The Australia national cricket team toured England in 1993 aiming to retain The Ashes for a second consecutive occasion, having successfully defended them on home turf in the 1990/91 season.

The gulf in quality between the sides was vast, and was emphasised by the fact that nine of Australia's team played all six tests, while England used 24 players in the series, including seven debutants.

Four players debuted in the First Test: Andy Caddick and Peter Such for England and Brendon Julian and Michael Slater for the tourists.

For England Neil Foster returned to the side in place of the injured DeFreitas, while the Australians played Tim May as a second spinner at the expense of Julian.

England's reply was built around a solid 80 from Atherton, but his was the only significant resistance as Hughes (4-52), Warne (4-57) and May (2-64) ripped through the other batsmen with relative ease, Australia not even hampered by Craig McDermott's not being available to bowl.

His fluent 86, and a half-century from Hussain kept hopes alive, though at 276/6 at the end of the first day, coach Keith Fletcher was unhappy with the way the batsmen had got themselves out, criticising three "soft" dismissals in the top six.

Stumbling a little at 74/2, Australia's reply was boosted by a partnership of 123 between Boon and Mark Waugh, and the rate of scoring on the second afternoon was excellent, with 250 runs being added after lunch.

England took five wickets in the day, McCague bowling with pace and menace, but Border (who dropped down the order to allow Julian to act as nightwatchman) and Warne added important runs on the third morning to give the visitors a first innings lead of 52.

With 76 overs remaining in the match, and a target of 371 more-or-less out of the question, England were able to attack, and when Caddick ripped out Boon, Mark Waugh and Border to add to Such's dismissals of the openers, it looked as though an upset was on the cards, with Australia reeling on 115/6 at tea, but Steve Waugh (47* in three hours) and Brendan Julian (56* in just over two hours) provided stout resistance in the final session, and steered Australia to the safety of a draw.

In the end Hughes (3-79) and May (4-65) polished off the tail to add to Reiffel's earlier good work, and Warne was luckless in forty tidy overs that cost just 63 runs.

Graham Gooch resigned the England captaincy after the Fourth Test, with the series decisively lost; new skipper Atherton won the toss and elected to bat.

Having played no spinners in the previous Test and being found out, England picked two this time: Such and John Emburey, who replaced seamers McCague and Caddick.

At 80/4, Australia's reply was looking rather shaky, and England thought they had a fifth wicket but the appeal for a catch by Hussain at slip with Mark Waugh on 0 was turned down by David Shepherd.

Thorpe (60) and Emburey (37) added a century stand that gave the score some respectability, but by that time the hosts were in no position to save the match, and were dismissed shortly before the end of the day, leaving Australia a target of 120.

Doubts set in at the start of the visitors' run chase when both Taylor and Slater were caught by Thorpe with the score on 12, but Mark Waugh (62*) and Boon (38*) saw them safely to their target with few further alarms.

[4] In their places came the pace trio of Devon Malcolm, Angus Fraser and Steve Watkin, all making their first appearances of the series, and batsmen Graeme Hick and Mark Ramprakash.

The most disappointing aspect of England's batting was that all seven specialist batsmen were out by now and, although there were runs on the board, most commentators felt a first innings score of around 500 would be necessary to put any pressure on the Australians.

After claiming overnight that they would not be batting for the draw, Australia's main worry soon became avoiding defeat once they slipped to 30/3: Watkin (4-65) ripped out the top order.