Image: Australia clinch Ashes 2025 / © X (Twitter)
The weather caused a 40-minute rain delay in Australia’s innings. England’s wickets fell due to a combination of missed opportunities from Jamie Smith and Will Jacks, as well as a hamstring injury suffered by Nathan Lyon.
At the rain-break, Smith had 60 runs before an erroneous shot off Mitchell Starc’s delivery resulted in him falling to Marnus Labuschagne at first slip – Labuschagne took an outstanding catch to dismiss him. Jacks batted into lunch but went for 47 runs; he eventually edged the ball to Labuschagne again from Starc’s bowling.
As Josh Tongue held out and edged the ball to Labuschagne from Scott Boland’s bowling, this confirmed England’s all-out score was 352; this continued the agony for England in Australia, which has now surpassed 14 years without a win.
This was supposed to have been England’s first genuine crack at taking the Ashes in Australia in many years, the most exciting series since the last.
Unfortunately for them, they have been on course for their worst series in Ashes history and will soon question the futures of captain Ben Stokes, coach Brendon McCullum, and the director of cricket, Rob Key.
After 11 days of play in this series, England have basically surrendered their chance of winning the series and need to find some way of achieving a result from Melbourne or Sydney. No team has ever successfully won the Ashes after losing five-match clean sweeps.
Exceptional effort from the Australians after being questioned at the start of the series regarding selection and age of the squad, particularly with the absences of captain Pat Cummins for the first two Tests. Josh Hazlewood missed the entirety of the series, Nathan Lyon was dropped for the second Test, and the absence of Steve Smith in Adelaide.
Stokes stated that this tour provided a platform to “create history” for his team, while McCullum stated that the Ashes had the potential to “define” the group.
Ultimately, history will recognise England as losers within this country, whilst all the other Ashes tourists have suffered similar fates during previous tours down under. Australia have again proven to be far superior to England, just as they have shown on their home turf since 2011. Stokes and McCullum remain contracted until the conclusion of the series; however, both men’s futures are truly dependent upon the decisions made by Key, who is under greater pressure than either Stokes or McCullum.