The Ashes 2017-18: Bodyline, James Anderson vs Michael Clarke, Stuart Broad vs Australia… the five best bust-ups in Ashes history
With the winter series just a matter of days away, check out the first in our "best five" series... the top England-Australia scraps
GET set for fireworks, the 2017-18 Ashes series is now just a matter of days away.
With the First Test getting underway at the Gabba in Brisbane in the early hours of Thursday morning, we're almost set for another exciting series.
There have been some incredible moments in Ashes history, some of the most famous in all of sport.
But not all of them have been positive... with England vs Australia clashes seeing plenty of animosity in years gone by.
With that in mind, check out the top-five bust-ups in Ashes history... the first of our "best five" series, including best deliveries, hundreds, moments and unlikely heroes.
Michael Clarke vs James Anderson
Mitchell Johnson was cricket’s nuclear warhead in the Ashes series of 2013-14, frequently intimidating England’s batsmen.
Aussie captain Clarke had that in mind when Anderson came out to bat at Brisbane.
Clarke and Anderson were far from being mates and Clarke warned him as Johnson prepared to bowl: “Stand by for a broken f***ing arm.”
Bodyline
Fast, short-pitched bowling aimed at the body with a packed legside field was devised to stop Aussie run machine Don Bradman in 1932-33.
The tactic was called Bodyline and is Ashes cricket’s most enduring row.
Captain Douglas Jardine ruthlessly ordered fast bowlers such as Harold Larwood to intimidate.
Batsmen were hit and injured, questions were raised in parliament, diplomatic relations between England and Australia were strained.
England's Ashes Test schedule
Nov 23-27 First Test (Brisbane)
Dec 2-6 Second Test (Adelaide)
Dec 14-18 Third Test (Perth)
Dec 26-30 Fourth Test (Melbourne)
Jan 4-8 Fifth Test (Sydney)
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Oil on the pitch
The players arrived on the final day of the Headingley Test in 1975 to discover oil had been poured over the pitch and chunks removed.
People calling for the release of a convicted armed robber called George Davis had rolled back the covers during the night and sabotaged the surface.
The match was abandoned but it rained anyway.
Metal bat
There was something different when Dennis Lillee walked out in Perth in 1979 – his bat was made from aluminium, not willow.
He faced four balls and struck a delivery from Ian Botham for three.
It made a terrible, tinny sound.
England captain Mike Brearley complained to umpires and Aussie skipper Greg Chappell reckoned the shot was worth four – so he wanted also Lillee to change.
Lillee hurled the bat away in disgust before switching to a conventional blade.
Stuart Broad vs Australia
The England fast bowler decided not to walk after edging a catch, via wicketkeeper Brad Haddin’s gloves, to Clarke at slip at Trent Bridge in 2013.
The reaction was incredible.
Aussie coach Darren Lehmann urged spectators to give Broad a hard time Down Under the following winter.
Then, the Courier-Mail newspaper in Brisbane redacted all pictures of Broad and T-shirts appeared proclaiming: “Stuart Broad is a s*** bloke.”
