Rob Bagchi: England’s captain, Douglas Jardine, ruthlessly decided to take on Australia and Donald Bradman using bodyline bowling

Everyone remembers what happened at Headingley in 1981, but was Edgbaston nine days later even more remarkable?

Simon Burnton: In a match where the ‘strain was so severe an onlooker dropped dead’, Fred Spofforth took 14 wickets and made cricket history

Mike Adamson: The denouement of the greatest Test match between England and Australia will never be forgotten

John Ashdown: A ferocious and unprecedented assault by the great Don Bradman at Headingley pave the way for Australia’s Ashes victory in 1930

Rob Bagchi: Tony Greig’s England captaincy produced one of the more unlikely Test selections, and a soon-to-be BBC sports personality of the year

Barney Ronay: Told they ‘can’t bat, can’t bowl, can’t field’ by Martin Johnson England’s shambling troupe of charisma artists enjoyed one last unlikely hurrah

Simon Burnton: Michael Slater batted England out of the match with a brilliant 176 on the first day of the first Test in 1994, his dominance beginning from the very first ball

Rob Bagchi: Ian Botham’s outlandish match-saving performance in the third Ashes Test brought victory and fresh hope after the gloom of the preceding defeat, disharmony and widespread rioting

Simon Burnton: How a final hour of ‘exquisite intensity’ was set up by Fred Tate’s irredeemable mistake and led to an Australia series victory

John Ashdown: A bonkers, boneheaded, crackpot single gave Gary Pratt a golden chance to become England’s unlikely hero

Rob Bagchi: The two great Australia fast bowlers left England so battered and bruised they had to call for an unlikely reinforcement

John Ashdown: Australia’s captain, Allan Border, epitomised a hard-nosed approach that swept England aside in 1989 and was to form the bedrock of the great sides to follow

Simon Burnton: Australia crumpled to the spin of Lock and Laker at The Oval to give England their first Ashes series on home soil for 27 years

Simon Burnton: Australia’s leg-spinner went back to basics to complete his first ever hat-trick

John Ashdown: The English off-spinner, Jim Laker, produced a magical exhibition of flight, turn and bounce to record the greatest bowling figures of all-time

Andy Bull: Donald Bradman proved more than a match for England after ‘a sensational battle of tactics’ allowed Australia to turn 2-0 deficit into a series victory

John Ashdown: The Yorkshire opener’s comeback was eagerly anticipated, but not as much as Trent Bridge was looking forward to welcoming home its favourite son back in 1977

Rob Bagchi: Spectators who dared to look did so through their fingers as England’s last-wicket pair Monty Panesar and Jimmy Anderson held on for a draw after Paul Collingwood’s defiance

Barney Ronay: Shane Warne’s drifting, leaping leg-break to bowl Mike Gatting at Old Trafford introduced the cricket world to a new hero