Ashes 2017-18: 8 times England won Tests after losing the urn

Ashes 2002-03

Michael Vaughan was in the form of his life during the 2002-03 series

Once again, English hopes of a series win down-under were swiftly dashed. Graham Thorpe and Darren Gough were absent, to the advantage of Australia, and the Hayden-Ponting duo used it to the fullest. Hayden scored centuries in each innings, and McGrath took his 100th wicket in Ashes Tests. England were bowled out for only 79 in their second innings to give Australia a victory by 384 runs.

In the second Test at Adelaide, Michael Vaughan scored a breathtaking century but none of his team mates reached 50 in either innings as Australia took control over proceedings fairly early in the match. Ricky Ponting's century once again signalled that he was entering the golden period of his career. Then,England batted poorly in their second innings to gift Australia an innings victory.

The Perth Test was no different. England had no idea how to bat on the fast and bouncy track against the Australian fast bowlers. They succumbed to another innings defeat. It once again took the holders only 11 days to retain The Ashes.

More misery awaited England during the Boxing Day Test at Melbourne. Langer and Hayden scored freely as all four front-line English bowlers conceded over 100 runs in their first innings. England's response without the injured Stewart was feeble. Vaughan scored another classy century in the second innings but could not stop Australia going 4-0 up in the series.

At Sydney, despite not having the services of McGrath and Warne, Australia wanted to emulate their 1920-21 team in winning all five Tests.Steve Waugh scored a memorable career-saving century but great knocks from Mark Butcher and Michael Vaughan put England in a very comfortable position when Australia were to bat for the second time in the match . They were set a target of 452 to get the 5-0 whitewash but Caddick took seven wickets to stop Australia's reply at exactly the halfway stage. Once again England had won an Ashes Test when it didn't matter anymore.

Honourable mentions:

Ashes 1902: In that glorious summer of cricket in England, Victor Trumper, Clem Hill and Hugh Trumble gave the visitors an unassailable 2-0 lead with one Test to go. Then, in the final Test, Gilbert Jessop played one of the finest innings in the history of the game before George Hirst and Wilfred Rhodes helped England scamper home by one wicket.

Ashes 1924-25: Australia won the first three Tests comfortably before England won the fourth one, only to lose the fifth Test once again, and that too by a huge margin. It was a high-scoring series where, in the first four Tests, the first innings was always in excess of 400 runs.

Ashes 1950-51: Jack Iverson's mystery spin took care of most English batsmen during the first four Tests. Australia won all of them but England, rather unexpectedly, won the final Test of the series when Alec Bedser and Reg Simpson emerged as unlikely heroes.

So, all is not lost for England. Australia have a tendency of losing Ashes Tests after securing the urn.