Australia have regained the urn after just 11 days of cricket – the joint-swiftest Ashes triumph since 1921 – after completing an 82-run victory on the fifth day in Adelaide.
There was English resistance after they resumed on 207 for six, still needing an improbable 228 more to extend their hopes to Melbourne and Boxing Day. But the doggedness of their lower order only accentuated the failures off those higher up. Despite England’s stubbornness, the result was never in much doubt.
The coup de grace came at 2.11pm, when Josh Tongue flashed Scott Boland to second slip, where Marnus Labuschagne held his fourth catch of the innings.
As the Australians rejoiced, it was a sad truth that England’s fight has come too late to save the series – and perhaps too late to save one or two careers, both at administrative level and within the dressing-room itself.
At 3–0 up, Australian thoughts will now turn to the whitewash. Their previous 5–0 Ashes wins took place in 1920-21, 2006-07 and 2013-14, and the mood is ripe for another – not merely to etch their own names in history, but to crush Bazball, which has developed into a national obsession these past few weeks.
England’s only realistic goal on a gloomy final morning was to restore some of the pride that has evaporated steadily ever since their second-day collapse at Perth.
Pictured: The Aussies celebrate in wild scenes after Josh Tongue’s downfall sealed a dramatic 82-run victory in Adelaide – and gave them the series victory
Scott Boland (left) roars with teammate Josh Inglis after taking Tongue’s wicket to stave off a fine fightback from the Three Lions
Mitchell Starc (left) and Jake Weatherald celebrate the victory, which saw the hosts seal the series win in just 11 days of play
And for a while, Jamie Smith and his Surrey team-mate Will Jacks provided it. Smith swung Nathan Lyon over midwicket for six, then pulled Cameron Green for six more – calculated, not indiscriminatory, hitting.
Rain stopped play for 40 minutes, and soon after the resumption, Lyon hobbled off after saving two runs with a diving stop on the fine-leg boundary. He will surely now face a race to be fit for the fourth Test at the MCG, with Matt Kuhnemann and the uncapped Corey Rocchiccioli both in the frame to replace him.
Smith began to get into his stride in what was comfortably his best innings of the tour, timing Pat Cummins through extra cover, then lifting him over mid-off to bring up his first Ashes 50.
But when, on 60, he tried to pull Mitchell Starc over midwicket for what would have been his fifth four in five balls, he succeeded only in getting a big top-edge, easily held by the backpedalling Cummins; a valiant seventh-wicket stand of 91 had come to an end.
Smith’s dismissal got fans going again on social media, but England were never going to block their way to 435, and he had clearly decided their best bet was if he had a good half-hour. It was hardly the loosest moment of the tour, though the bar has been set low.
England kept fighting. They reached lunch at 309 for seven, after which Brydon Carse slog-swept Travis Head for six.
When he glanced Scott Boland for four to bring up the 50 stand, the target dropped below three figures.
Nathan Lyon is pictured after returning to Adelaide Oval on crutches. He is in extreme doubt to return for the Boxing Day Test after a hamstring injury in the first session left him unable to take any further part in the match
The Aussies overcame the stunning loss of Steve Smith just before the start of play on day one, and the injury to Lyon, to seal England’s fate
Pictured: Jamie Smith tries to hit his fifth boundary in a row – but skies the ball to be caught out by Cummins in one of the turning points of the final day’s play
The reintroduction of Starc did the job, as Jacks – on 47 – drove at a bit of width and edged low into the cordon, where for the second time in two days Labuschagne hurled himself low to his left and flung out a hand. The ball stuck, and England were 337 for eight.
They needed a miracle, and it wasn’t forthcoming. Jofra Archer flayed Starc to wide third man to make it 349 for nine. Moments later, Tongue fell, and Adelaide Oval roared its approval.
The result left England to ponder several what-ifs from the game’s four and a half days. What if Harry Brook had caught Usman Khawaja five runs into his first-innings 82. What if Alex Carey hadn’t been reprieved by the technology? What if England had batted with a bit more urgency on a second day of 40-degree heat? And what if they hadn’t lost three quick wickets to Lyon on the fourth evening.
None of those questions, though, could disguise Australia’s superiority in the moments that mattered most. Worthy winners, they can now turn their attention to an obliteration.
