Published: December 21, 2025 at 4:58 am
Australia doused all hopes of an English comeback in the Ashes with an 82-run victory at the Adelaide on Sunday afternoon. The hosts needed just 11 days of play to wrap up the 2025-26 Ashes series with two Tests still to come.
For the Englishmen it was another sorry tale. Though they put up a better show at Adelaide, it still was not enough to pull off a miracle win. The lower order put up a gutsy fight, but it only delayed the inevitable.
Australia’s winning moment came when Scott Boland induced a thick edge from England’s No. 11 Josh Tongue, straight into the hands of Marnus Labuschagne at first slip, who swallowed his fourth take of a truly sensational display in the field. Brydon Carse was left high and dry on 39 not out; his efforts, alongside fighting but ultimately thwarted knocks of 60 and 47 from Jamie Smith and Will Jacks had given England genuine hope that their performances at other key moments of the Test, and the series, simply hadn’t warranted.
Labuschagne’s efforts included his second one-handed screamer of the match, this time to pack off Jacks at first slip, and it was a fitting reminder of one of the key differences between the sides. While Australia held onto their catches, England had butter fingers and that cost them a lot in the series. The winning margin was exactly the same score that Usman Khawaja had scored on the first day of the match, after being dropped by Harry Brook on 5. The 71 runs that Travis Head made after the same fielder had reprieved him on 99 would prove to be the death knell of England’s series hopes.
For the first time in the series, the Player-of-the-Match award eluded Mitchell Starc but his claim to the Compton-Miller Medal is now beyond any further discussion. On a day when Australia’s resources were stretched by a potentially series-ending injury to Nathan Lyon, Starc stepped up with the first three of the final four wickets required. His left-arm angles and command of seam and swing were able to extract rare life from an unthreatening Adelaide surface, and once armed with the harder new ball, the end was always nigh despite England’s doughtiest day’s work of the series.
The day of reckoning had dawned with 17 overs remaining until Australia’s new ball, so Lyon and Cameron Green shared the early workload to keep the senior seamers fresh. Despite some early alarms against the short ball, Smith and Jacks settled quickly into a confident stand, with Smith smashing a brace of sixes over the leg-side off spin and seam alike to whittle the requirement below 200.
Lyon’s Ashes series seems to be over
Jacks brought up the fifty stand soon after the resumption, but the biggest moment of the morning came one over later. Lyon, at fine leg, dived valiantly to intercept a Jacks pull, but was in obvious discomfort as he clambered back to his feet. It was instantly apparent that he’d damaged his right hamstring, and as the physio came out to assist him back to the dressing-room, his involvement in the series appeared to have come to an abrupt end.
With the new ball looming, Smith cracked three fours in a row off the part-time spin of Travis Head and Marnus Labuschagne, and then decided to take on the new ball too.
Smith reeled off a quartet of superb, imposing boundaries but just when it seemed he’d rocked Australia back on their heels, Smith attempted one big shot too many: a wild pick-up across the line off Starc. Cummins at wide mid-on backpedalled to swallow the chance, before turning to the crowd to celebrate with a combination of triumph, and some relief.
Jacks, however, stayed true to the methods that had served him well in adversity at the Gabba, remaining watchful outside off and dealing largely in nudged singles square of the wicket. He and Carse carried England through to lunch on 309 for 7, a deficit of 126.
Australia started to create chances and pressure with seam at both ends, and two balls later, Starc served up a wobble-seam outside off, and Labuschagne sprung to his left at first slip to pluck a fat edge in one hand, almost out of Alex Carey’s waiting gloves.
The end was nigh. Carse was dropped by Green at second slip and even Carey, Player of the Match for a peerless performance both in front and behind the stumps, endured a rare blemish as Archer snicked one into his elbow.
It mattered not as the hosts wrapped up the proceedings in quick fashion to go into the Christmas break with joy in their hearts.
