2: Australia 1977 (4/5 home) and South Africa 1998 (5/5 home)

Botham's second match was against Australia at Headingley where England continued their dominance and Botham continued his fine form with the ball if not with the bat. He took the second of his 27 five wicket hauls as Australia followed on and lost by an innings and 85 runs. However, Botham had a match to forget with the bat as he registered his first duck, whilst batting at number 8. He was injured in the Australian second innings, after bowling 17 unsuccessful overs.

Botham's injury kept him out of the final match of the series, which England won 3-0 against an Australian side divided by the Packer revolution. Botham admits in his autobiography that his start in test cricket was assisted by the absence of the Packer rebels from the test arena.

The scoreboard can be viewed by clicking on the link below:
http://content-uk.cricinfo.com/wisdenalmanack/engine/match/63193.html

This match will be best remembered for Boycott's 100th first class century in front of his home crowd. Wisden's match report can be accessed below:
http://content-uk.cricinfo.com/wisdenalmanack/engine/match/63193.html

Flintoff's second match was also at Leeds against the South Africans and he also registered his first duck and then his first pair. He only bowled 12 ineffective overs in the game, but England won the match by 23 runs, completing an incredible comeback to win the series 2-1.The scorecard can be accessed below:
http://content-uk.cricinfo.com/wisdenalmanack/engine/match/63808.html

This was a match for Flintoff to forget but for every England fan to remember as England won their first five match series in nearly 12 years. See below for the Wisden report:
http://content-uk.cricinfo.com/wisdenalmanack/content/story/153343.html

This match will also be remembered for a host of controversial decisions and the South African manager Ali Bacher later referred to it in Cronje's match fixing trial where he suggested that Pakistani umpire Javed Akhtar had made corrupt decisions. Whilst there is no doubt that the South Africans genuinely felt cheated, this reflected the closeness of the match and the fact that overall South Africa had played the better cricket in a series they ultimately lost. Bad decisions were made, but they favoured neither side.