The Ashes 2009

In 2005, it was England's summer. In 2006-07, Australia had its revenge. And 2009 loomed as the tightest of contests in Test cricket's longest-running rivalry, both countries in a race to rebuild in the first rematch since the end of the era of Warne, McGrath, Gilchrist and Hayden. Test cricket faced its own challenge: to demonstrate the game's potential for drama and dash over five days in an era increasingly accustomed to cricket in three-hour instalments, after the successful Indian Premier League and World Twenty20. Compiled day by day to capture the season's whipsawing fortunes, The Ashes 2009 is the only essential account of the head-to-head duel that stopped both nations, and the story of its defining battles: the pace of Johnson versus the power of Pietersen, the swing of Anderson against the spunk of Hughes, and the generalships of Ponting and Strauss, ready for readers while the embers of the Ashes are still warm.