The third Test – Willis ' 60th – came on 16 July, and England were able to level the series 1: 1 thanks to Botham's Man of the Match performance ( seven wickets, century and half century ) and Willis's hostile bowling in the second innings.

His match figures were England's best anywhere since Ian Botham's 13 for 106 against India in 1979 – 80.

The stadium has been a witness to great innings like Sunil Gavaskar's 205 against the West Indies and Alvin Kallicharan's 187 in the same game in the 1978 – 79 series and all round heroics like Ian Botham's century and thirteen wickets in the Jubilee Test in 1979 – 80, which England won by ten wickets.

A graph showing Botham's Test career bowling statistics and how they have varied over time.

This difference can be largely attributed to a back injury which limited Botham's bowling pace and his ability to swing the ball.

Compared with many of cricket's greatest players, most of whom were specialists, Botham's averages seem fairly ordinary but this overlooks Botham's all-rounder status, which is rarely achieved at world-class level.

Boycott disputes the suggestion that the run-out was deliberate in his autobiography, referring to Botham's account as " a story that gets bigger and more fanciful with every telling ".

He formed a noted commentary partnership with Botham ; however, Willis ' relatively low-key style, in contrast to Botham's ebullience, meant that from 2006 onwards Willis tended to be used as a second string commentator.

He then bowled a wicketless but " stormy " 19 overs " as if the devil were at his heels " and, after England had set Australia a final target of 151 runs, took two wickets which along with Botham's five-wicket haul dismissed the Australians for 121 and handed England a 29-run victory and a series lead.

The series is popularly known as Botham's Ashes, due to the remarkable performances of Ian Botham with both bat and ball.

Of note, Botham's first 202 wickets came at 21. 20 per wicket, while his final 181 cost on average 36. 43 apiece ; the first average is one that would make Botham one of the greatest bowlers of the modern era, ranking alongside the West Indian greats Curtly Ambrose ( career average 20. 99 ), Malcolm Marshall ( career average 20. 94 ), and Joel Garner ( career average 20. 97 ), but the second average depicts a player who, as a specialist bowler, would be unable to sustain a place in many Test teams.

In the first 5 years of Botham's Test career, when not playing as captain, he scored 2557 runs at an average of 49. 17 including 11 centuries and a highest score of 208, took 196 wickets at an average of 21. 28 including nineteen 5 wicket hauls and held 50 catches.

Botham's Test career performance graph.

Botham's ODI career included 116 games from 1976 to 1992.

A wicket in that over would have given New Zealand victory, and Hadlee a world record 374th test wicket, breaking current holder Ian Botham's record.

On 18 August Jacob von Heemskerk, the VOC chief resident at Padang, surrendered all of the west coast outposts without a fight, unaware that Botham's force was relatively weak.

In the second match, Botham's first Test century took England to 418, but by the end of the match England needed to score quickly to force a win.

Having passed the England captaincy to Ian Botham in 1980 ( losing his Test place in the process ), Brearley returned as captain following Botham's resignation for the famous third Test against Australia at Headingley in 1981, famously going on to win the match and two of the remaining three matches of the series to win the Ashes 3-1.

After a good season for Kent in County cricket in 1984, Cowdrey was selected for England's 1984-85 tour of India, led by his friend David Gower, ostensibly taking Ian Botham's place after Botham had opted out of the tour.

His innings included seven sixes, breaking Ian Botham's record for the most sixes by an English player in an Ashes innings.

England's first innings was dominated by Ian Botham's 138 off 174 balls.

Brian Johnston, who was as happy on the stage and working in light entertainment presentation as he was in the commentary box, was the master of this style which on occasion could lead to hilarity in the box, most notably on one occasion in August 1991 at The Oval when Agnew referred to Ian Botham's dismissal " hit wicket " as Botham " just couldn't quite get his leg over!

His reaction has made Botham's dismissal probably the most famous dismissal " hit wicket ".

In 1991 Jonathan Agnew and Brian Johnston, commentators on BBC Radio's Test Match Special, got themselves into difficulty while commentating on Ian Botham's dismissal ( Botham dislodged his leg bail whilst trying to step over the stumps, having lost his balance in missing a hook shot against Curtly Ambrose ), Agnew commenting that he " couldn't quite get his leg over ".

* BBC Sport Brian Johnston and Jonathan Agnew of BBC radio's Test Match Special discussing Ian Botham's dismissal ' Hit wicket '.

* 1985 Ian Botham's Test Match ( Electron, BBC, C64, Spectrum, C16 /+ 4, Amstrad CPC )

In the third Test at Headingley, Taylor took seven catches though was outshone by Botham's all-round performance in England's 18-run victory.

In 1905 England's captain Stanley Jackson not only won the series 2 – 0, but also won the toss in all five matches and headed both the batting and the bowling averages.

In 1970 – 71, Ray Illingworth led England to a 2 – 0 win in Australia, mainly due to John Snow's fast bowling, and the prolific batting of Geoffrey Boycott and John Edrich.

* Hanley Ramirez ( 2006 – 2012 )-As the main piece of the Josh Beckett & Mike Lowell trade in the 2005 off-season, Ramirez was the face of the franchise during his tenure and a major offensive cog, having a 30-30 season in 2008, winning a batting title and finishing 2nd in MVP voting in 2009, and participating in three All-Star games.

He was 3rd in the AL in slugging percentage (. 600 ) – behind Jimmie Foxx and Lou Gehrig, but ahead of Babe Ruth, and in RBIs ( 139 ), 6th in batting average (. 339 ), 7th in home runs ( 26 ), and 9th in on base percentage (. 404 ).

* 1983 – George Brett batting for the Kansas City Royals against the New York Yankees, has a game-winning home run nullified in the " Pine Tar Incident ".

Following the tension of Game Six, the Cardinals pitching and defense came undone in Game 7 and their offense was shut down by Saberhagen leading to the lowest batting average to date (. 188 by the Cardinals, later broken by 2001 Yankees ) and fewest runs ( 13 for the Cardinals, still stands ) of any team in a 7 game series, and the Royals won 11 – 0 to clinch the franchise's only World Series title.

Many of the team's highlights from this era instead centered around the end of Brett's career, such as his third and final batting title in 1990 – which made him the first player to win batting titles in three different decades – and his 3, 000th hit.

Bodyline, also known as fast leg theory bowling, was a cricketing tactic devised by the English cricket team for their 1932 – 33 Ashes tour of Australia, specifically to combat the extraordinary batting skill of Australia's Don Bradman.

Australia won the five-Test series 2 – 1, with Don Bradman scoring 974 runs at a batting average of 139. 14, an aggregate record that still stands.

Australian bowler Fred Spofforth decimated the English batting after a shocking start by the Australians and the result was a nailbiting finish in which Australia won by seven runs – still one of the closest finishes in Test cricket history.

* Machine Trapunto quilting – a process of using water soluble thread and an extra layer of batting to achieve trapunto design and then sandwiching the quilt and re-sewing the design with regular cotton thread.

He continued to play winter ball in Venezuela with Leones del Caracas team during 1964 – 1965 season to improve his batting.

The Reds ended up losing the game, 7 – 2, and the NLCS, 3 – 2, despite Rose ’ s. 381 batting average in the series, and his eighth-inning home run to tie Game One and his 12th-inning home run to win Game Four.

Mathewson helped his hometown team to a 19 – victory, but with his batting rather than his pitching.

The early 1997 tour to South Africa brought no upturn in Taylor's batting despite Australia's 2 – 1 victory in the series: he scored 80 runs at 16. 00.

* George Watkins ( 1900 – 1970 ), Major League Baseball player who owns the record for highest batting average as a rookie.