The Joy of Six: England v India memories Tanya Aldredv West Indies, 2nd Test Lord’s, 2000England won by two wicketsMy dad had been taking us to the Saturday of the Lord’s Test since 1986. For most of the 80s we spent the days folded into cagoules as England performed the cricket equivalent of hara–kiri. The weather improved in the 90s but the results not so much. Topics Graham Gooch (left), Bob Willis (centre) and Mike Gatting run from the pitch after England’s remarkable comeback win.. Photograph: Patrick Eagar/Popperfoto/Getty Images Facebook Since you’re here… Kevin Pietersen’s maiden Test hundred. The Spin: sign up and get our weekly cricket email. Support The Guardian England played like Pakistan at their most brilliant, with a desperate, irresistible aggression; not so much cornered tigers as cornered lions. The mood was established by some beery slogging from Darren Gough and Phil DeFreitas, who spanked Allan Donald all round south London on that Friday evening. Devon Malcolm, stirred after being hit on the head by a Fanie de Villiers bouncer, then produced the most coruscating spell of fast bowling. He took nine for 57, the best figures by a truly fast bowler in Test history, and flattened South Africa for 175. Their batsmen looked as if they had seen the devil. It was only Devon but on that day it was hard to tell the difference.Malcolm was one of many England players who for one reason or another were feeling aggrieved. Two others, Graham Gooch and the captain Mike Atherton, then blasted a barely believable opening partnership of 56 in five overs and England cantered to an eight-wicket victory. From the moment Gough and DeFreitas came together, England scored their runs at 5.76 per over and took a wicket every 30 balls. That team never played together before or after. If I live to 150, I doubt if I will see a more devastatingly brilliant England performance – in any sport. Oh and it was the weekend after I got my A-level results, and I had my whole life ahead of me. Fast forward to late June 2000. West Indies had won the first Test by an innings, Brian Lara had returned and the usual blueprint for a series seemed set.At the end of the first day England were delighted to have West Indies 267 for nine and all seemed well when Courtney Walsh was dismissed with the first ball of Friday morning. By tea England had been Ambrose-and-Walshed and West Indies had a first-innings lead of 133. But then Andy Caddick, touched by his intermittent genius, took five for 16 and West Indies were all out for 54. England’s target was 188.The next day 11 of us joined the queue. My middle brother was about to marry and there was something surreal, almost dreamlike in the just-maybe anticipation.Curtly Ambrose and Walsh were not going to make it easy and in the warhorses ran, ball after ball, faster and faster, as England stumbled, revived, stumbled, revived. Mark Ramprakash, opening, was bowled for two but Michaels Atherton and Vaughan put on 92, each scrambled single greeted with a guttural roar. When both fell and England found themselves 160 for eight, all seemed lost. Ali Martinv Australia, 4th Test Trent Bridge, 2015England won by an inns and 78 runsGreat Test matches tend to be close ones. Indeed the first Test with New Zealand at Lord’s in 2015 – an undulating affair of attack and counterattack, parry and riposte, that had spectators queueing round the block on the fifth day to be rewarded with a successful England victory charge – was arguably the most absorbing witnessed that summer cricket-wise. Facebook It was Joe who called me up early in 2005 to say they’d put tickets for the last day of the Ashes on advance sale and to ask did I think we should get a couple. I told him not to bother, that the match probably wouldn’t make the fifth day, never mind the series. Thank God he bought them anyway. I remember our excitement when they stopped play early on the fourth day and we knew, for sure, we’d be there for the end of the series. Those tickets were going for over £1,000 each now. And we were both so skint that we probably should have sold them on, but we couldn’t bring ourselves to do it. We’d been waiting for England to win the Ashes over half our lives.I can’t even recall all that much of it now, just the little bits and pieces that survived the hangover from a party that started at 10am on Monday morning and lasted till we stumbled away from the victory parade in Trafalgar Square sometime the next afternoon. Kevin Pietersen’s century, yes, and the moment Shane Warne dropped that catch, and Ashley Giles’ 59, still the very best underdog innings I’ve seen in my lifetime. I don’t see Joe so much any more, since we settled in different parts. It doesn’t matter. When we meet, we talk about 2005, and I am endlessly grateful I have a friend who knew enough to know better than me. England cricket team And yet it is the Ashes encounter at Trent Bridge a couple of months later, when Stuart Broad sliced through Australia with surgical precision and his colleagues delivered adhesive excellence in the slip cordon, in effect recapturing the urn in the first 94 minutes of the contest, that is burned into the old brain box forever.The scorecard – one that shows figures of eight for 15 by Broad, the tourists bowled out for 60 in the shortest first innings in Test history (18.3 overs), extras top scored with 14 and Joe Root ended the day with an unbeaten century – is an eye-catching record of the day, as are the frantic scribblings in this jotter’s notebook that seem to include more exclamation marks than runs managed by Australia.But it is as much about the imagery that the numbers and excessive punctuation throw up, such as the visiting skipper, Michael Clarke, staring long and hard into the green surface before the toss like a condemned man. His side’s granite-handed shots thereafter. Broad’s wide-eyed tribute to Edvard Munch after some brilliance from Ben Stokes at fifth slip, or the man of the hour (and a half) walking off with the Dukes ball held aloft and still displaying some of its gold lustre.To pinch a phrase from Brian Clough, another miracle worker on the banks of the Trent, I wouldn’t say Broad’s that day is the best bowling performance I have seen in my 10 years of covering Test cricket to date. But it is definitely in the top one. The images remain: of a drab three days of Test cricket at gloomy Leeds in which England were being all too easily humbled. The barbecue on the eve of the rest day at the Botham residence was as near to a wake as is possible for that event. Willis contemplated being dropped and the imminent end of his international career; Mike Brearley pondered the wisdom of returning to Test cricket – and why he had left out John Emburey? Then on the Monday when England followed on there is the unshackled Botham guffawing in the middle alongside Graham Dilley; Brearley on the balcony to applaud Botham’s century and animatedly urging him to keep going as the faint possibility of a miracle entered his head; the ball going into and out of Richie Benaud’s “confectionery stall”. Just before lunch on Tuesday Kim Hughes rejects a single to protect Graham Yallop from Willis, who was, by now, in another world.I once asked Botham whether this was his favourite Test. Of course it wasn’t. This game defined him and tormented him. By his own hand he had delivered such potent evidence of why he should not be captain of England. Objectively, he was not much fun. But we were giving the Aussies what-for in return and that was good enough for me Matthew Engelv Australia, 4th Test Old Trafford, 1964Match drawnThe Test began on Thursday, and Sunday was a rest day, as always. No rest for some: it was also speech day at boarding school, interminable as ever. But I did not then go home. I went to Manchester to stay with my friend Anselm, just as cricket-dotty as me. England’s 408th Test, my first ever. In some eyes, the worst ever.On an absurdly bland pitch, Australia had spent almost three days getting 656 for eight. By Monday, after we had escaped and reached the ground, England had no chance of winning and Australia had secured the Ashes yet again. Twitter Twitter Pinterest Pinterest Andy Bullv Australia, 5th Test The Oval, 2005Match drawnYour favourite might be the first, or the most thrilling, the one with the tightest finish. Or it could be the one with the finest innings, in which your best-loved player scored all the vital runs or took the crucial wickets and catches. They are all good reasons to love a match. Only, it seems to me now that it is not what you are watching that matters so much as who you are watching it with. Oh, you can try and tell everyone else what it was like, to put across how exciting it all was. But the memories are so much better when you can share them with somebody you don’t have to describe them to, because they were there with you. Like Joe. Vic Marksv Australia, 3rd Test Headingley, 1981England won by 18 runsThe virtues of the obvious are unfashionable nowadays. One only has to see how the England and Wales Cricket Board believes that the Hundred is so preferable to T20 cricket and that two conflicting short-form competitions in the summer of 2020 are somehow better than one good one. So I shall go for the obvious.The best series I have ever witnessed and am ever likely to witness is the 2005 Ashes; the most extraordinary game remains the Headingley Test of 1981. The climax took place while I was engaged in a humdrum Championship match at Taunton against Derbyshire – except for the fact that Viv Richards was hitting a century to complete his set against all the counties. Even so I was glued to the TV in the dressing room as my Somerset teammate Ian Botham celebrated his triumphant return to the ranks in the England team and a possessed Bob Willis snubbed a startled Peter West in the post-match interview. But then Ted Dexter stayed most of the day and Ken Barrington stayed forever. In my mind’s eye I can still see the imperious arc of Dexter’s bat as the ball sped to the boundary. I have no such memory of Barrington, who batted more than 11 hours for his 256. Objectively he was not much fun. But we were giving the Aussies what-for in return and that was good enough for me.My memory also tells me it was hot and sunny. More reliable sources say mild and breezy. They also say that by the Tuesday, when England had also passed 600, matching Australia block-for-block, the crowd had dwindled and most of the kids on the ground were round the back playing their own livelier matches. Were we? What is certain is that following that strange debut I was somehow inspired to become a cricket correspondent. So Old Trafford ’64 must have had something.It had the reverse effect on Anselm. When we got back to school in September, he joined the Boat Club. He still lives in Manchester and says he HAS been back to Old Trafford to watch cricket – twice in 54 years. A Test match? Never again. The barbecue on the eve of the rest day at the Botham residence was as near to a wake as is possible for that event 2005 and all that: an alternative history of the greatest Ashes Pinterest Twitter Share on Pinterest But with not a hospitality bottom out of position, enter Dominic Cork who with a six, four fours and desperate singles took England to a barely believable victory. Walsh finished with six for 74, Ambrose with figures of 22-11-22-1.As the sun emerged we spilled punch-drunk on to the Lord’s turf; England went on to lift the Wisden Trophy for the first time since 1969. Stuart Broad and England bowl Australia out for 60 in 18.3 overs. The Joy of Six: Ashes memories Read more Share on LinkedIn Share on WhatsApp Reuse this content Pinterest Facebook Pinterest Their batsmen looked like they’d seen the devil. It was only Devon, but on that day it was hard to tell the difference Facebook Facebook Twitter Cricket Devon Malcolm takes the acclaim from the stands after he blew away South Africa. Photograph: David Munden/Popperfoto/Popperfoto/Getty Images … we have a small favour to ask. More people, like you, are reading and supporting the Guardian’s independent, investigative journalism than ever before. And unlike many news organisations, we made the choice to keep our reporting open for all, regardless of where they live or what they can afford to pay.The Guardian will engage with the most critical issues of our time – from the escalating climate catastrophe to widespread inequality to the influence of big tech on our lives. 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Twitter Pinterest Share on Twitter Facebook Sportblog Rob Smythv South Africa, 3rd Test The Oval, 1994England won by eight wicketsThere have been many better England teams than the Class of 94, as nobody in history has ever called them. But none in my cricket-watching lifetime have produced a performance as savage and memorable as that team did against South Africa at the Oval. On the Friday evening England were facing a 2-0 series defeat. Then the whole team went postal and for five astonishing sessions they brutalised an excellent South African side. It was cricket’s version of Falling Down. Share on Messenger Read more features Share on Facebook Australia cricket team Share via Email Twitter Andy Caddick celebrates after taking another wicket in a devastating spell of fast bowling against West Indies. Photograph: Alex Morton/Action Images Read more England v India 2018 Ted Dexter shows off the ‘imperious arc of his bat’ during his glorious Ashes century in 1964. Photograph: Hulton Archive/Getty Images read more