After losing by 239 runs at Lord's, England regrouped a week and a half later at Edgbaston. The vultures were out for the likes of Ashley Giles and Geraint Jones, questioning their places in the team, and many were suggesting it was Ashes business as usual.

Ashley Giles
England bowler

I had a run-in with the media for a week [after the Lord's Test] and even before Edgbaston I was carrying a lot of that around rather than concentrating on the Test match. The big thought and the right thought of our meetings before was all about going back hard at the Aussies. I think England teams of the past have gone in thinking, 'We're one-nil down, let's try and get back with a draw and save face'. [Michael] Vaughany [the England captain] was the opposite.

Justin Langer
Australia batsman

I think probably that if we were completely honest we had been neglecting some of our disciplines and we probably did underestimate England after the Lord's Test. There probably was a bit of 'here we go again'.

An hour and a half before the first ball, Glenn McGrath trod on a ball and went down. It was a classic scene and it felt like it was out of a movie. I was a few metres from him and I could see it happening in slow motion, it was like, 'Nooooo ... dooonnnn't doooo iiiiiitttt'. He went down, but we didn't know for sure if it was bad, because you've got to remember that Glenn McGrath is one of the biggest jokers of all time.

But it was soon clear that it was bad. It had a massive impact. It was as if England had just lost Freddie Flintoff. He [McGrath] had bowled England out at Lord's. It had a massive influence on the whole series. We had Michael Kasprowicz, who was a very experienced bowler, coming back in and we had to get on with it, but it had a huge influence because Jason Gillespie was a bit low on confidence.

Steve Rouse
Edgbaston groundsman

They [Australia] were pratting about with some Australian Rules football, Glenn's gone back to catch it and there were half a dozen cricket balls on the ground and he trod on one. Their physio came over and said, “Can you help me take him off?” He [Glenn] said: “I've done it before and I won't play today.”

Giles The [England] batsmen were a picture, like meerkats, heads up all looking in the same direction. I don't think anyone enjoys facing Glenn McGrath. Our groundsman [Rouse] got his cart out [to take McGrath off] as quick as possible and I think if McGrath hadn't looked too bad, Rousey would have just kept driving.

Ricky Ponting, the Australia captain, astounded England by winning the toss and opting to bowl

Langer Ricky was criticised for bowling on that day but from what all our research had indicated and what we'd been told it was best to bowl first at Edgbaston. There was a mythical story going round that Shane Warne and Ricky Ponting had a stand-up argument about the toss. It's the biggest load of rubbish I've heard in my life; it just didn't happen.

Giles You can't overemphasise the importance of the toss at Edgbaston and everyone knows that you think about bowling first here and then you bat, particularly when you've got a world-class spinner in your side. So, when the coin came down and they turned to Ricky Ponting, a little bit of me thought, “Damn, now we're going to have to play really well.” When he said they'd bowl it was sort of a double-take, “did he really say that?”

Ricky Ponting
Australia captain

I never had many regrets about that decision to bowl first ... if we had been bundled out for 120 on a wicket that really deteriorated I would have been really concerned about that decision. Losing Glenn certainly didn't help.

Rouse We had that tornado in Edgbaston the week before and the amount of rain we had was incredible. But by the day before it looked like a normal Edgbaston wicket. The Australians spoke to me and they heard all about the rain and the rolling, but what they didn't do was check the core [pitch soil sample] when it came out, because you have to show the core to the umpires and match referee and all that. If they'd seen it the top half of it was quite dry.

England hammered Australia for 132 in 27 overs, with Trescothick unbeaten on 77 at lunch. They went on to make 407 all out, off just 79.2 overs

Langer The key thing for me which turned the whole series was Marcus Trescothick's batting on the first morning. It changed the whole momentum. The way he played against Brett Lee in particular, he absolutely creamed it.

Michael Vaughan
England captain

The first day at Edgbaston was when we got back into the Ashes, the way we played in a positive fashion and put Australia under a lot of pressure.

Giles The thing that stands out for me on that first day was the emergence of Andrew Flintoff. He had not got any runs at Lord's and we all knew it was crucial that he needed to play a part with the bat if were going to have a chance of winning the Ashes.

England had a first-innings lead of 99, but were immediately on the rack against Warne, who produced a magic ball to bowl Andrew Strauss

Geraint Jones
England wicketkeeper

I think that dismissal helped Straussy for the rest of the series, because he went away and worked on the way he was playing Warne and came up with a different plan and it proved effective over the rest of the series.

Giles When you see a ball like that one that got Straussy that evening you choke a bit. But Freddie played a great knock and got us something we felt was defendable. It was Freddie's over to Langer and Ponting that got us back. Freddie round the wicket bowls Langer and then over to Ponting, two in and then a leg cutter and he nicked off. It was just incredible.

Jones Freddie bowled one of the best overs I've ever kept to.

When Steve Harmison yorked Michael Clarke with the last ball of day three Australia were 175 for eight, needing another 107 to win

Giles The next morning we talked about being ruthless but [Shane] Warne had other plans and got them back in the match. The Aussie crowd were counting down every run.

Then Warne trod on his stumps with 62 still needed

Jones Right from the first ball of the morning there was a block of the Australian crowd counting down every single run. I remember hearing them start and thinking, 'I don't like the sound of that, that could go a long way.' When you get down to the thirties, the twenties and the teens, there's just the dread. Simon [Jones] dropped a hard catch from Kasprowicz at third man [with 15 needed].

Stephen Harmison
England bowler

I was OK when I was bowling because I had a job to do, but as they got closer and closer to the target I was literally shaking with nerves at fine leg. At the start of the last over, they needed four to win and Vaughany asked me if I wanted to bring Simon Jones in from the off-side boundary to save the single.

We agreed I should keep him out there to make it as hard as possible to score the runs. Then I bowled this horrendous wide full toss that Brett Lee smashed past point. Had we made the other choice that would have been 2-0 down.

Jones I had the feeling we were going to get one opportunity and more than likely an edge. Thankfully it was a fairly soft glove down leg side. It's the moment from when I took it to rolling over and looking up that time slowed down, waiting for Billy's [Bowden, the umpire] crooked finger to go up.

I had dropped a couple of catches at Lord's so to take the winning catch helped ease the pressure. I had a huge emotional release and I took it out on the Aussie crowd.

Giles Myself and Tres had to pull Jonah [Geraint] back because he was heading to the Australians in the crowd because they'd been giving him plenty of stick.

The Aussies were great. They came and had a beer with us and we felt we'd gained some respect. I think it turned the series on its head. They'd bullied us at Lord's. But this was a different England side; it wasn't “well done, we've won a Test”, it was about winning the Ashes. We allowed ourselves a night out and gave it a good nudge, but three days later we were back at Old Trafford to do it again.