Set just 151 to win, Australia were cruising at 105 for 4 when Mike Brearley persuaded a reluctant Ian Botham to bowl. Twenty-eight balls and one run later Botham had taken 5 for 1 and Australia had collapsed to 121 all out.
Botham had failed with the bat in both innings and was sulking on the boundary when Brearley intervened.
Australia required 46 to win with 6 wickets in hand and Border set; the match looked dead.
Edgbaston was a low-scoring Test on a slightly two-paced pitch. England's Ray Illingworth-style declaration left Australia 151 to win — eminently achievable. Allan Border and Graham Yallop had taken the score to 105 for 4 and the match looked over. Brearley walked across to Botham, who had been moping after a poor first innings, and asked him to bowl up the hill. Botham did not want to. Brearley insisted. The resulting spell — 14 balls, no runs, 5 wickets — broke the match and broke Australian morale. Botham's victims were Border, Marsh, Bright, Lillee and Whitney. Australia, 105 for 4, were all out 121. England won by 29 runs and went 2-1 up in a series that had been level after Headingley. Brearley's psychological reading of his star all-rounder remains a textbook captaincy moment.
Brearley persuades Botham to bowl
Botham removes Border
Bright bowled second ball
Lillee skies a pull to mid-on
5 for 1 in 28 balls
Day 4 afternoon
Australia 105/4 chasing 151
Brearley brings Botham on
Australia 105/4
Botham's spell
5 wickets for 1 run in 28 balls
Close
Australia all out 121; England win by 29
“I just told him to bowl quick and straight. The hill helped.”
“Brears made me do it.”
England wrapped up the series at Old Trafford with another Botham hundred; the term 'Botham's Ashes' was coined in this period.
A spell of breathtaking sustained accuracy that flipped a near-certain Australian victory in 14 balls.
Brearley's reading of Botham at Edgbaston is cited in psychology textbooks on motivation and is the second pillar of the 1981 mythology after Headingley.
Yorkshire v Essex
1932-06-16
On 15-16 June 1932 Herbert Sutcliffe (313) and Percy Holmes (224*) put on 555 for the first wicket against Essex at Leyton, breaking the world first-class record for any wicket and adding a layer of folklore — including a scoreboard that read 554 for several minutes and a hastily reversed declaration — that has clung to the partnership ever since.
Australia v England
1933-02-14
With the fate of the Bodyline series in the balance and England 216 for 6 chasing 340, Eddie Paynter checked himself out of a Brisbane hospital where he was being treated for acute tonsillitis, taxied to the Gabba in pyjamas and a dressing gown, and batted for nearly four hours to score 83. England drew level on first innings, won the Test by six wickets and the series 4-1.
Australia
1934-09-25
Days after the 1934 Oval Test, Bradman fell seriously ill with appendicitis that progressed to peritonitis. With antibiotics not yet available, he was given little chance of survival; his wife Jessie left Adelaide on a sea voyage to England prepared for the worst. He recovered after weeks of intensive nursing in a London nursing home and returned to first-class cricket the following Australian summer.