Mention 2005 to an England fan and there’s usually just one thing that comes to mind: an Ashes win for the ages.
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Having not beaten Australia in a Test series since 1987, England ended years of misery with a historic 2-1 victory. Leading the way across five Tests was Andrew Flintoff, his performances with bat and ball providing him with the status of a national hero.
And yet there’s a strong argument to be made that the greatest individual all-round performance by an Englishman that summer came from another source, and a surprising one at that: Paul Collingwood.
His contribution most often recalled is his batting for over an hour on the final day of the final Test as England desperately tried to navigate to a series-sealing draw, a cameo for which he earned an MBE, along with every other Englishman to play a part that series.
But in June, three months before he made his Ashes debut in the final Test of the series, Collingwood enjoyed a quite sensational day out in an ODI against a Bangladesh side coming off the back of a famous victory over Australia.
In a thumping 168-run win, Collingwood arrived at the crease just before the halfway mark of England’s innings and smashed an unbeaten 112 off just 86 balls – his century was the third-fastest by an Englishman in ODIs at the time – to lift the hosts to a total of 391-4.
When Bangladesh’s turn came to bat, Collingwood used his slower balls to great effect to run through the batting line-up to return figures of 6-31. They remain, to this day, the best ODI bowling figures by an Englishman.
Collingwood’s performance meant he became the first man since Viv Richards to take a five-for and hit a 100 in the same ODI. In fact, Collingwood is still the only the man to take six wickets and hit a century in the same ODI.
Step aside Freddie, Colly had England’s greatest all-round performance in the summer of 2005.
Watch his day out at Trent Bridge below:
