Top 5 Greatest Bowling Spells in Ashes History

Top 5 Greatest Bowling Spells: Ashes, the mother of all rivalries, will start from August 1, 2019 and the fans are already going gaga for this epic clash. The rivalry although lost its sheen in the early millennium, but resurrected like a phoenix from ashes after the magnum opus 2005 series and since then the rivalry has even crossed Indo Pak rivalry in terms of excitement and viewership.

Ashes started in 1882 and till now a total of 70 test series are played that includes 346 test matches, 144 test matches are won by Australia, 108 are won by England and 94 resulted in a draw.

Scrolling through the 137 years long history annals, Sportzcraazy has compiled top 5 best bowling spells in the Ashes history:-

Andrew Flintoff 3/53 and 4/79 Edgbaston 2005
Flintoff has always been a nightmare for Australia. His aggressive, furious, and fast bowling, while staring at the opposition eyes was a treat to watch. His match-winning spell of 3/53 in the first innings and 4/79 in the second innings at Edgbaston reminded of firing cannons.
Apart from 7 wickets in the match, he also scored 68 and 73 in both the innings of the match. England won the Edgbaston test by 2 runs.

Mitchell Johnson 7/40, Adelaide 2013
This is widely regarded as one of the greatest bowling spells in the Ashes history, not only in terms of statistics but also making batsmen’s life horrible. The series was called Johnson series as the muscular pacer took a total of 37 wickets throughout the series.
His seven wickets for 40 wickets was the best bowling spell in the 12 year long cricket career.

Shane Warne 6/122 and 6/124 at Oval, 2005
Magical wizard and unarguably the greatest spinner of all time, Shane Warne always rose to occasion when it comes to England. The oval test in 2005 although resulted in a draw and the major reason behind was Shane Warne’s back to back five-wicket hauls in a single test.
He took 6/122 in the first innings and 6/124 in the second innings, not only restricting England from setting big total, but at one stage putting Australia in winning a position.

James Anderson 5/85 and 5/73 at Trent Bridge, 2013
James Anderson is the most successful English swing bowler in the last two decades. His knack of picking price wickets made him most wanted, with the likes of Sachin Tendulkar and Michael Clarke often called his bunnies.
During the first Ashes test match in 2013, his two consecutive 5 wicket hauls in the Oval test not only helped England win the test match by 15 runs but also earned him the Man of the match award.
He took 5/85 in the first innings and 5/73 in the second innings.

Stuart Broad 8/15 at Trent Bridge, 2015
Stuart Broad will always be remembered for two reasons in cricket fraternity. The first reason is obvious, he was hit for 6 sixes in an over, and secondly for taking 8 wickets for just 15 runs against Australia at Trent Bridge in 2015.
The entire Australian innings was wrapped by Broad in just 18.3 overs. Coincidentally, this was the smallest first innings score till date and none of the wickets were bowled or LBW, all the wickets were either caught by wicketkeeper or slip fielder.