England finally won the Ashes when the fifth and final Test match was drawn at the Oval cricket ground in London before a packed and delirious crowd. Outside the ground spectators hung precariously to rooftops and watched from tower blocks some way off through binoculars, any vantage point to take a peek at what would be a historic day.

And yet it could once again have been so different as the Australians came out breathing fire and brimstone on the final morning, skittling the English batsmen out in the early session. And when England