England and Australia fought each other with contrasting methods at the 2023 Ashes. England stuck with their aggressive approach, while Australia were more traditional. It was all even at the end of it, 2-2, with Australia retaining the Ashes.
Not only the final scoreline. The margins of victory, and defeat, in the four Tests that had results were very close too: two wickets, 43 runs, three wickets, 49 runs. This was the first Test series to have four such close finishes. The Ashes series in 1907 and India's tour of Australia in 1977-78 had three close finishes each.
England go bang-bang, Australia do the grind
1.39 - The difference in the scoring rates of the two sides. England went at 4.74, while Australia's run rate was 3.35. This was the highest difference between two teams in a series of four or more Tests, topping the 1.32 in favour of Australia against South Africa during their home series in 1931-32.
10.06 - Percentage of balls left alone by England batters in this series. Australia batters did the same to 19.25% of the deliveries they faced, almost twice that of England.
36 - Maiden overs faced by England in the series out of the 645 completed overs. Australia batted out 171 maidens out of 894 completed overs, which meant the England bowlers earned a maiden once every five overs, while it was one in every 19 for Australia.
1 - England batted 90-plus overs in this series only once of the seven times they were bowled out. In contrast, Australia lasted 90-plus overs on seven occasions, including in six out of the eight innings where they were bowled out.
4.41 - Difference in the batting averages of England (34.35) and Australia (29.94) during this series. This was the first time England ended an Ashes series with a higher batting average than Australia since the 2013 edition, also in England.
England redefine Test-match batting
Not only did England top Australia in terms of scoring rates, they also showed that their method was not just about big hitting, but scoring at a steady - and fast - clip right through their innings.
4.74 - England's run rate in this Ashes was comfortably the highest for any team in a Test series of four-plus matches. Australia held the record at 4.26, from the 2001 Ashes in England.
2 - Instances of a team not winning the Ashes series despite winning the first two matches, including Australia in 2023. England failed to win the 1936-37 tour of Australia after going 2-0 up as Australia bounced back with three straight wins to win the series.
6 - Batters with 300-plus runs for England in this series, including four who ended the series striking at 70-plus and averaging 40-plus - Zak Crawley, Joe Root, Harry Brook and Jonny Bairstow. Never before have four players scored 300-plus runs in a Test series with a 40-plus average and a 70-plus strike rate, let alone four players from the same team (where data of balls faced is available). The nearest example was of three players doing the same in the 2001 Ashes, all for Australia - Ricky Ponting, Damien Martyn and Adam Gilchrist.
5.27 - Percentage of completed maiden overs faced by England in this series, the lowest for a team in a Test series of four-plus matches. The previous lowest was for Australia against West Indies in 2003, where only 8.13% of the overs they faced were maidens (65 out of 800).
43 - Sixes were hit by England batters in this series, the second-highest for a team in a Test series, next only to India's 47 against South Africa during their 2019 home series. Australia's 31 sixes in this series contributed to the series tally of 74, the highest for any Test series.
Quick bowlers in focus for both sides
The lead spinners of both the teams had to go out with injuries. Nathan Lyon's streak of consecutive Tests ended at 100 after he picked up an injury at Lord's, forcing Australia to play without a specialist spinner in Leeds, the first time they have done that since 2012.
England had to bring Moeen Ali out of Test retirement after Jack Leach's injury. And then Moeen had to bowl through injury twice in four matches.
Mitchell Starc finished as the top wicket-taker of the series after not finding a place in the XI at Edgbaston. Chris Woakes went even further to end as the third-highest wicket-taker without playing the first two games.
4.65 - Economy of Australia's pacers in this series, the poorest for any team's quicks in a Test series of four-plus matches. The previous record was 4.3 for India during their tour of Australia in the 2014-15 season.
3 - Players to win the Player-of-the-Series award despite missing at least two matches in a Test series, including Chris Woakes on this occasion.
Steve Waugh won the series award despite playing only one of the three matches of the 1993-94 home series against South Africa. Waugh made 164 and took a four-wicket haul at Adelaide Oval to help Australia square the series.
Much like Waugh, Devon Malcolm was named England's Player-of-the-Series despite playing only the last game of the three-match series against South Africa in 1994. Malcolm took ten wickets at The Oval, which included a nine-wicket haul in the second innings.
4.85 - Starc's economy rate in this series was by far the poorest for any bowler with 20-plus wickets in the same series. However, his strike rate of 33.4 was the second-best for any bowler in an Ashes series since 1910, behind only Mitchell Johnson's 30.5 in the 2013-14 home series.
5 - Wickets for James Anderson in this series. It was one less than Joe Root's tally of six. Anderson's bowling average of 85.4 and strike rate of 184.8 in this series were his poorest in a Test series where he bowled over 50 overs.