10 greatest Ashes Tests of all time

#3 MCG, 1982-83

Graeme Fowler led England's charge with the bat

England 284 & 294 beat Australia 287 & 288 by 3 runs

At the MCG, after choosing to bat first, England lost three men early to the ferocious Jeff Thomson and Rodney Hogg. Chris Tavare and Allan Lamb steadied the ship somewhat courtesy a 161-run stand, but both fell short of a hundred, with Tavare being caught for 89 and Lamb, 83.

The English batting collapsed from there on and left them with merely 284 on the board, with Hogg picking up 4/69. A lead of 3 was never going to be useful for Australia, who lost their last four wickets for 11 runs. Before that, Kim Hughes, David Hookes and Rod Marsh piled up important half-centuries, with Hookes’ 53 requiring only 69 balls.

A third consecutive innings of under 300 followed from England. Graeme Fowler got 65 while Ian Botham struck a run-a-ball 46 with eight fours, to help accumulate 294, England’s total kept in check by Geoff Lawson’s 4/66.

Requiring 292 to win, Australia began nervously, crawling to 71/3. Hughes and Hookes added 100 but soon, the innings stumbled. Five wickets for the next 47 runs, out of which four were picked by Norman Cowans, who got 6/77, meant Allan Border only had Thomson to help Australia cross the line from 218/9. They strung together 70, with the crowd growing breathless with every run, but Botham took out Thomson with 4 to get, as England remained alive in the series.