The set-up

Ian Chappell:: Chappell, a Wisden Cricketer of the Year for 1975, not only led his side to a comprehensive series win, he also secured $200 bonuses for each player for each Test and a credit to their two-year provident fund from the board.

Crowd: That cricket's spectatorship was changing was evident from the raucous behaviour on the SCG's Hill, where fans chanted "Lill-ee, Lill-ee" all the way from the bowler's walk back to his mark to halfway down his run-up, before falling silent in expectation of the havoc he was going to wreck. John Woodcock wrote in the Times: "The Hill is not a place for old-fashioned barracking any more, or for subtleties, but for taking as many cans as one can carry and consuming them until each voice becomes louder than the next, each remark more obscene." The attendance of 178,027 was a Sydney record.

Rod Marsh: The stumping must have pleased Marsh, who, in Perth, had to watch the slips and gully pouch 13 catches to his one. But he had his work cut out, leaping high to take Lillee and Thomson's rip-snorters. At the fall of the final wicket in Sydney, Arnold c Marsh b Mallett, Marsh turned to Chappelli and said, "We got the bastard back." Australia had regained the Ashes.

John Edrich: Short-pitched bowling had accounted for several bruised bodies and egos in the series. Edrich was forced to retire hurt after being struck in the ribs when he ducked into a skidder from Dennis Lillee, but he returned when England were six down and remained not out after staying for two and a half hours with the tail.

Tony Greig: England's tailenders had Greig to thank for the blows they received from Australia's bowlers. In the first innings in Sydney (and in Brisbane), he had twice bounced Lillee, who needed medical attention after being hit on the elbow. But Greig was the only England batsman to score a hundred in the first four Tests, and the only one who faced Australia's quicks without obvious discomfort, getting his second-innings fifty in "slashing fashion", according to the commentators.

Ashley Mallett: "An over before, Greig had come at me and I held it back. He just managed to get a toe of the bat to the ball for one. Next over I held it back with Greig a mile short. Result: stumped Marsh b Mallett. Sometimes bowlers do outthink batsmen."