England found some late fibre to their batting, spearheaded largely by Zak Crawley‘s 85, but the ongoing quality of Pat Cummins and Nathan Lyon decisively closed the door on them. The tenacity of the Australians in Adelaide has virtually guaranteed them control of the Ashes for another two years. England had set a world-record goal of 435 to win the third Test and salvage the series.
Before Lyon claimed three more wickets in the last session to undermine England’s resolve, Cummins claimed the first three wickets, including Joe Root for the thirteenth time in Test cricket. Despite playing well, Crawley was unable to convert what would have been a second hundred against Australia. Lyon enticed him off his feet as the shadows became longer, allowing Alex Carey to finish with a quicksilver stumping.
With four wickets remaining, England were still more than 200 runs from their objective as Australia closed in on a commanding 3-0 lead, despite Jamie Smith, who played two scoring strokes in 30 balls, and Will Jacks negotiating a pathway to the finish. England were expected to give up the urn in just 11 days of cricket, barring heroics from the lower order on Sunday.
Travis Head’s bristling 170 had been the cornerstone of Australia’s dominant position in this match, but England were clinical with the ball during the morning session on day four, taking six wickets in just over 90 minutes of play to at least stop a massive target from moving closer to the enormous.
The love of a chase is one of the main characteristics of England’s Bazball era; the precise lines of a fourth-innings demand bring out the best in a volatile batting team. They had a lot of clarity because they were behind 2-0 and needed to win to keep the series alive. However, despite Adelaide Oval’s continued friendliness for batting, Cummins’ two runs in his opening period either side of lunch made it obvious how big of a task England faces.
After wildly prodding his second ball to be taken at slip, Ben Duckett’s tumultuous journey continued. Cummins and Mitchell Starc then thoroughly thrashed Ollie Pope, but it was a spectacular catch by Marnus Labuschagne, diving one-handed at second slip, that sent him out for what may have been his final appearance in Test whites.
But in his first over after tea, the spotless Cummins once again undid Root.
With a steady 78-run partnership between Crawley and Root, England recovered throughout the afternoon. Root struggled behind as Cummins probed around the line of off stump, just as he had done in the first innings. His distress was evident as he slammed the back of his bat and stormed off the pitch.
In actuality, England’s top order didn’t do any Bazballing because they chose a more traditional strategy, possibly damaged by their mishaps in Perth and Brisbane. England was two wickets behind after Crawley scored one run from his first 28 balls, but he was rewarded for his patience with his best series performance, an innings full of well-timed drives and sound judgement. Similar to Root, he took the initiative to sweep and reverse-sweep against Lyon, whose first six-over spell ended in 35, prompting Cummins to bring on Head.
Harry Brook and Crawley put on another half-century stand, but Brook occasionally lived dangerously despite what seemed to be an attempt to control some of his attacking tendencies. Scott Boland bowled with the keeper up, tying him down. He got away with a blundering ramp that came off the bat’s toe with his stumps exposed, and he also had to quickly stop a run attempt as the ball rolled away to square leg.
Brook did take advantage of Boland’s short drop to cuff a boundary, but his only other four came when he reverse-swept Lyon. That shot ultimately proved to be his undoing, as he lost form awkwardly as the ball dropped and spun to clip leg stump. Despite Brook’s apparent confusion at being bowled, the message for England was unmistakable.
With a ripping offbreak that crept in towards middle and leg before spinning past a forward defensive to hit the top of off, Lyon has found his rhythm and removed Ben Stokes for the tenth time in Test cricket. Carey’s glovework took care of the rest as Crawley lost his balance while pushing at one that continued with the arm. With their winless streak in Australia expected to reach 18 Test matches, England was 194 for 6 and there was no comfort in the prospect of rain extending into the final day.
Head’s second hundred of the series and an unbroken partnership with fellow South Australian Carey had given Australia a commanding lead going into Saturday’s play. To put out the last of the English fight, they may have planned to bat well past lunch, but such declaration rumours were swiftly put on hold when the innings fell apart following Head’s dismissal.
Australia’s fifth-wicket combination went about their work without any problems at first, with Head slicing and clipping boundaries to get over 150. England started with Stokes, the captain having not bowled a ball on day three. They had put on 40 in less than eight overs, and three years prior, against the West Indies on this pitch, Head had come within a hair of his career-high 175 when he tried to hit Josh Tongue for six but Crawley caught him at deep square leg, despite a last-minute change that caused him to lose the ball’s trajectory.
In addition to boosting Australia’s advantage beyond 400, that terminated a 162-run stand and put Carey one step closer to being just the third wicketkeeper to achieve twin hundreds in a Test. A well-directed short ball wound up in the hands of leg slip via Carey’s glove, and Stokes, who had seen a lbw verdict against Josh Inglis reversed due to the presence of an inside edge in his previous over, stopped him short.
The new ball did for Australia’s tail after Inglis failed to make the most of his reprieve, edging Tongue behind as he attempted to open the face. Brydon Carse removed Cummins and Lyon with consecutive deliveries before Archer finished the job, a collapse of 6 for 38 lifting English spirits for all of eight balls.
India
