Australia win by an innings and 14 runs on a scarcely believable morning session. Didn’t even reach lunch. England was just blown away. It’s been a horror tour. And what’s to come? For now, though, let’s just marvel at Australia’s performance. Scott Boland with the greatest day of his career. Their pace bowling has been irresistible throughout the series. They took a wicket with the first ball of the series and haven’t looked back. Hugs and high-fives all around in the Australia camp. Soul-searching for England. They have had some lows down under, but not any lower than this.
This Test match lasted 1084 balls, the shortest completed Test match hosted by Australia in 70 years.
All the Australians are walking around the MCG taking it all in. Huge smile on Boland’s face. I’m sure he can’t believe it. “I’m speechless,” he says on Fox. “I had no idea it would be over by midday. That’s my best-ever figure, nothing happened that quickly. [The crowd] were amazing, going down there gives you a real big buzz.”
Lowest first innings lead for a team to win by an innings:
46 – ENG (246) vs NZ (200 & 26) in 1955, Auckland
74 – WI (392) vs ENG (318 & 51) in 2009, Kingston
82 – AUS (267) vs ENG (185 & 68) in 2021, Melbourne
87 – WI (218) vs PAK (131 & 77) in 1986, Lahore
This is surely the worst ever England team to ever come to Aus. I’ll be shocked if it doesn’t finish 5-0, the entire batting lineup should be scrapped except Root, even he should be stripped of the captaincy after this tour though.
The Ashes 3rd Test, Australia vs England Highlights today, Tuesday 28-12-2021, from Melbourne Cricket Ground.
Cummins win the toss and chose to bowl first.
Australia team: 1 David Warner, 2 Marcus Harris, 3 Marnus Labuschagne, 4 Steven Smith, 5 Travis Head, 6 Cameron Green, 7 Alex Carey (wk), 8 Pat Cummins (capt), 9 Mitchell Starc, 10 Scott Boland, 11 Nathan Lyon.
England team: 1 Haseeb Hameed, 2 Zak Crawley, 3 Dawid Malan, 4 Joe Root (capt), 5 Ben Stokes, 6 Jonny Bairstow, 7 Jos Buttler (wk), 8 Ollie Robinson, 9 Mark Wood, 10 Jack Leach, 11 James Anderson.
Form guide
(last five completed matches, most recent first)
Australia: WWLDL
England: LLLWL
Match Timings: 23:30 GMT (prev day) | 10:30 Local
Umpires – Paul Reiffel, Paul Wilson
TV Umpires – Rod Tucker
Match Referee – David Boon
Reserve Umpire – Shawn Craig
Match number – Test no. 2442
Post Match Presentation.
Player of the Match is Scott Boland
who gets the Mullagh Medal in a hugely significant moment. Huge cheers around the ground. “Coming here today, though we had a good chance. Found out on Christmas Eve, told some family and friends. Thought it was going to be really tough, a big step up. Hoping to make a little bit of an impact. Like to thank the crowd for all the support, really appreciate it. There were about 17 of us who went away a few years to commemorate the 1868 tour, very proud to win this award.”
Pat Cummins:
“It’s pretty insane…an awesome few weeks, so proud of the group. Everything has clicked. So happy for Scotty in front of his home crowd. I think we’ve been relentless. The bowlers have owned that good area. Some big partnerships, they have earned the right to bat long. They’ve been really brave and taken on the game. Michael Neser, really disappointed he didn’t get the chance, but a great sign of the strength of Australian cricket. We were really confident Scotty would do a great job. Maybe not 6 for 7! Any Ashes series is when you try and make a mark on your Test career. The last series was 4-0, one before that was 5-0, so a chance to start cementing our identity.”
Joe Root:
“We’ve been playing in these times for a while now, all you can do is try and front up. Credit to Australia they blew us away. A lot of hard work to do. [Covid] It’s not ideal, I thought the way we went about our cricket on the field was excellent. We put them under pressure and were very much in the Test match. We’ve got to do things for longer, been small pockets but nowhere near long enough. We know the areas we need to improve on. We have to stay strong and look at the next two games to take something from the tour.”
