The reservation concerned his ability against really fast bowling, as to which I had no evidence...Only Lawry and Simpson have made more runs and had record to compare if one is to make a quantitative judgement.

The 19-year-old Doug Walters was called up for his Test debut after having made 129 for New South Wales against the tourists and so was the fast bowler Peter Allan on his home ground.

England thought their wicket-keeper Jim Parks caught Bill Lawry off Dave Brown (3/71) with his seventh ball, but were turned down by Umpire Egar.

He added 187 with Doug Walters who hit 155 with 11 fours and 2 sixes to become the 10th Australian to make a century on his Ashes debut, and aged 19 years and 357 days the third youngest after Archie Jackson and Neil Harvey.

The off-spinner Tom Veivers made 56 not out and Booth declared on 443/6 early on the fourth day, leaving him 11 hours to bowl England out twice if he could enforce the follow on.

[15][16] England made steady progress, Bob Barber was out for 5, but the young batsmen Geoff Boycott (45) and John Edrich (32) batted for 108 minutes adding 70 runs for the second wicket before the leg-spinner Peter Philpott removed them both.

The stonewaller Ken Barrington dug himself in for over three hours making 53 while first Jim Parks (52) and Fred Titmus (60) attacked the bowling at the other end.

The Welsh left-arm fast bowler Jeff Jones was called up, as was the Essex all rounder Barry Knight flown out as a replacement just before the First Test.

[20] Bobby Simpson (59), Bill Lawry (88 in almost four and a half hours) and Bob Cowper (99) reached 278/4 by the end of the first day despite the best efforts of Jeff Jones (3/92).

John Edrich (109), Ken Barrington (64), Colin Cowdrey (104), Mike Smith (41), Jim Parks (71) and Fred Titmus (56 not out) piled up 558 as England made their biggest total down under since their 636 in the Second Test in 1928–29.

[20] Bobby Simpson (67) and Bill Lawry (78) added 120 for the first wicket and helped by poor light ending play two hours early Australia were 131/1 going into the last day.

Mike Smith had given up hope when the part-time bowler Geoff Boycott (2/32) had Burge out after a stand of 198 and with Ken Barrington (2/47) surprisingly cleared up the tail to have Australia out for 426.

[15][21] Jim Parks equalled Wally Grout's five dismissals in an innings with three catches and two stumpings, starting with Bill Lawry off Jeff Jones (2/51) for a duck in the first over.

Doug Walters top scored with 35 not out and David Sincock hit 5 fours in his 27 as Australia fell to 174 all out and an innings defeat on the fourth day.

[19][6] Simpson now announced that his target would be a run a minute, an ordinary rate maybe in days gone, but a breakneck almost in the sixties, what with slow over-rates and so much accent on defence.

[9] After Australia's biggest defeat at home in 50 years the Australian press were in uproar and the selectors Ewart Macmillan, Jack Ryder and Don Bradman took drastic action, dropping the captain Brian Booth, batsman Bob Cowper and the bowlers Garth McKenzie, Peter Philpott and David Sincock.

[22] Booth received a letter from Bradman on behalf of the selectors explaining "Never before have I written to a player to express my regret at his omission from the Australian XI.

Peter Allan of Queensland was brought back into the side after he had taken the third best bowling figures in Australia – 10/61 in the first innings against Victoria,[24] but was injured and McKenzie was restored to the team.

England simply kept the same XI from Sydney, even though this meant that Geoff Boycott was their third place bowler after Jeff Jones and Dave Brown.

[9] The Adelaide Oval was notoriously flat, but Garth McKenzie was an expert on getting batsmen out on dull wickets and used the humid atmosphere and fresh pitch to bowl Bob Barber for a duck and have John Edrich caught by the ever-reliable Simpson at slip.

England were 240/9 at the end of the first day, which soon became 241 all out as McKenzie caught Fred Titmus (33) leg before wicket first thing in the morning to give him 6/48, his best Test bowling figures to date.

[9] With eight recognised batsmen Australia could expect a large total even though Simpson insisted that they make their runs quickly and by the end of the second day they were 333/3 with the captain 159 not out.

Even Bill Lawry responded with 9 fours and a six in his 119 as he and Simpson put on 244 runs in 255 minutes for the first wicket, more than the entire England first innings.

Jeff Jones (6/118) put up a fight, dismissing Thomas, Tom Veivers, Peter Burge, Ian Chappell, Simpson and Keith Stackpole, who made 43 batting at number eight.

[9] Coming in to bat late on the third day England could only hope for a draw, but Neil Hawke (5/54) gave them a worst start than in the first innings as they collapsed to 32/3.

Fred Titmus (53) hit 8 fours and added 81 for the seventh wicket with the entrenched Barrington, but England did not outlast the fourth day and were dismissed for 266.

He just kept that long, sharp nose religiously over the ball, accumulating at his own deliberate gait...[27] Each team made one change from the Fourth Test at Adelaide.

England replaced the off-spinner Dave Allen with the all-rounder Barry Knight and Australia made Peter Burge twelfth man after he declared that he would not tour South Africa, allowing Bob Cowper to return to the team.

Garth McKenzie (1/100) and Neil Hawke (1/109) suffered, but Doug Walters took 4/53 to dismiss Barrington, John Edrich (85), Colin Cowdrey (79) and Mike Smith (0).

[31] It had already been realised that the captains on both sides were unusually cautious when playing each other as so much was at stake even though Bobby Simpson and Mike Smith had done all that they could to make the games interesting.