It's never too young to be a memory. Bob Borsley harks back to the summer of 2005.
There was an air of unreality about the 2005 Ashes series. Not only did England win, but it was probably the most remarkable series since 1894-5, with numerous twists and turns. For me the unreality was increased by the fact that I was on holiday in Poland throughout the second and third Tests with limited ability to find out what was happening. The second Test finished on the day we drove from my wife's home town Poznań to a place called Stegna on the Polish coast. At the end of the previous day Australia were 175 for 8, needing 282 to win, and it looked as though England would win comfortably. I finally caught up with events the next day in an internet café - essentially a few computers in someone's basement - and was amazed to find that England had won by just two runs. Maybe I was fortunate to miss all the tension.
I was able to get news of the third Test from time to time, and at the end of the fourth day it looked as though England had a good chance of winning unless the weather intervened. We spent the afternoon of the fifth day in Sopot (a sort of Polish Brighton), and late in the day I managed to find an internet café near the pier. I thought the match would have finished, but in fact the nail-biting final over from Harmison to McGrath and Lee was just beginning, and I was able to follow it via the BBC web-page.
The fourth Test began when we were driving from Dortmund to Calais to get the ferry (having driven from Poland to Dortmund the previous day), and I was able to get some news via the car radio. Things were well balanced at the end of the first day, but England got on top on the second day (when we were back at home), reaching 477, thanks to a fine partnership by Flintoff and Jones, and then reducing Australia to 99 for 5. Strauss's catch was the highlight of the third day, and I was able to see it as it happened because Test cricket was still on terrestrial TV. Gilchrist edged the ball, and it went to Strauss's left, but a long way to his left. He dived and just reached it at full stretch. If the ball had been fractionally wider, it would probably have touched his fingertips and sped on to the boundary. If it had been fractionally less wide, it would probably have hit him on the wrist and bounced away for a single. It was one of the most remarkable events of a remarkable series.
Here is how others described that catch:
The sense that the force was with England was confirmed on the third morning, when Strauss dived full stretch at second slip to hold on to Gilchrist's edge, before Simon Jones, hostile and incisive, cleaned up to take five for 44. - Wisden 2006
Flintoff removed Gilchrist for the fourth time in the series through the agency of a stunning, perhaps freakish, catch by Strauss going wide to his left. - Wisden Australia 2005-6
Six runs later, Australia's eighth wicket fell to the catch of the series. It was the most important wicket, too. Once again Adam Gilchrist was beginning to threaten. He had moved on to 27 and was beginning to hint that the big score everyone feared but expected was about to transpire. Suddenly he was leaving for the pavilion, shaking his head in consternation... When Strauss caught the ball his body was horizontal... 'I was exceptionally pleased to catch Adam Gilchrist,' Strauss said later. 'It was pure instinct. See it, dive and, thankfully, it stuck. I'm not sure I'm capable of taking a better catch than that.' - Ian Stafford, Ashes Fever
[A]nyone who saw England's second slip leap full length and then some to his left and cling on to the ball one-handed now believes a man can fly. - The England Cricket Team, Ashes Victory
It was a shot Gilchrist need hardly have played, but above all a catch Strauss was hardly expected to reach. In fact, he executed the catch with the aplomb of someone who had been rehearsing it all summer, delayed the leap to his left just an instant, then arching his back like a salmon pushing upstream to stay airborne. The ball lodged in his left hand at the extremity of his reach. Strauss didn't so much thud to earth as bounce from it, as teammates flocked from round the field. - Gideon Haigh, Ashes 2005
Even when your team are getting well and truly beat, you can see something so marvellous that it lifts the spirits. The catch taken by Andrew Strauss to get rid of Adam Gilchrist was a thing of splendour. - Norman Geras, 'Hat trick', Normblog 27/8/2005
Video clip at YouTube.
[For links to the other posts in this series, see here.]