History of Ashes

The words on the original Ashes cup reads as follows :

When Ivo goes back with the urn, the urn;
Studds, Steel, Read and Tylecote return, return;
The welkin will ring loud,
The great crowd will feel proud,
Seeing Barlow and Bates with the urn, the urn;
And the rest coming home with the urn.

The beginning :

English people loved cricket. They found a rival in their own people down under - now called as Australians and started playing friendly matches.

That was the start of International test cricket as well. The year was 1877. But somewhere in between, English people missed the idea that if these cricket matches kept on going, someday they might lose as well.

That's what happened at the Oval on 29th August 1882 - the 9th test match between the two countries. Although it was just a 4 balls per over 2 day match, England team fell short by 7 runs and being the only test of the series - Australia not only won the match but the series as well.

"In affectionate remembrance of English cricket which died at The Oval, 29th August, 1882. Deeply lamented by a large circle of sorrowing friends and acquaintances. The body will be cremated and the Ashes taken to Australia." - wrote a London journalist, Reginald Shirley Brooks in a mock obituary (which means death notice). It was published by Sporting Times next day.

From that day onwards, these two countries play a test match series every 2 years. Whoever wins the series, wins the Ashes. If series is draw, Ashes remains with previous winner. 

Ashes Series

It's basically an urn (a vase of varying size and shape, usually having a footed base or pedestal) and can be seen in the cricket museum at Lord's. A red and a gold velvet bag - which were made specially for that urn and the scorecard of that 1882 test match reside along with it.

It's not known what that Ashes urn contains. Some say it has the ashes of the "bail" used in the 3rd test match when English team traveled to Australia to regain ashes after that Oval test loss. Some say it's burned ball... make your own guess..

Victory after follow-on 

Out of 1815 test matches as I write this, only three have seen teams coming back and winning after being forced to follow-on. Twice has been done by English team in Ashes series - at Sydney in 1894 and then at Leeds in 1981...

The 3rd and last miracle happened for Indian team at Kolkatta. Surprisingly, Australian team were always at receiving end.

Highest Totals 

Highest innings score by Australia in Ashes series is 729 for 6 declared at Lords in 1930, while their second best test innings total against England is 701 at Oval.

For England, Sir Leonard Hutton's 364 helped them reach 903 for 7 declared (the 2nd highest Innings score by any country) at the Oval, and the test victory by an innings and 578 runs - the biggest test win margin for any country against anyone. 

Lowest totalls 

Australians were bowled out for only 36 in 1902 whereas English team were polished by Turner and Ferris for 45 in a Sydney test in 1887.
The other two lowest innings scores in Ashes series is 42 & 44 by Australia and 52 & 53 for England.