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Anna Thompson's Blog: Lily Allen brings a smile to Test Match Special (TMS)

What is it about the Oval? In 2005, fans there witnessed the climax to the best Ashes battle ever played.

Four years later, England beat Australia by the same scoreline, 23,000 fans bouncing in the stands, hugging random strangers and chanting the name of Freddie Flintoff.

But did you back them going into the first Test in Cardiff? The Aussies made batting look easy, with four 100s in their single innings.

How many did England have? None, nada, zip, zilch. Yet somehow they escaped with a miraculous draw, the fans roaring every forward defence as Monty Panesar and Jimmy Anderson batted out the final day.

The cricket didn't match the 2005 series, but the atmosphere did.

Even Lord's, which is traditionally more about posh Panama hats and polite applause, became a cauldron as Flintoff ripped through the tourists on the final day to clinch victory by 115 runs and put England one up.

Then there was the fancy dress craziness of Edgbaston, especially on the Saturday afternoon - superheroes, men dressed as women, even whoopee cushions were crammed into the stands. No one cared they got rained on for two days, and the match petered out into a draw.

Then came the humiliation of Headingley. England were steamrollered inside two-and-a-half days in the most brutal way possible, and the mood across the nation was, 'We've messed up again'.

It wasn't the fact they lost, it was the fact they lost so badly. With big dilemmas over who to pick for the final test, England went to the Oval knowing only a win would do.

But one session ultimately decided the whole series. The Aussies were coasting after lunch on Friday, until Stuart Broad turned in the sort of bowling performance which proved to be his coming of age.

He tore the top and middle order apart, every over taking a wicket, every time getting a bigger reception from a raucous crowd at the Vauxhall Road End. Incredible.

Australia were 160 all out. England were on the brink of something special and one last bit of Freddie magic on Sunday to run out the Aussie skipper Ricky Ponting meant the Ashes were coming home.

Cue utter bedlam in the crowd, some fans hoarse from all the screaming.

But if you look at the statistics overall, England should never have won.

Australia had the top run-scorers, century-makers and wicket-takers. What England did do, though, was capitalise on key moments.

Monty and Jimmy in Cardiff, Freddy at Lord's, Broady at the Oval. That's what will stay in the England fans' minds.

The only stat they care about is: England 2 Australia 1.