundred at Old Trafford in 97 in the list. With Australia 1-0 down, batting first on a green wicket and 3 wickets down for not very many, it was a tremendous innings, which set Australia on their way to winning the ashes (again...). I find it astonishing that this doesn't make the top 5, in my view it should be right up there.

Clarke's hundred at Lords in 2009 would also be not far away, but probably just off the pace.

Never saw Botham's innings but most say his ton in the next test was better.

Great Ashes innings
1. Pietersen at The Oval 2005 - enough said
2. Peter Burge's 160 at Leeds 1964 - turned the match and the Ashes (the only positive result that year)
3. Greg Chappell 131 at Lord's 1972 in Massie's match - took Australia into a crucial, match-winning lead.
4. Botham's 149 at Leeds and 118 at Manchester in 1981 - both match winners
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From history rather than personal memory
1. Hobbs and Sutcliffe 100s on a sticky at The Oval in 1926 to win the Ashes
2. Jessop's brilliant 100 at The Oval in 1902
3. Stan McCabe's blistering 232 at Nottingham in 1938
4. Eddie Paynter's "sick-bed" 83 at Brisbane in 1932/33

Sure others can come up with many more

My personal favourite is Nasser's double hundred at Egbaston 1997. A great innings, taking England from a position of peril to a match winning total.

That was probably my favourite ever Test match.

I guess there are Ashes innings which completely turn, or win, series and there are just terrific displays in their own right.
Peter May got a 100 in Hutton's 54/55 tour when England had been thrashed in the first Test and were trailing on first innings in the second. England won the match and two after that to take the Ashes.
Bradman effectively won three Tests in a row with his batting in 1936/37 when the Aussies came from two down to win 3-2.
Ponting's 156 at Manchester was a great match-saving innings. Some may recall Bob Barber's fantastic 185 in Mike Smith's 1965/66 tour.
Alan Border made a courageous 100 with a broken figure in a losing cause at Manchester in 81 and a match-winning 196 at Lord's in 85.
People well remember Botham's heroics in 81 but he also made a brilliant 100 at Brisbane in 1986/87 when England had looked a shambles going into the match, which they won.
Steve Waugh's 100s at Leeds and Lord's in 1989 also set up wins for an unfancied tourist team.

Of the knocks listed by cricinfo, I have seen those of Butcher and Ponting. I started following Ashes cricket from 1997 but can't remember too many of the early scores with clarity though I remember Hussain scoring a double and Waugh scoring a ton as well in that series. My favorite is certainly Kevin Pietersen 158 in 2005. KP I can very much remember the 6s he hit of Lee, the early struggles and the Shane Warne drop. It was a fabulous counterattack under serious pressure. The match situation it self was enough to build significant pressure. Besides we have to consider the kind of pressure the context of the series brought about, England were closing in on an Ashes win after 19 years, cricket had gripped national imagination like never before, the entire cricket world was sitting up and taking note. Also can't forget the fact that Kevin Pietersen was not the Kevin Pietersen of today who is England's prime batsman, but he was the dasher who replaced the seriously experienced Graeme Thorpe who stood alone or saved England during many a crisis.

Perhaps my earliest ashes memory (I was about 8), was Tony Greig's century at Brisbane in 1974, when he signalled his own boundaries off Dennis Lillee. Didn't watch it, of course, but I snuck a radio into my bedroom with one of those single earpieces you used to have and listened to the cricket until I fell asleep, (don't remember how I got up for school the next day). I seem to remember that the commentators were quite aghast at his antics. Didn't win or save the match but, on a personal level, it was a very memorable innings for me.

Could be a huge discussion about best innings...

But the title is "Most memorable " so there really isn't much of a contest. For anyone who saw it , Botham's Headingley effort by a mile...

I see the voting public agreed.

Think Pietersen's has got to be in there somewhere.

alfie wrote:Could be a huge discussion about best innings...

But the title is "Most memorable "  so there really isn't much of a contest.  For anyone who saw it , Botham's Headingley effort by a mile...

I see the voting public agreed.

Well summed up.

To put the Botham Headingley heroics in 1981 into context. England were at one point 92 behind with JUST THREE WICKETS left on a bowler's wicket.
They were later just 25 ahead with two wickets left yet somehow managed to win. On a poor track, Botham had been given permission by Brearley to swing. The Aussies thought he just had to get out pretty soon but thanks to sterling work from Dilley, Old and Willis England managed to get 130 ahead and bowl Australia out.
This was arguably the most incredible of all England's Test wins.

Super thread. Thanks, Stella.

Sir Fred is playing a memorable innings himself with some very fine posts. Love the reminder of the Eddie Paynter ''rising from his sick bed'' innings. Right as well to flag the wonderful century of Greg Chappell in ''Massie's match''. Botham's ''Headingley heroics'' are also perfectly and succinctly put into context. As regulars will know, I'm always a sucker for the supporting act - that part was probably never better played than by the late Graham Dilley as Botham's foil.

Two more for me - not great as measured in number of runs and technique but personally memorable and stand outish (at least for me) in terms of fighting spirit and determination.

David Steele - ''the bank clerk going to war'' in '75 with a 50 on debut at Lord's (after going down a flight of stairs too many on the way to the wicket and finding himself in an underground toilet!) against the might of Lillee and Thomson.

Monty Panesar and Jimmy Anderson holding their nerve and holding out against the 2009 Australians in the Wales Test.

2005 had some great innings (Ponting and KP already mentioned)

Would also add Flintoff's second innings at Edgbaston. That had a touch of Botham '81 about it, taking apart the bowling to set up a total to bowl at. He was also carrying an injury.

G'Bat. Thanks for the kind words. There was plenty of tail-end support for Peter Burge's series-turning 160 at Leeds in 1964. I think Neil Hawke was one of the stars then.
 Wally Hammond's 240 v the Aussies at Lord's in 1938 must have been some knock, being described by Neville Cardus as a "throne-room innings.
  Aussies will recall Dougie Walters making 100 in his first Ashes Test and some years later reaching his 100 - in just one session, I think, - with a six.
  Less memorable was the bore-fest in the 1964 Manchester Test after Burge's Headingley innings. Both sides made 600, Bobby Simpson opened on the Thursday and was still batting on the Saturday morning and there was only time for one second-innings over.

Bradman's 334 at Leeds? 309 in one day. I think he scored another triple on the next tour. He wasn't a bad bat.

Bradman in 1930 - 131 at Nottingham, 254 at Lord's, 334 at Leeds and 232 at The Oval. A total of 974 in the series.
He was going for the 1,000-in-a-series target when he was given out caught behind at The Oval from a lone appeal from mid-on. Duckworth the keeper and Hammond at slip did not appeal. The Don not best pleased. Mind you, no doubt the DRS would have got it wrong !

It's already been mentioned Monty Panesar and Jimmy Anderson seeing off the Ausies in the Wales 2009 Test. It was the most memorable because every ball they faced my heart was in my mouth, and I've never had that feeling before or since while watching cricket.

A few more from the memory bank
1. 19-yr-old Neil Harvey making a 100 at Leeds in 1948 when the early batting had failed chasing England's 496.
2. The epic Watson/Bailey rearguard at Lord's in 1953.
3. The recalled Cyril Washbrook's 98 at Leeds in 1956
4. Colin Cowdrey's 102 out of 191 all out at Melbourne on the 1954/55 tour

Not a massive or match winning innings but a memorable one for me was Allan Border's 58 in the second innings of the 6th test at the Oval in 1985. He got a standing ovation from the whole crowd, me included, for his lone battle, not just in that innings, but for most of the tour.

What about Slater's innings in the final Test 98/99? 123 out of 184 all out, next highest score 24 with the third highest score 8!

http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/63818.html

Anyone mentioned Bradman and Morris' big hundreds to win the Headingly test of 1948, chasing 404?
Or Stan McCabe's 187 against Bodyline in 1932.
How about Victor Trumper's or Charlie Macartney's hundreds before lunch in 1902 1nd 1926 respectively?
Or, (and I know it doesn't really count as an Ashes innings), Derek Randall's 174 in the Centenary Test in 1977?

Speaking from series i've only seen, 2005 being my first ashes, i'd say:

KP's 158 at the Oval 05 - Taking apart Lee, McGrath and Warne and hitting them to all parts. The sweep shots vs Warne, walking down the pitch at McGrath and the baseball shot vs Lee was just incredible

Hoggy_Bear. You've mentioned some great knocks. Eng capt Archie MacLaren had a field worked out for Trumper at Manchester in 02 but said afterwards: "Victor kept putting the ball into the car park. I could hardly put a man into the car park, could I."
McCabe's 187 in the Bodyline series is seen as almost as good as his 232 at Nottingham in 1938

On the flip side. I read that Hutton's 364 was one of the most dour tons that some had seen.

Stella - yes, sheer weight of runs may not equal a great innings. In the 1960s we had Bobby Simpson's 311, Bob Cowper's 307 and Ken Barrington's 256 but they were not wonderful knocks.

Cook's 294 got a bit boring, tbh.

Excluding Bradman and may be Hammond, possibly the only consistently big-innings scorer in Test cricket who has been really entertaining has been Sehwag. Not sure anyone has played so many really fast big-total innings.

Michael Clarkes 151 at Newlands is one of the great innings. Scored 150 out of 280 on a pitch which would later claim Australia for 47 and South Africa for 96. Honestly genius innings which doesnt get the credit it deserves due to it being in a two Test series, and not the Ashes.

Andrew Symonds' 150 odd was pretty amazing.

He didn't think he could crack it at the Test level, hell everyone apart from the Aussie selectors probably thought he couldn't do it.

With his great pal Matthew Hayden, he showed he had the determination to get it done