Australia in Great Britain, 2013 (cricket)

Australia toured Great Britain in the 2013 cricket season and played a five-Test series against England for The Ashes. England won the series 3–0 with two matches drawn. The team captains were Alastair Cook of England and Michael Clarke of Australia. England's outstanding players were their middle order batsmen Ian Bell, who scored three centuries in the series, and Joe Root; pace bowlers James Anderson and Stuart Broad; and spin bowler Graeme Swann.

England won the first Test at Trent Bridge by 14 runs. Anderson took ten wickets for 158 runs in the match (five for 85 and five for 73) and Bell scored 109 in the second innings. Australia's Austin Agar scored 98 on his Test debut and this was the record score by a number 11 batsman in Test cricket. Also, his tenth wicket partnership of 163 with Philip Hughes was a Test record. England convincingly won the second Test at Lord's by 347 runs. Swann took eight wickets in the match including five for 44 in the first innings when Australia were cheaply dismissed for 128. Bell, with scores of 109 and 74, and Root, who scored 180 in the second innings, were the outstanding batsmen. Bell became the fourth English batsman to score a century in three successive Ashes matches, after Jack Hobbs, Walter Hammond and Chris Broad (father of Stuart Broad).

Australia played much better in the third Test at Old Trafford and made a substantial 527 for seven declared in their first innings, with skipper Clarke scoring 187. England struggled to avoid the follow-on but eventually made 368 and Australia had to bat third, scoring 172 for seven declared to set England a difficult target of 332. Rain and bad light then intervened and England were able to secure a draw which meant they retained the Ashes as Australia could not win the series. In the fourth Test at the Riverside Ground in Chester-le-Street, England won by 74 runs with another century by Bell (113) and match figures of eleven for 121 by Broad (five for 71 and six for 50). The final Test at The Oval ended in a draw. Bad weather ruined the last two days and left England just 21 runs short of another victory with five wickets standing.

Bibliography

• Cricket Archive: 2013 tour summary. CricketArchive.
• Playfair: Playfair Cricket Annual 2014. Edited by Ian Marshall. Headline Books (2014).
• Booth, Lawrence (editor): England v Australia, 2013. Wisden Online (2014).