Test Match Special - England’s 2010/11 Ashes win, according to Sir Alastair Cook

Episode Date: November 28, 2025

Exactly 15 years on from Sir Alastair Cook’s 235 not-out at the Gabba, the BBC’s Chief Cricket Reporter Stephan Shemilt speaks to Cook about one of his best individual series for England, which saw England win the Ashes in Australia in 2010/11. They discuss Cook’s incredible batting throughout the series, including his 235 not-out at The Gabba, the moments he was speaking to Chris Tremlett before the bowler infamously got Mitchell Johnson for a duck, and his time out in the middle with Sir Andrew Strauss and Jonathan Trott.

This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. The Dakar Rally is the ultimate off-road challenge. Perfect for the ultimate defender. The high-performance Defender Octa, 626 horsepower twin turbo V8 engine and intelligent 6D dynamics air suspension. Learn more at landrover.ca. You're listening to the TMS podcast from BBC Radio 5 Live. Hello, I'm Stefan Schemelt and welcome to the Test Match Special podcast from Brisbane, Australia.

This week, England will look to get back into the Ashes series at the Fearsome Gabbard, a ground where they have not won since 1986. Their most successful visits since then came at the beginning of the victorious tour of 2010-11, when Alistair Cook's epic 235 not-Aprison. set him on course for a career-defining series in England's 3-1 win. Now, 15 years on, I sat down with him to hear the inside story of England's last Ashes triumph in Australia. This is the 2010-11 Ashes, according to Alistair Cook.

So Doherty to Cook, 199, and he sits around the corner of this. There's a misfield, and he gets the run, and he's made 200. a test match against Australia. That is a wonderful achievement from Alistair Cook. He raises his bat. He raises his helmet. And he gets a pat on the back too from Ricky Ponting as he walks past him. Alistair Cook becomes the fourth English batsman to score a double century in Ashes' tests in Australia.

Alistair, the story of 2010-11 for you, I guess starts in the previous summer. doesn't it that series against Pakistan where you weren't quite sure where your game and even your career

was going no I probably it probably starts if we're going to be fair to 2009 where we won that Ashes series in there

and throughout the whole series all I wanted to say was I was an Ash's winner I remember saying to Ravi I think I went for a coffee of Ravi when you know

the first game you know it was Jimmy and Monty Jimmy and Monty blocking it out very famously at Cardiff then we had a good game at Lords and then a rain game and then a headingly

we got totally nothing outplayed and it says one one I think it was between that last test match for that last test match I don't think Ravi played but he was around the squad and I said I'll just give anything to be an Ashley's winner

and then we won that game Jonathan Trott obviously on his debut got a brilliant hundred and I remember sitting there loving the atmosphere loving everything but then sat next to jimmy i was like because he he had i think i average just under 30

in that series paid okay just nothing special a great to be part of great to be part of them like you know the crowds and it is it is different cricket and then both of me him and i sat there go how amazing is this but both both of us were like also there's a tinge of like we haven't really actually done much to to contribute to winning the ashes and however much is a team game the individuality of cricket

and you do feel as if you want to you know you do feel as if you want to pull your weight and obviously with the stats available it's very clear isn't it like a football team it's not so clear if you win two nil you could have a goodish game someone you know what I mean it's not it's a bit different so there I remember someone

to Jimmy said yeah I'd love to be part of a series which I did well in and then it would mean more anyway so at the end of that series I sat down with Graham Gooch and I said I think I was doing a right test cricket I think I'd you know averaging you know

high 40s I suppose against everyone else but twice against Australia so 2006-7 and then 2009 I was averaging 30 so I was saying judge myself against the best and I said well actually my game doesn't stack up pretty well against the best teams in the world the best bowlers in the world so what do I do to improve so we had a bit of a re-goat my technique

so standing a lot stiller I called it a bit like the Jack Callis trigger movement like forward back, standstill, backlift very straight behind in my natural backliff as that double backlift kind of go all over the place, lots of movement. So we kind of then, we then, pretty much the next two days after two days later, after the bit of celebration, I was back like hitting hundreds of hundreds of balls after this conversation with Gucci over the next period of time, trying to groove something very unnatural. But in the think in the long run, that that would be better for my technique.

and actually first out I'm pretty sure the first outing which I'm not sure whether the memory was a one day game up at Durham and I got 100 with it and I thought yeah we're on to something here and I think I scored another run to the one day game

and then that winter did okay against South Africa okay and Bangladesh when our first captain scored a couple of hundred so actually I was like coming into that summer 2010 I felt quite confident I thought yeah this technique this is going to take me to the level

I can compete against the best bowls in the world and actually against Bangladesh and Pakistan in that series I was having at a stinker literally I think that summer I was averaging just over 10 going into the third out of the fourth test match against Pakistan had two against Bangladesh

so I thought I was going to get dropped and I thought I was not going to make that tour and I then had a bit of a moment in that last in that in that middle of the oval test match saying I'm going back to my old technique now this technique might be good on on wickets where you know the ball doesn't do much

or but actually when I really need when you need to look after me and the ball's nipping around it didn't nip around quite a lot that summer but the ball's nipping around it just I just felt like I could not a score because I was probably playing a lot straight as the balls in the stumps so I used to be whipping through leg side I was playing straight

not getting any runs and then the ball nipped I just either missed it or nicked it so my technique didn't look after me when I got in trouble So there's a bit of a A bit of a clearing in my mind going Right My old technique was the best I could be

And that actually gives you a bit of freedom Because you think actually I might not be the best player in the world But actually the technique I had Growing up is the best I can be So that kind of frees your mind one way And also I just sat there going For a defensive player

It's when I don't want to get out defending In this second innings Against Pakistan in the Oval So I actually went out attacked and I was 80 odd at lunch on on day three or four whatever it was and kind of went from there so and I got that kind of a lucky hundred where assy threw the ball over keeper's head so that was leading into the series it's a very long-winded answer Stefan to one question if it's like this this podcast is

going to be three days like one of your knocks there was a lot of preparation that went into that 10-11 tour famously the boot camp yeah I didn't go on it so were you at someone's wedding yeah my brother's wedding um and was that a good thing

that you missed it or uh I'm actually generally disappointed that I did miss it because just uh just for the next like six eight

two years six months eight months two years out there's always there was always references back to that camp and I think at the time it was horrendous

and if you speak to Swanee and you speak to a few people saying it was a waste of time but and they were in Bavaria, right? Is that what happened? They went to Germany. Well, actually, I did turn up for the last day. I did turn up for the last day. And actually,

the funny thing was about turning off the last day was the most broken men I saw was Strauss and Flour. And I thought, actually, sirs them right, because they actually organised the thing. So, yeah, I mean, I think it's right, press-ups. I don't know, really. Treking through the trees? And was there

some boxing? Did Jimmy Anderson have his rib-broken by a punch from Chris Tremlett? Yeah, I think that was one. I think a lot of like two in the morning press-ups had bricks in the air carrying, you know, like all the kind of stuff. And I think there was, you know, I think you had to call the instructors by the surname and, you know, very, very military base, very, you know, like if you stepped out a line, the whole team got punished, all that kind of stuff. And I genuinely think it was awful. I think it was really hard work.

But actually, yeah, it's the fact that people were still talking about it years, you know, a couple years later, it showed it did have its worth. and some of the stories apparently people really opened up, you know, around the campfire every night. And again, I'm talking like probably, you know, almost as much as I did because I wasn't there. I just turned up for the abseiling on the last day, which I don't think it went down well. And I think Trotty missed it as well. But actually, I think we both scored the most runs and second most runs. So actually, I don't want to give too much credit to Flower and the boot camp. And, you know, the point that you make, you know, you and you're, you're,

and Jonathan Trott with all those runs that he scored. But you specifically, 766 runs on that tour. Only Wally Hammond has made more runs as an Englishman on tour in Australia. Three centuries. But it all started standing at the other end when Andrew Strauss was out third ball of the series. Yeah, it probably actually started before that. If I, like, I actually, this is when my memory, it doesn't serve me right. you kind of do need to look this up.

We had three Walmart games, didn't we? You did, yeah. I definitely right that. And the Brisbane, the second one, the third one, all the bowlers went to Brisbane. So it was like we played kind of

like our second string bond. I don't think I scored runs in the first game, but I'm pretty sure I scored runs either. I thought it was the second game I scored runs. I thought someone did a bit of a prep, like we were talking about,

I think everyone had scored runs. Maybe I scored runs in the third game. I can't remember, do you know what I was, I came into that form. I didn't score in the first game, but then I got, going on that tour in the second or third and I kind of just never look back I mean yes there was that what if moment we used to do what if moments but I don't think anyone

suggested that would win the toss bat and then I'd be the only one standing out their third ball and to Strauss get out to a cut shot as well his his favorite shot it was it was extraordinary it was a it was a quite an interesting place actually I you know everyone was buzzing everyone there and I just stood there on my own also the umpires go together I'm not even sure I'm not even sure it was a lot of I had a drink because as I don't bother I literally just come from the dressing room

but I probably should have had one again there might be a picture of me I'm pretty sure I stood on my lap I stood alone and we kind of got through that first day and we were you know when you lose a wicket early on you're always you know you're kind of always batting a little bit because you then even if you get a partnership you're two down and all that

and we did okay we lost we know we were a long way below par but okay like 260 on and but we were doing a right And then we got, you know, Siddle got his hat trick on his birthday, and I was the first of it. Yeah, you made, you made 67 on that first day. And, you know, quite rightly saying, first of Peter Siddle's hat trick. I think you two went on to become quite good mates after the time that he spent at Essex.

But England were 221 behind on first innings at Brisbane, batting again on the third evening. Yeah, I mean, that was... How did you approach that? Well, I mean, we're just done. I think they got 500 and it was a real strange 500 odd, wouldn't it? Because if you went back to the second new ball, I think Jimmy and Brody and Stephen Finn, I think they just, they actually bowed brilliantly against Haddon and Hussie, who obviously batted brilliant in it, but somehow they got through that there.

They both got big hundreds, but, you know, that little spell gave us a lot of confidence with the Kukuroa ball that we could get things moving. I remember them talking about thinking, and actually I know we got five, this after the first, after the game, but when we're saying, I know they got 500 and we didn't run through them, but actually there was stuff theirs. If we did that with runs on the board, we would be able to take our 20 wickets.

But I remember thinking at the end of the third day, so I batted pretty much the first day. You know, then I was the hat trick. So we're pretty much, I don't know if we bowled the end of the first day, but I was definitely in the field all the day two and then all of day three, obviously. I do, I think, you know,

as an opening batty, you're thinking, you know when you get those wikis thinking right i am going to have a little we are going to have a little tricky period and they're never nice no matter how you approach him you try and say look you know if you get your low score you get a low score you're going to get a low score you're going to get a low score you're going to get a low score you're going to not over night trying to end up but i do remember feeling my heavy i did feel heavy legs in that uh they're going out to path and geez i was tired but all the obviously all the all the distraction was on strauss whether he was going to bag him or not uh in the first game but he got off them i don't know what we were overnight and then it was just

the case of of regrouping getting through that little period i think we had 40 minutes or so but they bold they've definitely bowled um marcus north a little bit a bit of off spin so they're both they're both 15 overs of you at you that third evening you were 19 without loss strousal that on it cook on six yeah so out of a deficit of 221 you've only taken 19 out of it so at the beginning of that fourth day you are still really up against it yeah and it was a case of i don't remember the messages or anything what we spoke about um but it was just a case of everyone got it was it was an experienced side it was just a case of someone we just got to get in we just got to bat it the pitch the pitch had no demons in it so you know you weren't you weren't

expecting to get rolled over it's just a case of showing a bit of fight and if you got in making sure that it and actually strous got him straus could play beautifully and actually he he really set the tone almost for the rest of that tour the way he went about his hundred because, you know, maybe not in the modern day compared to what's happened recently. But suddenly then, it was quite an attacking hundred. And it's certainly attacking 100 for Strauss. And talk about leadership and leading from the front and words and all that, actually actions there. He went out. And when we needed, we did just need to survive. But obviously runs are important. You can't just survive. And he went out and he actually took the attack to

Australia, kind of in a not unlike Strauss manner, but actually on the front foot and played beautifully. The pitch was a belter. I think he got to 100, I was on 60-od, I think, when he got to his 100, and then he got stumped by Marcus North, and then, you know, you think, oh, we had a big punch, 70, hundred and 80-odd, and they're like, that's not, you know, then you need another one, and then

if you ever want someone to come in and back for your life in the kind of situation on the flat wicket, Trotty was the man, and we just, we just grew, really, like, into a part, I don't know what we were at the end of day three, but, and the day four, but it was a, walking off there, you know, not out there, I think that, that is, that was a, you know,

a really good day and a day I really felt I think it's my 14th 100 the first time I'd really contributed to a

to an innings 100 away really mattered where he really made a difference to the game so that night I was

you know I was obviously pleased Cook on 99 Siddles on his way running in hard he bowls him outside the off stump his back and cuts him

for four and Alastair punches the air the second an Englishman to make a hundred here today. What a fight back, what resilience. What an intriguing game this is becoming. A hug from Jonathan Trott.

He raises back to those hordes of England supporters down at third man, where that ball is now being retrieved from. Alistair Cook has faced 204 balls. It was his ninth boundary. More patient, more measured innings, actually, than that of Andrew Strauss. The TMS podcast from BBC Radio 5 Live. Welcome to the team behind the team.

A new podcast series in partnership with the Open University where we'll be showcasing the people, the tools and the techniques to help athletes and teams reach elite level. Like all elite sports, it's a pyramid and everybody's trying to get to the top. It's not just my vision. It's a shared vision amongst the team. What is this? This is not the way I see the game. The team behind the team with Katie Smith.

In partnership with the Open University, Listen on BBC Sounds You'd gone from 19 without loss to 309 for 1 on that fourth day And I just wonder what it was like From the start of that day When a lot of Australian fans would have been turning up thinking You know this might even be the day that we win this match To the end of the day, 309 for 1

England have completely turned it around What did the atmosphere? Did it change inside the gabber And those sorts of things? applause for Alastair Cook he's batted all day and he's batted so well to hold England together a memorable performance from him

his second century against Australia I don't remember that but I do remember the change room being quite like cocker hoop at the end of day four but you know like but there's still that underline edge I think we're only ahead by 80 weren't we and it doesn't take much

so you can have a good day and cricket and test cricket in particular I do think when you played it, you can't win many games in an hour, but you can suddenly lose, go a long way to losing it. So even there we felt we've done a lot of hard work. Flowers' message, I remember he'd taking me to the side at the beginning of day five and went, brilliant 100 yesterday, but your job's not done yet. You know, do not think your job was done.

You've got such a big part to play today as well. I was like, oh God, yeah, I'd actually do it. And sometimes you just do need the harsh reality of reminding, you know, 130 or not out. It's a great place to be as a batsman overnight. You know, everyone pats on your back. You get all your messages on your phone. But the job wasn't done.

And, you know, you suddenly are two down very quickly the next morning, lose two wickets. And runs were important. So it was important that we got in again. And but what you did know is that if Trotty and I did get going, you know, there's such a long day for Australia, isn't it? Like you get through the initial burst, you know, the first hour, hour and a half.

And in warm conditions, after bowling for a day, the day before you knew it would get easier and as that lead it kind of got bigger and bigger you knew that they couldn't they couldn't win the game and that was kind of batting it's never easy in test cricket

but that was kind of just a lovely period to bat when you got you know past I suppose my first double hundred after that it was just nice I think what lovely word to use nice

but it was just nice so Doody to Cook 199 and he sits around the corner of this hesitation there's a miss field and he gets the run and he's made 200 in a test match against Australia. That is a wonderful achievement from Alistair Cook. He raises his bat.

He raises his helmet. And he gets a pat on the back too from Ricky Ponting as he walks past him. Alistair Cook becomes the fourth English batsman to score a double century in Ashes' tests in Australia. You know, 517 for one, a number that. I don't know, etched almost into English Ashes folklore. Strauss 110, Cook, 235 not out, Trot, 135 not out. The lead was 296.

What did that do to the context of the series as to what that did to the England team, the Australian team, but also the Australian fan? Because it was played out, wasn't it, almost entirely empty gabber? Apart from some England fans, who were loving every minute of it. Well, it was pretty loud.

It felt pretty loud, actually. But it was just generally English people. I mean, I don't know what the gabber holds. Was it, is it 40,000, 35,000? But, you know, to say there was probably seven or eight, and it was just only, you know, Englishmen and English women there. And, you know, David Lloyd said, I thought it's fancy dressed. They all come dressed as a seat, the Aussie fans.

I remember that lot. I don't obviously remember the line, but I've heard that line since. I'll tell you what it did do. It gave us a lot of belief that this Australian side, you know, was there for the taking in terms of, like, you know, they're not this, you know, obviously I've won for 20 or years. We've got a chance here. You know, we got out of jail, but we got out of jail with such a way that it gave us a load of confidence. I said the bowlers, even though they conceded 500 odd, there's periods where they put Australia under huge pressure. and then I suppose what you can only link that to next actually the effect maybe and

this is maybe's ifs and butts you know the next test match at adelaide Australia win the toss they bat and they're nought for two in the first three balls with a like a cammercars like a run out is it north for two I think they were weren't they or something like pretty sure and then ponting nicking off you know and jimmy's first over like cattage run out without facing and potting ponting nicking off first ball so whether that Brisbane had any effect on there But we've gone from, you know, beginning of day three, end of day three, looking down the barrel going one-nill-down to an hour into Adelaide and they're four down

on an absolute, you know, feather bed, a belting wicket. And you're thinking, well, we're, you know, how quickly, you know, in a week of sport, we're getting ahead in this series. Yeah, they were naught for two and three for two. Yeah. On that first morning at Adelaide after they won the toss and chose. to bat

all of Kattich, Ponting and Clark gone inside three overs. Australia bowled out for 245 England batting by the end of the day with Strauss and Cook one without loss. Well that was a...

Actually we got them out right at the end, didn't we? And it was a warm day, but the... Because I don't know what the rules were but there was one over left. And you know how, you know, you've commentated alongside me a lot

and when they keep these rules and things you come back and you go I don't know what's happening but you should know cookie you played for however many years I just don't know but got into changing room and flower rattles down and says are we having a night watchman

you know so well well if it's one wicket and you come off then definitely night watchman but he then said he then said no I think the rules that then I don't know why this would be the case but he thought if there's a wicked falls

uh you'd you'd finish the over it was one of I don't I don't know why that was the case. You know, maybe the rules have changed since, like maybe because it wasn't time or whatever. So I was like, well, there's no way Jimmy's going out to bat. He takes a first ball.

Straussie takes the non-strikers end. Jimmy gets out. I have to then go out. So, like, that's just no way. Because then imagine the stick you're getting from A of the Australians. They've then got pumped up. Anyway, I'm watching for five. And then everything's out of my control.

So I said to Straussie, I don't care. I will take number one. He always took first ball. But I'm going out there now for that over. you do what you want and Straussie then went okay I'll do it as well so it was I know

I know it was I just remember that a discussion I was like we should know the rules but to get to do it it was a great day at Adelaide the first day and then the next day again we just kind of piled on the runs you know after Strauss got out early trot again it was a warm

I remember that been a very hot day and I suppose any time you're a sportsman when you back up success with another bit of success it means probably even more actually because you know you're 230 or the week before how easy is it just to get a little bit complacent, not find that rhythm.

I don't think my rhythm was there to start with, but I got into it and it was just a belting wicket to bat on. And again, you know, when you've been struggling for so much, you know, struggling the whole last summer, you know, there's one thing you can always be is hungry and what better place to be hungry on a flat Adelaide wicket when it's 40 degrees. So from a sliding doors moment of Jimmy Anderson,

possibly opening the batting as England's Knight Watchman at the end of the first day, we go to Cook I did I did I did think I did think Strauss Strauss would not let me take first balls I kind of bluffed him a little bit and I thought he'll never get a strike

in him I think he got a strike first ball with a leg by so I ended up facing five balls I was like oh that hasn't actually worked out and how I thought it was going to work out but yes it was a sliding doors moment with Jimmy but England was still batting two days later

you made 148 trots 78 Kevin Peterson 227 that point when Australia were bowling bounces to him with what seemed like every fielder back on the leg side, 620 for 5 declared. And from your point of view, having made that double hundred in Brisbane to now making a century in Adelaide, I mean, you must have felt 20 foot tall. Yeah, I did.

I was annoyed. I kind of got out of that third morning too fair because I think quite, again, I struggled getting back into that thing. But what a brilliant, like, a game, you know, my kind of hundreds is like either setting out games like that you know the kp's double hundred there was a real mark of of dominance actually you know dominance of taking australia down um and and and and and a mark a market from the whole team it was he led it but it was like we are you know we got ourselves ahead of the game so they got two 40 and it was as soon as we kind of got i don't know when the partnership was

wasn't it i mean trotty say 160 or maybe if he got 70 so we're pretty close to their score and he just came out and you just absolutely hammered Australian to the ground I was there for a little bit of it and Xavier Doherty and Doug Bollinger were taken apart and hit out of the series well I mean they picked Doherty in the first game because of a left

arm spin to play against KP had a few issues against there which was great for left hand because the ball turning in much rather than an off spinner so that was great for two games for me and actually I don't actually think Dougie bowled particularly badly but when he did bowl at the you know he bowed quite nice opening spells and stuff but it was

pretty warm and fatigue as it does come in when you get 600 on and you know bowling at someone who's 150 not out it's on a flat on a flat flat wicket is not a good place to be but yeah you know the dominant but again going back to that game you know how lucky we were to finish it we declared trying to get the declaration right because of the rain on day five and actually that wicket kp got michael clark the end of day four after partnership between him and hussy who's again scored a lot of runs in that in that game i think he got clark out last ball court short leg and if we had got that wicket

is spats what actually the next day there's only three hours cricket to be played really so you know it was it was nipp and tup there really for a minute even though we'd totally dominate the game

you guys are obviously on such a high after after Adelaide 1-0 up after 2 when it could have been different you know with everything that had happened in Brisbane was was Perth and you know a pretty heavy defeat there 267 runs

that Australia won by and and a little bit of, I don't know, foreshadowing of what Mitchell Johnson could do with the ball. How did you guys feel after that? Did it feel like you were, you know, level? Or did you still feel like you had the beating of Australia? The scores were. I think we bowled at fairly cheaply, didn't we?

It wasn't a particularly high-scoring game. I think they win the toss, batted. England won the toss in that third test, asked Australia to bat. Australia made 268, mainly thanks to a partner between Hussie and Johnson because at one point Australia 137 for 6

Hussey 61 Johnson 62 gets them up to 268 which is you know something they can work with and then England after being 82 for 1 78 for 1 78 without loss that was a partnership between yourself and Andrew Strauss Strauss made 50

Cook 32 from 78 without loss to 187 all out Johnson 6 for 38 Yeah, again, whether looking back at that game, you know, we had a team meeting, I think, straight after it. I was part of the leadership thing. I wasn't sure it's the right thing to do, but it turned out to your right thing to do because flower kind of straight. Normally, like, it's really hard to do meetings after games.

It wasn't at the ground as a hotel because normally people just want to switch off, kind of bury it, you know, bury it or celebrate it. And I thought we need just bury and come back the next day. But flower was absolutely determined to it's like almost wonder. how we lost that game from 80 for naught after bowling him out for 260. And then a few, you know, Mitchell Johnson did bowl incredibly, incredibly well. Any time he swings it back into the right-hander, you know, he got a few OBWs. He's very hard to play because he actually doesn't really mean to do that. And I don't mean that disrespect.

He is that slinging action. And occasionally he gets an absolute spot on he swings back. When he gets into the right hand or away from the left-hander, you know, it's almost impossible to play. And he got in that spell, he bowed beautifully. you know and we couldn't we couldn't stop it so there's an element of that but there's also we had the meeting the end of it saying did we did we don't know we never know the art did we take the eyes you know off you know eyes off what we were doing and thinking about the end result

thinking 80 for naught did we think we've done all our hard work we're going to win this game now it's going to be like adelaide we'll get a big score past them and we started thinking maybe as a side so consciously or maybe we did I don't know about winning the ashes or retaining actually is there at Perth, whether that was in our training. You know, there's all these questions you don't know the answer to you, but I think it was quite important to get them out there, to get, and then a few people said this and that. Now, we don't know whether the words are right or not wrong,

but what we did do, then we went to Melbourne, and that game was buried. It was basically two-match series then, wasn't it? 1-1, you're talking about sport, momentum. You would say Australia had all the momentum. Australia were flying. They're all over the papers, you know, Boxing Day, newspaper, Christmas Day, newspaper, you know,

not boxing, it will be up. Yeah, we'll be boxing it. Everyone's saying how great is Australia they're going to come back. They're done. The English are done and there's pictures of ponting all over the paper of Santa Claus, all that kind of stuff building into it. But we kind of had that a little bit of going, well, we actually have dominated quite a lot of these test matches a few of the days.

So there's still confidence in there, but I just think it's like it's kind of the now of their moment. And obviously boxing day turned out to be a pretty good boxing day. well that might be an understatement because it could be I don't know maybe maybe the greatest day single day England have ever had in an ashes test down under certainly in recent memory England winning the toss choosing to field first in conditions that were relatively

helpful to the bowlers but I don't think anyone could have expected what came next Australia 98 all-out four for Anderson four for Tremelot, two for Bresnan, who'd come into the side for Stephen Finn, who'd bowled well in the first three test matches, and by the end of the day, England 157 without loss, Strauss 64 and Cook 80.

I mean, as days go, that was almost perfect, wasn't it? There was disbelief at the end of that day. There wasn't disbelief of me and Strauss of clearing the MCG with our batting. I mean, I think most people want to go home when we were batting, Actually, we did clear the MCG.

I think we started off, and they're very proud, the Aussies of how many people then get in on Boxing Day. But at the time, I think it was a record. I think it's a record every year. But by the end, there was only 20,000 or thousand English people watching Strauss and I crud it around the MCG. But it was an extraordinary day. We actually dropped a couple of chances as well.

I know there's a big humming and aering about the toss. I remember that thinking, you know, are we right? Obviously, the bowl is thinking we need to, you know, we need to bat first. It'll nip about. an hour or two hours and then it'll be flat um uh and we just need to get through that first couple of hours and and they were right it was but actually the damage we did i think it was as good as ball seam bowling uh and swing bowling i think i've been a part of as a group i'm not talking

about express pace i'm not talking about besides getting blown away i'm talking about the lents and the lines that those guys hit bresi tremler and and jimmy i just can't really remember a bad ball I think every dismissals nicked was caught behind or in the slips it was just I think it was about you know talk about a little bit of luck there was about three player misses I think every else was either defended nicely or nicked

it was an extraordinary bit of bowling good bit of catching and yeah you're walking off at tea early tea thinking oh that's a start and that's obviously thinking it's going to nip around a bit for us we've got to get through it and actually when Strauss and I went out it was just flat it was just flat where the heavy roller had done its job

and it was just lovely to bat and again, if you go back to any one day and play the whole day of a test match in my career, that certainly that would be right up there as a collective group. Trot made 168 not out out of England's 513.

Australia bowled out for 258 in their second inning. England win by an inning's 157 runs. So the Ashes are retained in Melbourne at the MCG. You know, almost that fortress of Australian cricket and England celebrate on the outfield doing the sprinkler. Yeah, the sprinkler was the thing in that in that tour. I think so as, you know, so was Swanee's diaries,

which were just, you know, again, probably the first time, you know, certainly under kind of Andy Flowers kind of regime where a bit of inside access to the side and it was, you know, the humours, you know, was good. It obviously helps when you're winning. Did you feature in the diaries? I tried not to. I tried not to. I certainly watched a lot

and getting filmed trying to stay behind it but it was brilliant and obviously when you win all that stuff you know adds to the moment but it was a great tour

in terms of that we won our Walmart games so it was a good feel about it everyone was there in a bit of form and you know tours are better

when you're winning and obviously Australia is a serious place when you win I've been there three four times and lost on three times so the one time it was

it was an incredible place to go and play and not turn the public on the Australian side but they certainly you know you turn up and as the guys will know turn it up now and get there to Australia it's tough but then we kind of won them over

with our cricket but yeah watching the sprinkler which was kind of the dance move of the thing I felt a little bit uneasy of it doing it and just because we hadn't come there to win to retain the ashes we'd come there to to win it and I remember again just my mentality I enjoyed the dressing room at Melbourne

but after that I didn't actually go out a few of the lads went to the barmy army and had a great night with them but i was like we we haven't finished yet we haven't finished i you know we really two two would have felt a bit of an injustice for that side against the australian side i i believe and i think um so however good melbourne was i just remember going see we've got sydney we've got sydney we can't mess up sydney five you can't play for a draw you got to go and win that as if it's on the line and you know it's easier said than done actually that um after you know you're achieving retaining the ashes which is a thing but you know it's actually to back it up and try and win it was important

but um it luckily went okay and that test match in sydney you know upheaval for the australians rickie pontin has gone as captain michael clark replaces in pontins not even in the team and i know you're saying about still feeling like you've got a job to do because you want to win the ashes and not just retain them but i don't know from an england point of view sydney almost felt like a bit of a party atmosphere throughout because England were so dominant in that game. They bowled Australia out for 280 first

innings and responded with 644. Your 3rd century 189 Bell 115 prior 10018 going on to win a third test match by an innings is that how you felt

in that test or did it feel nervousness and not on edge going in it? Definitely nervousness I think Ponting had broke his finger at Perth and he dropped in a catch who played at Melbourne with blockers in his hand finger. So that's the reason he didn't play

at Sydney. I think he tried but just, you tried at Melbourne but then obviously at Sydney it was too hard for him. So Clark, there was upheaval but obviously there was when there is upheaval you know, I think Phil Hughes had come back he had played the previous game

and then Kawaja made his debut there's a bit of a fuss about Koaja Clark being captain for the first time. So, you know, they were looking back now, you know they don't want to say they're in disarray but you know when there's so many changes you feel as if england had such a big psychological advantage but when you're in it when you're in the in the pressure cooker you're in the moment you're i i didn't feel like that you know actually

two 80 you know they they i think johnson whacked a few to got 70 or down the end of the order so actually that they felt like too many and hilton house kept hitting you know he i think he had a he had a couple of you know good blows and the only thing which i remember i remember Strauss saying, if Hilton House can hit our new ball bowlers, wherever he wanted, it must be a good wicket. I mean, that was kind of like the message he got when we, you know, bowled out for 280.

It was 280 is like a, you know, you still feel you're in the game with 280. It's not a match winning score by any stretch of imagination, but you still feel like you're in the game. You bowl them out for 350, you know, 400. You still got a chance of third innings. But, you know, I think Strauss whacked a 50 of not many balls to get us

going and then found out it was it was, again, a lovely flat wicket. and all the kind of work we've done in that series are getting big going big kind of probably Australia had a bit of here we go again lots of time in the dirt and we felt

and we had boys who were in form and wanted to cash in and you know 640 is a good score in it I was always thinking you're not going to lose many games of 640 especially when you only needed to draw the game that final morning

what turned out to be or was the fifth day and final day of the series Australia was 2,33 team for seven in their second innings overnight, miles behind. They're going to lose the game. England just need to take three wickets to win the ashes. And that could have been done in

no time whatsoever. And in the SCG on that final morning of the series, it felt like I don't know, every backpacker hostel had been emptied down from Bondi Beach and everyone who was English

had turned up that morning to get involved in this party of England winning the ashes in Australia. Yeah, but actually the fourth night the SCG was, because we took the extra half an hour. We took the extra half an hour, I think. Because it could have been won that night, couldn't it? Could have been won that night?

And, you know, Tremlett, they had a bit of a partnership and then Trenet bounced out Haddon out of no, again, I think I scored a few runs, but out of flight, he played well that series, he always seemed to do against us. And then out of nowhere Tremlitt bounced him out, gloved him, looked to Malley Pee behind the stumps. And then the Mitchell Johnson's song, famous Mitchell Johnson's song

was just as he kind of serenaded as he walked out to the wicket. I've never heard atmosphere like it. I remember talking to Tremors who had the ball at that stage. He said, I'm just going to try and bowl this as fast as I can. And he just bowled his absolute jaffer

to Mitchell Johnson, who I think maybe thought it might have been short. It was close to Nightimars now. Pitched up. Bowled him. And I've never heard noise like it. Tremlet goes in to bowl to Johnson. Oh, he's Lv. Wold him. He's bowled him. And Tremlitt's on a hat trick.

Johnson's on his way. And England could wrap this up tonight. 171 for 7. They're dancing all around the ground. So much English support. The off stump has been knocked back. And Chris Tremlitt is on a hat trick. Australia, seven down, England.

Three wickets away from 3-1. And I thought we were going to win that night. I honestly thought that was it. That was going to be the moment. And it didn't quite happen. And men had to come back the next day. A little bit frustrating. And then the next morning,

although the atmosphere was incredible like the Barmy Army and all the English British supporters, English supporters they didn't stop singing it felt like an age it felt like an age to get that wicket and you're just desperate for it to finally happen you know you just you know you knew you're going to win

even I the most kind of pessimistic person like the opposition can win from any anywhere I knew we were going to win it was just a matter of when but it felt like forever but there were a moment that Chris Tremler got beer out you know bolder miles at short leg is just that moment of like pure relation job well done you know incredible like an

incredible moment the one good thing about winning during the day like early is so much time to to really soak it in and and enjoy the occasion i don't know when we left the ground but we didn't leave for absolutely ages spent so much time there on the outfield and the change room it was very very special and you don't get it very often in sport and certainly you don't get it you know you're always looking at uh you're always looking at the next game but that kind of that next 24 48 hours of just of satisfaction i i just felt that kind of you know person on a person i don't think i could have scored i couldn't have played any better and then to be part of the side you know the the difference that feeling i had in 2009 2010 11 was you know was absolutely

you know chalk and cheese and you know very but very lucky to be part of the side who had played so well and done something which is pretty rare for an English team and just as a final thought how do you reflect on it now and how often do you maybe think about it how often do you get asked about it and yeah how do you feel

when you reflect back on that time of your life I look back with fondness that it was such a good team to be part of yeah like you know there's always been this bits afterwards about how tough flower was and Strauss you know that kind of regime was very regimented but we had that time of our lives there and it's true when you win games of cricket or you go part of any time when we've won away from home it was unbelievably

special it was a great environment to be yes it was hard work but international sport is hard work yeah like look you kind of forget the tough times you forget like the nervousness you forget all the anxiety which went into that thing but i look back just with like a little bit of proud prideness because you can go yeah i i i played a significant part in a series which will always be spoken about as a you remember the time when england beat australia three won and all three games were won by an innings you know that that just doesn't happen and um so yeah it's very special and i need to i need to one day sit down and watch some of it in comes tremlett beer waits for him he's there and he bowls and he's played into his wicked it's all over

he's bowled by tremlett and england have won their first series in australia for 24 years It's their third innings victory as well and they're gathered together jumping up and down in that celebratory dance that we saw at Melbourne when they retained the Ashes in the previous match but now they've done it all in style they've won the series 3-1

That was the 2010-11 Ashes according to Alistair Cook Remember we will have daily podcasts from Australia throughout this series so make sure you're subscribed so you get a notification every time we upload. You can listen to live ball-by-ball commentary

of every test on BBC sounds and it all gets underway again in the early hours of Thursday morning. Thanks for listening. We'll speak to you next time. This winter, cricket's oldest rivalry is reignited. England and Australia do battle

to compete. for The Ashes. That is extraordinary. Hear live ball by ball commentary on Fife Sports Extra. And get analysis and reaction of every day's play with the Test Match Special podcast. The Stamps out of the ground. Test match special at the Ashes. Listen on BBC Sounds.