Editing The Ashes (section)

===1920 to 1933===
After the war, Australia took firm control of both the Ashes and world cricket. For the first time, the tactic of using two express bowlers in tandem paid off as [[Jack Gregory (cricketer)|Jack Gregory]] and [[Ted McDonald]] crippled the English batting on a regular basis. Australia recorded overwhelming victories both in England and on home soil. It won the first eight matches in succession including a 5–0 [[whitewash (sport)|whitewash]] in [[English cricket team in Australia in 1920-21|1920–1921]] at the hands of Warwick Armstrong's team.

The ruthless and belligerent Armstrong led his team back to England [[Australian cricket team in England in 1921|in 1921]] where his men lost only two games late in the tour to narrowly miss out of being the first team to complete a tour of England without defeat.

[[File:Herbert Sutcliffe 1924.jpg|thumb|left|[[Herbert Sutcliffe]] sweeps [[Arthur Mailey]] during the first Ashes Test in Sydney, 1924.]]
England won only one Test out of 15 from the end of the war until 1925.<ref>Harte, pp. 274–276.</ref><ref name=auslist>{{cite web |url=http://stats.cricinfo.com/guru?sdb=team;team=AUS;class=testteam;filter=basic;opposition=0;notopposition=0;decade=0;homeaway=0;continent=0;country=0;notcountry=0;groundid=0;season=0;startdefault=1877-03-15;start=1877-03-15;enddefault=2007-11-20;end=2007-11-20;tourneyid=0;finals=0;daynight=0;toss=0;scheduledovers=0;scheduleddays=0;innings=0;followon=0;result=0;seriesresult=0;captainid=0;recent=;viewtype=resultlist;runslow=;runshigh=;wicketslow=;wicketshigh=;ballslow=;ballshigh=;overslow=;overshigh=;bpo=0;batevent=;conclow=;conchigh=;takenlow=;takenhigh=;ballsbowledlow=;ballsbowledhigh=;oversbowledlow=;oversbowledhigh=;bpobowled=0;bowlevent=;submit=1;.cgifields=viewtype |title=Statsguru – Australia – Tests – Results list |publisher=[[Cricinfo]] |access-date=21 December 2007 |archive-date=9 March 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210309063345/https://stats.espncricinfo.com/guru?sdb=team;team=AUS;class=testteam;filter=basic;opposition=0;notopposition=0;decade=0;homeaway=0;continent=0;country=0;notcountry=0;groundid=0;season=0;startdefault=1877-03-15;start=1877-03-15;enddefault=2007-11-20;end=2007-11-20;tourneyid=0;finals=0;daynight=0;toss=0;scheduledovers=0;scheduleddays=0;innings=0;followon=0;result=0;seriesresult=0;captainid=0;recent=;viewtype=resultlist;runslow=;runshigh=;wicketslow=;wicketshigh=;ballslow=;ballshigh=;overslow=;overshigh=;bpo=0;batevent=;conclow=;conchigh=;takenlow=;takenhigh=;ballsbowledlow=;ballsbowledhigh=;oversbowledlow=;oversbowledhigh=;bpobowled=0;bowlevent=;submit=1;.cgifields=viewtype |url-status=live }}</ref>

In a rain-hit series [[Australian cricket team in England in 1926|in 1926]], England managed to eke out a 1–0 victory with a win in the final Test at The Oval. Because the series was at stake, the match was to be "timeless", i.e., played to a finish. Australia had a narrow first innings lead of 22. Jack Hobbs and [[Herbert Sutcliffe]] took the score to 49–0 at the end of the second day, a lead of 27. Heavy rain fell overnight, and next day the pitch soon developed into a traditional sticky wicket. England seemed doomed to be bowled out cheaply and to lose the match. In spite of the very difficult batting conditions, however, Hobbs and Sutcliffe took their partnership to 172 before Hobbs was out for exactly 100. Sutcliffe went on to make 161 and England won the game comfortably.<ref>Harte, pp. 298–301.</ref> Australian captain [[Herbie Collins]] was stripped of all captaincy positions down to club level, and some accused him of throwing the match.

Australia's ageing post-war team broke up after 1926, with Collins, [[Charlie Macartney]] and [[Warren Bardsley]] all departing, and Gregory breaking down at the start of the [[English cricket team in Australia in 1928–29|1928–29 series]].

Despite the debut of [[Donald Bradman]], the inexperienced Australians, led by [[Jack Ryder (cricketer)|Jack Ryder]], were heavily defeated, losing 4–1.<ref>Harte, pp. 312–316.</ref> England had a very strong batting side, with [[Wally Hammond]] contributing 905 runs at an average of 113.12, and Hobbs, Sutcliffe and [[Patsy Hendren]] all scoring heavily; the bowling was more than adequate, without being outstanding.

In 1930, [[Bill Woodfull]] led an extremely inexperienced team to England.

Bradman fulfilled his promise in the [[Australian cricket team in England in 1930|1930 series]] when he scored 974 runs at 139.14, which remains a world record Test series aggregate. A modest Bradman can be heard in a 1930 recording saying "I have always endeavoured to do my best for the side, and the few centuries that have come my way have been achieved in the hope of winning matches. My one idea when going into bat was to make runs for Australia."<ref name="Don Bradman on australianscreen online">{{cite web|url=http://aso.gov.au/titles/spoken-word/1930-australian-xi-ashes/|title=Don Bradman in 'The 1930 Australian XI: Winners of the Ashes'|website=Aso.gov.au|access-date=23 February 2011|archive-date=1 December 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111201123853/http://aso.gov.au/titles/spoken-word/1930-australian-xi-ashes/|url-status=live}}</ref> In the [[Headingley Cricket Ground|Headingley]] Test, he made 334, reaching 309* at the end of the first day, including a century before lunch. Bradman himself thought that his 254 in the preceding match, at [[Lord's]], was a better innings. England managed to stay in contention until the deciding final Test at The Oval, but yet another double hundred by Bradman, and 7/92 by [[Percy Hornibrook]] in England's second innings, enabled Australia to win by an innings and take the series 2–1. [[Clarrie Grimmett]]'s 29 wickets at 31.89 for Australia in this high-scoring series were also important.

Australia had one of the strongest batting line-ups ever in the early 1930s, with Bradman, [[Archie Jackson]], [[Stan McCabe]], Bill Woodfull, [[Bill Ponsford]] and [[Jack Fingleton]]. It was the prospect of bowling at this line-up that caused England's [[English cricket team in Australia in 1932–33|1932–33]] captain [[Douglas Jardine]] to adopt the tactic of fast [[leg theory]], better known as [[Bodyline]].

[[File:4th Test Woodfull.jpg|right|thumb|[[Bill Woodfull]] evades a ball from [[Harold Larwood]] with [[Bodyline]] field settings.]]

Jardine instructed his [[fast bowling|fast bowlers]], most notably [[Harold Larwood]] and [[Bill Voce]], to bowl at the bodies of the Australian batsmen, with the goal of forcing them to defend their bodies with their bats, thus providing easy catches to a stacked [[leg side|leg-side]] field. Jardine insisted that the tactic was legitimate and called it "leg theory" but it was widely disparaged by its opponents, who dubbed it "Bodyline" (from "on the line of the body"). Although England decisively won the Ashes 4–1, Bodyline caused such a furore in Australia that diplomats had to intervene to prevent serious harm to [[Anglo-Australian relations]], and the [[Marylebone Cricket Club|MCC]] eventually changed the [[Laws of cricket]] to curtail the number of leg side fielders.

Jardine's comment was: "I've not travelled 6,000 miles to make friends. I'm here to win the Ashes".<ref>{{cite news | url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/more_sport/article2387560.ece | location=London | work=The Times | title=Top 50 British achievements | first=Patrick | last=Kidd | date=4 September 2007 | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080821160249/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/more_sport/article2387560.ece | archive-date=21 August 2008}}</ref>

Some of the Australians wanted to use Bodyline in retaliation, but Woodfull flatly refused. He famously told England manager [[Pelham Warner]], "There are two teams out there. One is playing cricket; the other is making no attempt to do so" after the latter had come into the Australian rooms to express sympathy after a Larwood bouncer had struck the Australian skipper in the heart and felled him.<ref>{{Cite book| author = Cashman| author2 = Franks| author3 = Maxwell| author4 = Sainsbury| author5 = Stoddart| author6 = Weaver| author7 = Webster | date = 1997 | title = The A-Z of Australian cricketers|pages = 322–323}}</ref>