Simply the best from Ian Botham. From out of nowhere, when Australia started to smell a delicate win at Birmingham, Botham did incredible.

From 105 for 5 to 121 for 10. Ian Botham deserved to be the man of the match winner. The feat created by him back on August 2, 1981, is still considered as one of the iconic moments of The Ashes, which dignifies the intense rivalry between England and Australia. It was not among those high-scoring matches in the history of cricket.

That Ashes match was mostly dominated by the bowlers. A flurry of astonishing spells from the bowlers of both ends. Terry Alderman's 5-wicket haul was the hint in the first innings, which was later enhanced by Dennis Lillee and Ray Bright from the Aussie brigade. Mike Brearley, then the captain of England, dragged his team's total to 189 in the first innings with his individual 48. Australia replied strongly. With a combination of individual resilience and patience, they got 258 in their first innings batting.

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The best from the best

In the second innings, England again was not able to do much with their batting work, scoring only 219 and setting a target of 151 for Australia. It was not a tough target for a team that had batters like Allan Border, Kim Hughes (c), Martin Kent, and Rod Marsh in the lineup. The visiting side positioned them nicely to grab a win until they came into the crease for the run chase. England did not allow them to set on the wicket and create a long-standing partnership.

From the beginning of the second innings, they started to lose their scalps; Ian Botham came to blow away their last hope of ray. In 14 overs, he took 5 wickets with 9 maiden overs and a 0.78 economy rate. 

Ian Botham, a former England all-rounder, expressed concern that Test cricket would lose ground in India, particularly in light of the IPL’s growing popularity.

“You go to India now and they won’t watch Test cricket. It’s all IPL. They earn big money and it sounds great now, but how long do they think this is going to last? Test cricket has been around for 100 years plus, it’s not going to go anywhere,”

Botham told the Mirror Sport ahead of the Border Gavaskar series.

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“And if we do lose Test cricket, then we’ll lose cricket as we know it. It will become meaningless. To play a Test match is what every player should want to do,”

he added.

In addition, Botham discussed the forthcoming Ashes tour and stated that England could very well defeat Australia due to Bazball’s role in the Three Lions’ turnaround

Botham responded positively when asked if it is a viable procedure that can be continued:

“Yes, it’s sustainable, they’ve just played 10 games, won nine and lost one. Look, if you play like that you’re going to lose occasionally, it’s inevitable, but what a great advert for Test cricket. To win 3-0 in Pakistan is a great effort. Pakistan just don’t lose 3-0 at home. And to achieve that was fantastic. I think they’ll continue to play in that way; I think it’s something that goes through the dressing room, and they all want to be positive and they want to win. It’s not just about their batting that way, but bowling as well. They’ve decided they are going to go down this route and I think it’s the right way.”

he said.