[5] Rain prevented play for large amounts of the Third Test at Edgbaston, including the entire third day,[6] making the draw an inevitable result.

An innings of 121 from Michael Hussey gave the Australians hope, but he gradually ran out of partners before losing his own wicket to give England a 197-run win in the match and a 2–1 series victory.

Ponting reached a major milestone in his career scoring his 11,000th run and joining Sachin Tendulkar, Brian Lara and Allan Border.

After lunch, Haddin became the destroyer-in-chief, flicking three successive Anderson deliveries to the boundary and closed in on his second Test ton with booming sixes off the ineffective English attack.

[36] When Haddin was finally dismissed, Ponting declared the Australian innings at 674/6, the largest total against England since 1934 and fourth highest in The Ashes series.

Australia captain Ricky Ponting later accused the England team of time-wasting by allowing their 12th man, Bilal Shafayat, and physiotherapist, Steve McCaig, to twice run onto the pitch.

[37] England started the day with the news that former captain and talisman Andrew Flintoff was going to retire from Test cricket after the Ashes,[4] Monty Panesar had been dropped in favour of Graham Onions and Steve Harmison had been left out of the squad.

There was bad luck for the Australians after the interval when Strauss hit a ball back towards bowler Nathan Hauritz who, in trying to take the catch, dislocated his finger.

In England's 2nd Innings, openers Strauss and Cook started brightly as they looked to score quick runs to increase their lead in the match.

Matt Prior in particular enjoyed success hitting a quick-fire 61 off 42 balls (an innings which included 9 boundaries) until he was dismissed run out by a quick piece of fielding from Marcus North.

When Collingwood was dismissed caught behind off Siddle, Stuart Broad came on as next batsman but failed to face a ball as the umpires stopped play due to rain.

Andrew Strauss immediately declared England's second innings closed on 311 for 6, leaving Australia a target of 522 to win in two days of play.

The highest total ever to have been reached by a test side in the fourth innings to win was 418 (West Indies vs Australia, 2002–03 at St John's).

The feat also meant he became one of the few players to grace both Lord's Honours Boards (because of the 142 he made against South Africa six years prior).

With only one wicket left, Mitchell Johnson aggressively powered to 63 before he was clean-bowled by Swann to wrap up England's first Ashes Test victory at Lord's since 1934 at 12:42.

England opened their innings with the momentum in their favour, but they had to face the same batting conditions as the Australians had, and Alastair Cook was removed for a duck in the second over.

Although England responded well by getting Simon Katich out for a duck off series debutant Steve Harmison, the Australian innings began to gather pace and they were 69/1 off 15 overs by tea.

[46] Johnson produced a spell of left arm swing bowling that captured the prime wickets of Bell (3), Collingwood (4) and opener Cook.

Many names were thrown up as possible replacements for the failing middle order of Bopara, Bell and Collingwood, including Jonathan Trott and Rob Key,[48] as well as Mark Ramprakash, whose last test came in 2002,[49] and Marcus Trescothick, who then ruled himself out of the running.

[51] Flintoff remained in the squad, the only change being the introduction of Trott for Bopara, with the confirmation that the South African-born batsman would make his Test debut at The Oval.

[52] England won the toss and captain Andrew Strauss chose to bat on a pitch quite uncharacteristic of what would be considered normal at The Oval.

[53] Although they lost Alastair Cook to an outside edge off Peter Siddle early in the innings, England recovered to reach 108/1 at lunch, with Strauss making his fifty in just 89 balls.

The next two wickets fell to Siddle in relatively quick succession: Paul Collingwood was caught at mid-on by Michael Hussey, before Ian Bell – who had reached his half-century off 73 balls – inside-edged onto his own stumps for 72.

Shane Watson and Simon Katich took Australia to 66/0 before rain forced lunch to be taken three minutes early, with the resumption of play delayed until almost 14:30.

Broad completed his five-wicket haul in the 39th over, bowling Brad Haddin to give him wicket-to-wicket figures of 5/19 and leave only the Australian bowlers to dismiss.

Swann took the next two wickets – albeit that of Stuart Clark was given incorrectly – leaving it to Flintoff to bowl Hilfenhaus and end the Australian innings for 160 runs.

[55] Strauss and Trott built a partnership of 118 before the England captain edged to Michael Clarke at first slip just before the lunch break on day three.

A lofted straight drive from England's most promising all-round prospect, Stuart Broad, brought up the 400 lead, but an attempted slog found his top edge and he was caught by Ponting off North for 29.

Michael Clarke was then run out in the very next over following some sharp fielding from Andrew Strauss at slip, while Marcus North was next to go when he left his ground to reach for a Graeme Swann delivery but missed, allowing keeper Matt Prior to stump him before he could get back.

Hilfenhaus survived the hat-trick ball, but the match only lasted another two overs as Hussey was caught by Cook at short leg off the bowling of Swann.