Ashes 2017-18: 8 times England won Tests after losing the urn

Ashes 1993-94

Mike Gatting was at the receiving end of Shane Warne's 'ball of the century'

That ball spun across Mike Gatting to clip the off stump. It was his first ball in a Test in England. Before him, no bowler in Ashes history has hit the stumps with his maiden ball. That did have a psychological effect on the English batsmen. They surrendered against that guy Shane Warne and Merv Hughes as Australia won the opening Test by a whopping 179 runs.

The second Test at Lord's was the 15th Test in succession in which England failed to beat Australia, a new record at that time. Australia lost only four wickets in the entire match as England succumbed to an innings defeat. Warne was once again the destroyer-in-chief, with 8 wickets.

England came back strongly in the third Test at Nottingham. The highlight for them was a 23-year old Surrey left-hander named Graham Thorpe scoring a century on debut against Australia. England sensed victory on the final afternoon but was denied by a doughty stand between Steve Waugh and Brendon Julian. Australia led 2-0 with three Tests to go.

In the fourth Test at Headingley, Australia was once again back to their best. They lost only four wickets in the entire match and won by an innings and plenty.

Their 653-4 in the first innings was the highest total in any match at Headingley, thus breaking a 92-year old record. Allan Border scored an unbeaten double hundred, becoming the third Australian captain to score a double-century in England (Billy Murdoch and Bobby Simpson were the other two).

In the fifth Test, Mike Atherton became the youngest man to captain England at home against Australia. He won the toss and elected to bat but his team mates didn't respond to his call at all. Paul Reifell took six wickets as the hosts were dismissed for only 276.

Mark Waugh batted brilliantly in both innings as Australia won the match easily by 8 wickets. Of course, there was a small matter of Warne picking up another five-for. Ted Dexter, England's chairman of selectors, resigned at the end of this match.

England were absolutely down and out before the final Test began on August 19th at The Oval. They made five changes to their team that played at Edgbaston. They used a total of 24 players in the series while Australia used only 13. Angus Fraser and Steve Watkin picked up crucial wickets as England finally won a Test against Australia, their first since December 1986.

Australia won the series comfortably, but seemed to be a touch complacent once they knew the urn was theirs.