Top 10 Ashes Moments

1.2002-03: Steve Waugh's hundred at the SCG :
With his place in the Test side under threat, Waugh strode onto the SCG at the start of 2003 with his team and his career in the balance. What followed was a masterpiece. Starting without conviction, Waugh grew in stature with the bat as the afternoon progressed. As he approached his hundred, the Australian skipper raced the clock to try to reach his hundred before stumps on day four. He achieved the goal from the last ball of the day, which he punched to the cover boundary - beautifully called on ABC Grandstand by Jonathan Agnew and Kerry O'Keeffe. Ultimately Australia lost the Test, but that innings was one of Waugh's finest.
2.1993: Shane Warne's "ball of the century" :
Cricket fans in both Australia and England can probably tell you exactly where they were when Warne bowled his first ball in an Ashes Test. Mike Gatting was the unfortunate batsman, made to look clueless as the ball swerved from outside the off stump to pitch outside leg. Gatting pushed forward, only to see the ball fizz past his outside edge and clip the top of the off stump. The look on the former England captain's face was priceless. And a legend was born.
3.1948: Don Bradman bids farewell to Test cricket with a duck
An innings more remarkable for what preceded and followed it than for the two balls it lasted. Famously, Bradman required just four runs to finish with a Test batting average in three figures, but he was bowled by a googly from Eric Hollies. Both on his way to the wicket and back to the dressing room, the crowd at The Oval stood to a man and woman to applaud a true genius - a batsman whose record has never been approached, let alone matched.
4.1982-83: Allan Border and Jeff Thomson fall agonisingly short at the MCG
Proof positive that glorious failure can linger longer in the mind than run of the mill success. Border and Thomson took Australia to within four runs of an unlikely victory before their luck ran out. And who can forget the bizarre mode of Thommo's dismissal - his edge bounced out of Chris Tavare's hands at slip, only to lob in the direction of Geoff Miller who gratefully accepted the catch.
5.1974-75: Doug Walters' 100 in a session at the WACA
Scoring a century in a session is remarkable enough a feat - but to rack the milestone up by hooking the final ball for six takes it to a whole new level. That's exactly what Walters did in 1974-75. Having gone to tea with less than a handful of runs on the board, he put the final ball of the day from Bob Willis into the crowd to go to 103.
6.1972: Bob Massie destroys England with 16 wickets on debut at Lord's
Massie produced arguably the most devastating demonstration of the art of swing bowling to take eight wickets in each innings of his debut Test. Bending the ball in both directions, he left the England batting line-up bemused and it seemed a long career beckoned. Sadly, the secrets of swing left him soon afterwards but while his Test career was brief, at Lord's in 1972 it burned bright.
7.1970-71: Greg Chappell's century on debut at the WACA
The middle Chappell brother announced himself on the international stage with an imperious 108 in his first Test innings. He joined with Ian Redpath (171) to put on 219 for the sixth wicket as Australia replied to England 397 with 440. Interestingly, Chappell bowled 24 overs as a first change medium pacer in England's first innings, taking the wicket of Colin Cowdrey caught and bowled.
8.1961: Richie Benaud bowls Australia to victory at Old Trafford
With the five-Test series level at 1-1 and having set England a modest victory target in the fourth Test in Manchester, Australian skipper Benaud was facing the prospect of losing the Ashes. But bowling his leg breaks around the wicket into the rough he took 6 for 70 to bowl Australia to a 54-run victory. Quite superb, that.
9.1997: Glenn McGrath's 8 for 38 at Lord's
In the first innings of the Lord's Test in 1997 McGrath was near unplayable. In a match ruined by rain, he routed the English batting line-up taking 8 for 38 from 20.3 overs as the home side was skittled for just 77. It was a great performance by one of the all-time great fast bowlers.
10.1993: Michael Slater's maiden 100 at Lord's
Slater and Matthew Hayden were in direct competition at the start of the 1993 tour to join Mark Taylor at the top of Australia's order. Hayden made the early running, but his modest return in the one-dayers opened the door for Slater who was selected for the first Test. He made a half-century in that match, but sealed his place as Taylor's long-term partner with a swashbuckling hundred in the second Test. It was a performance famously sealed with a kiss on the coat of arms on his helmet.

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