1978-79 Ashes - Divided Australia slump to defeat
In 1977, Kerry Packer's "rebel" World Series Cricket (WSC) had robbed the "official" Australia side of many of its leading players. Tony Greig lost the England captaincy when it was revealed he had helped recruit players for WSC, and his replacement Mike Brearley led England to a 3-0 win that summer.
A year later, an under-strength Australia were still lacking their World Series players and were skippered by young batsman Graham Yallop. England won the opening Test at Brisbane for the first time since 1936.
After Yallop won the toss, Geoff Boycott compiled a characteristically painstaking 77 in seven and a half hours, while a young David Gower completed his second Test century, as England made 309.
Australia struggled against the four-pronged pace attack of John Lever, Ian Botham, Bob Willis and Mike Hendrick, and only Peter Toohey, who made 81 not out at number five, passed 25 as the hosts perished for 190.
Brearley - nicknamed "The Ayatollah" by Australians after he grew a bushy black beard - Graham Gooch and Derek Randall gave England a solid start in the second innings, but no batsman reached 50 as the tourists were bowled out for 208 late on day four, leaving Australia chasing 328 for victory.
Opener Graeme Wood led the way with 64 but lacked support apart from Gary Cosier (47), and the last six wickets fell for 40 runs as Australia slumped to 161 all out, with left-armer Lever (4-28) doing the damage.
Rodney Hogg, playing only his second Test, had the burden of leading an Australia attack missing spearheads Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thomson, and earned the man-of-the-match award in a losing cause after taking five wickets in each innings.
What happened next? Despite losing the third Test in Melbourne, England won the last three Tests for a crushing 5-1 series win. It remains their biggest margin of victory in an Ashes series.
After Australia's cricketing authorities agreed a truce with Packer and the World Series players returned, England came back to Australia for a three-Test series the following winter, 1979-80, when the Ashes were not at stake. In the opening Test at Perth, Dennis Lillee famously tried to use an aluminium bat in the first innings, and in the second, the scorecard read: Lillee, caught Willey, bowled Dilley.
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