What comes after these numbers: 284, 287, 294, 288? Answer: one of the most memorable Ashes Tests of them all. It's not a complex mathematical equation, but the sequence of totals when England went to Melbourne in 1982-83. They were two down with two to play; only a win would do if they were to have a chance of retaining the Ashes, as Ian Botham had done so lustrously 18 months earlier. Central to the drama, at the start and the finish, was the unlikely figure of Chris Tavare. Derided in Australia for his stiff upper lip and even stiffer dead bat, Tavare made the highest score of the match on the first day - and in a manner that nobody expected. There are rumours that Tavare raced to 89 off only 165 balls, rumours that he hit 15 fours, rumours that he hit Bruce Yardley for five of those fours in eight balls, rumours that he even hit Yardley over the top. The scorecard says it was so, but those Australians at the ground still insist it was a sadistic and unwelcome dream.

Australia took a first-innings lead of 3 despite Norman Cowans, playing only his third Test, inflicting a rare first-baller on their captain Greg Chappell. When England recovered from 160 for 6 to 294 all out, the Aussies needed 292 to bring the Ashes home.

Cowans had a different agenda in mind. He picked up Chappell again, caught at cover for 2 (a moment of glory for the substitute Ian Gould), and took six wickets in that second innings to reduce Australia to 218 for 9. But Allan Border was still there, and drip by drip he and Jeff Thomson took the Aussies to 255 for 9 at the close of the fourth day: 37 down, 37 to go.

A crowd of 18,000, granted free entry, turned up for the last rites, even though they might have seen only one ball. Border continued to farm the strike (in all, 29 comfortable singles were turned down), and only four were needed to win when Thomson sparred at Ian Botham and edged to second slip. (Those 18,000 made a wise choice: Channel 9 were too busy showing an advert for spanners to catch the decisive moment.) Tavare, a tortoise stuck in the headlights, spilled a sitter, but as the ball looped behind him towards the turf, Geoff Miller at first slip was about to make history …

Almanack report
Scorecard

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