Aussies Win The Ashes 2013-14 Trivia Quiz

Answer: James Faulkner

James Faulkner was a left arm medium pacer and right hand batsman who played Sheffield Shield Cricket for Tasmania. He was selected to tour England on the 2013 Ashes tour and played his test debut in the fifth test in England. Before the return Ashes series in Australia three months later, this was his only test cap. Steve Smith and George Bailey played all five tests, but Bailey, the current Australian One Day International Captain, made his test debut in the first test. Ashton Agar at 19 was selected to play (as a bowler) in the first two tests of the 2013 Ashes tour in England.

Despite getting 98 on debut (as a number 11 batsman) his bowling yielded only two wickets in two matches. He was replaced by Lyons for the remaining three Ashes tests in England.

Answer: Scheduling issues with the World Cup

The scheduling of players the World Cup every four years means the cup is scheduled around the the time the Ashes is played (every two years but every four years in each country). By bringing forward the the Ashes series scheduled for Australia in 2014-15 by 12 months, the cycle of playing an Ashes series directly before a World Cup was broken.

Answer: Australia won by 381 runs

From the low point of 5/162 Haddin, the wicketkeeper, batting at seven, reached 94 (tragically run out) and Johnson, a bowler, batting at eight, scored 64, to give Australia a total of 295 all out. Australia routed England for 136 with Johnson taking 5 wickets. Australia then made 7/401 declared in their second innings (Warner and Clarke made centuries), setting England a target of 561 to win. England were bowled out for 179; Australia won by 381 runs. Mitchell Johnson took 9 wickets for 103 runs for the match.

Answer: Mitchell Johnson

Johnson unleashed a session of such hostile, lethal bowling he took 3 wickets for 1 run in one over before he came back and cleaned up the last three wickers giving him 7/40 for the innings. Because rain threatened to shorten play on days four and five, Clarke declared Australia's second innings closed at 3/130 at the start of day four. England batted through day four to reach 6/247 but the rain held off and England were all out for 312 in the 12th over of the fifth day, giving the Australians a 218 run win.

Answer: England lost by 150 runs

This test must be unique in that both captains were playing their 100th test. Australia were on shaky ground at 5/143 but Haddin made a half century (again!) Steve Smith made his maiden test century (115) in Australia, after his 138 not out against England in the 2013 series, to give Australia a respectable 385 all out. England managed 251 (Cook top scored with 72) in reply. Watson and Warner made centuries in Australia's second innings of 6 declared for 369. England scored their highest total of the series with 355 all out, with Stokes posting a maiden century but only Bell (60) was able to support him. Australia won by 150 runs and had an unbeatable 3-0 lead and hence regained the Ashes.

Answer: Graeme Swann

Swann, retiring mid-series was a shock to England: He was a good off-spinner (60 tests 255 wickets at 29.96, best 6/85) who had won games for England with his bowling and he was a reasonable lower order batsman (average 22.1, 5 half-centuries, highest score 85). He was also a "bit of a character in the dressing room", so he was missed by England.
Jonathan Trott went home after the first test with a stress related illness. Mathew Prior was dropped after the third test. Joe Root was dropped after the fourth test.

Answer: Australia won by 8 wickets

England made 255 in the first innings with Pieterson, the only half-century scorer with 71 (his highest score for the series). Australia responded by scoring their lowest series total of the series with 204. Only Haddin and Rogers scored half centuries. England capitulated in the second innings for 179 giving Australia a target of 231 to win.

They reached that target for the loss of two wickets (aka with 8 wickets to spare). Rogers scored his first of two centuries (116) in the second innings and was superbly supported by Watson who was 83 not out at the end. Australia won by 8 wickets.

It should be noted that Lyons bowled 5/50 in the second innings, taking his turn as leading wicket taker, and proving that the four Australian bowlers, bowling as a unit, were the key to this Ashes series win which, at that time, the scorecard stood at 4-0.

Answer: Australia had taken every English wicket (100)

A little known record was that Australia claimed all 100 English wickets. This, unbelievably, had not been done before, in 136 years of test cricket (the first test match was played in 1877). A 5-0 whitewash had been managed twice before, all by Australia (but never from a turnaround of 0-3 from the previous series; in this case only three months previously). However, Clarke's team won this series 5-0 in 21 days compared with 22 for Ricky Ponting's 2006-07 team and 24 days for Warwick Armstrong's 1920-21 team.
Nathan Lyon could not have had the highest batting average - because he did not have one! Incredibly Lyon did not lose his wicket in any of the six innings in which he batted. If he had lost one of those six wickets he would have had an average of 60.0 as he scored 60 runs. Not bad for a number 11 batsman.
England did have a century-maker: Ben Stokes scored 120 in the second innings of the Perth test which was only his second test.

Answer: No, George Bailey did not score a century

There was no doubt that Haddin's consistency with the bat saved the day for Australia on at least two occasions. His series average of 60.6 was the highest of all players though Warner scored more runs (523 vs Haddin's 493). Only George Bailey was an Australian recognised batsman who did not score a century.

However, he scored two half centuries and equalled a world record for the most runs off an over: 28 from one Jimmy Anderson over. The other top 6 Australian batsman were the top six batsmen overall (Pieterson was the seventh, Bailey 13th).

These top six Australian batsmen were the only players to score over 300 runs and, with the exception of Watson (38.8), had batting averages greater than 40 (Bailey 28.2). Warner, Rogers, Clarke and Smith all scored two centuries, with Watson and Haddin one each (Haddin came close to a second with 94 run out in the first innings of the Brisbane test).

Answer: Mitchell Johnson

The bowlers took four of the five Man of the Match awards (Johnson: Brisbane, Adelaide, Melbourne; Harris: Sydney; with Smith the only batsman, winning in Perth for his century). Johnson won the Man of the Series award with 37 wickets at 14.0. He was ably supported by the other main three bowlers (Harris 22 wickets at 22.0; Lyon 19 wickets at 29.6 and Siddle 16 wickets at 24.1; Watson [4], Smith [1] and a run out covered the last six wickets.

It was not all doom and gloom for England. Broad was the third best bowler overall with 21 wickets at 27.5 including a 6/81 in Brisbane. Ben Stokes also had a 6 wicket haul in Sydney, plus a century in only his second test.

However, nothing can be taken away from the Australian team. They whitewashed England 5-0 to reverse a 0-3 result against England only three months earlier.