Downloaded the free trial and had a play with the Ashes 2005 series, taking charge of England. A fantastically close and exciting series - until the 5th Test.
The 2nd Test was the kicker - Chasing ~330 on the final day to win, England collapsed to 150/9 just after tea, with Strauss batting on his own. The final pair lasted over an hour and a half but with only three overs left in the day, and Strauss having taken root on an unbeaten hundred, Hoggard was out - retired hurt. That and getting beaten quite badly in the third Test - Australia needed just 80 to win in the 4th innings, though Simon Jones made it difficult for them - meant I needed to win the final two Tests to regain the Ashes.
Ponting had been absolutely murdering me all this time. He made a hundred in Australia's only top innings at Lord's, got twin hundreds at Edgebaston and ended up with over 600 runs in the series.
I brought in Tremlett for Hoggard for the 3rd Test, who was a disaster, but replaced him with Jimmy Anderson, who went on to play a crucial role in both the last two wins. I made what I thought was a particularly brave call by axing captain Vaughan (then averaging 15 after 3 Tests) for Mark Butcher, who went on to score an immense unbeaten double hundred at the Oval.
Everything that could have gone right did in the 5th Test. My opening partnership finally clicked, Bell recorded a first day hundred after having been left out of the first two Tests, and Butcher batted for just under five sessions to his 272*. Cameos from Geriant Jones and Giles set up the score of 668, before Anderson, Simon Jones and Flintoff ran through them twice.