Sir Ian Botham, David Gower, Bob Willis, Michael Atherton & Nasser Hussain celebrate 2005

The 2005 Ashes series - one of the greatest clashes in cricket history - went England's way as Michael Vaughan's side regained the urn for the first time in 18 years.

Former England captains David Gower, Sir Ian Botham, Bob Willis, Michael Atherton and Nasser Hussain - part of the formidable line-up in the Sky Sports commentary box - had the best seats in the house as the drama unfolded.

Here's how they remember 2005 and the euphoria and heartbreak the series generated...

Nasser Hussain: first Test, Lord's - Australia win by 239 runs

I remember walking around the ground at the toss and it was a cloudy sort of day; when Australia won the toss and batted I thought 'crikey, this pitch could be a spicy one'. Well, it was and the first few overs set the tone for the whole series as far as I'm concerned. Justin Langer got hit - that woke him up - and Ponting got cut. The sight of the Australian captain with blood pouring down his face was a poignant moment of the series. I thought 'here we go, we've got a chance'.

Leading up to the game I thought that England would do well; I wasn't sure they would beat Australia but I thought they would do alright. But after that first session I thought 'hold on a minute, with this seam attack we could have a chance'. This was the most I'd seen an Australian side jump around against any seam attack. It wasn't the pitch - that was a good surface.

Sure, McGrath bowled us out again as he always does at Lord's but I knew that if we got runs we had an attack that could take 20 wickets. McGrath was awesome from the Pavilion End in the first innings, bowling balls that nipped back in to Michael Vaughan and Andrew Flintoff and beating the perfect forward or backward defence. But we had them in trouble at times when they batted for the second time even if the result suggested otherwise.

I feared for England after they lost the match because they copped a lot of flak and they needed a bit of luck, which they obviously got. Make no mistake, two things defined what happened in 2005. One was England finding a bowling attack and the other was what happened at Edgbaston on the first morning. McGrath injuring himself, Ponting sticking England in and the way England batted.

I was speaking to Billy Bowden the other day and I said it was lucky he got that decision right when Michael Kasprowicz gloved Harmison down the leg-side because it was a key moment in the history of English cricket! But there were signs at Lord's that what happened after that was no fluke.

David Gower: second Test, Edgbaston - Eng win by two runs

This was an outstanding match both in terms of the quality of the play and the implications for the series. If Australia's last three - Shane Warne, Brett Lee and Michael Kasprowicz - had been able to marshal their side to victory England, already 1-0 down would not have come back in the series.

Both sides played some awesome stuff, sparked by Marcus Trescothick's blistering innings on the first day. Andrew Flintoff followed up in the second innings by smashing four sixes in his 73 but it wasn't all one-way traffic as no-one else passed 21. Glenn McGrath standing on that cricket ball before the start of play on day one certainly didn't do England any harm, that's for sure!

That was key as was Ricky Ponting misreading the pitch; there had been thunderstorms two or three days before that which probably confused the issue and I'm sure he thought that even without McGrath that it was going to do even more that it did on that first day. If it had, then