Australia beat England by 146 runs to secure 4-0 Ashes victory

England failed to capitalize on a chance to win the final Ashes Test and suffered yet another batting collapse as Australia sealed a 146 run-win to round off the series in Hobart.

The hosts end the series as 4-0 victors, meaning England have now failed to win any of their last three Ashes series Down Under.

Day two started positively for Joe Root’s side as Mark Wood took the wickets of Pat Cummins (2) and Mitchell Starc (3) to reduce Australia to 246-7, leaving a score of 300 seeming distant.

Yet, a surprise onslaught from Nathan Lyon meant Australia were bowled out for 303 in the first innings, with the off-spinner hitting three sixes and a four on his way to making 31 runs off 27 balls.

Having been recalled into the side in place of Haseeb Hameed, Rory Burns was unable to get off the mark in the first innings after he was run out by Marnus Labuschagne following a poor call from Zak Crawley.

Cummins then took responsibility for his side as he dismissed Crawley (18) as well breaking the dangerous partnership of Joe Root (34) and Dawid Malan (25), who put on 49 for the third wicket.

Ben Stokes (4) and Ollie Pope (14) failed to make respectable scores as the visitors faced another embarrassing batting display.

A 43-run partnership between Sam Billings (29) and Chris Woakes (36) helped England avoid the follow-on but they could not surmount more than 188 despite a brief cameo from Wood (16).

England’s bowling attack, once again, provided the tourists with a glimmer of hope. Stuart Broad unsurprisingly picked up the wicket David Warner, who failed to make a single run in both innings.

Marnus Labuschagne (5) would, also, only survive 11 balls before being caught behind off the bowling of Woakes, providing Sam Billings with a first Test catch and leaving Australia at 5-2.

Wood took the wicket of Usman Khawaja prior to the end of the play before enjoying a phenomenal third day. Taking five more wickets, including those of Steve Smith (27) and Travis Head (8), Wood finished on figures of 6-37 as he spearheaded the England attack.

Alex Carey fought hard for his score of 49, though, Australia were bowled out for 155, setting England 270 to win.

The early signs were unexpectedly promising for England as they reached their first 50-run opening partnership of the whole series, their biggest Ashes opening stand since the 2013 Boxing Day Test.

However, Cameron Green then stole the headlines as he bowled Burns for just 26 and followed up with the wickets of Crawley (36) and Malan (10).

Aside from the openers, no England batsman managed to score more than 11 runs in the second innings as Starc and Scott Boland took three wickets apiece.

Having scored 68 runs without a wicket falling, England found themselves all out for only 124, losing all 10 wickets in the space of 58 runs. Their worst collapse in Ashes cricket since 1948. Another ignominious
statistic to emerge from what has been a nightmare of a series.

In spite of the humbling, Root expressed his desire to continue as captain, although, he did admit that his fate is in the hands of those above him.

“I believe that I am the right man to take this team forward. If that decision is taken out of my hands, so be it.

“I have an appetite to carry on and turn things around.

“At the minute we are going through a real tough stage as a group of players and the performances haven’t been good enough, but I’d love the opportunity to try to turn things around and for us to start putting in performances from an English Test team.”

While Australia skipper Pat Cummins emphasised that after comfortably winning the first series under his captaincy, this Australian side will continue to build for the future with Test series in Pakistan, Sri Lanka and India within the next 18 months.

“To be the best team in the world you have to win at home but you have to be successful overseas, that is the challenge for this side.

“We haven’t played a lot overseas in the last couple of years so the upcoming tours all have really foreign conditions to Australia, so that is going to be our challenge.

“I feel like we are really well suited having a squad of 15 plus extras that can offer a lot in those conditions.

“This is hopefully just the beginning. I feel like we’re in a really good place and hopefully there are no imminent retirees so I hope we’re building something big for the next few years.”

England will face the West Indies in a three-match Test series starting on 8th March as they look to turn around their fortunes in the longest format. For now, a post-mortem awaits, with casualties almost certain.

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