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England escaped the infamy of losing ash in 10 days of cricket but Australia He placed one hand on the urn as Adelaide reached an unassailable 3-0 lead.
After spending two days in Perth and four days in Brisbane, ben stokes‘The beleaguered side came dangerously close to setting a new low – surrendering the series a day earlier than the 11 Nasser Hussain’s Class of 2002–03 had managed a generation ago.
They escaped that fate mainly because of the show of heart jack crawleyWho maintained his reputation as a top-order batsman with a courageous innings of 85 off 151 balls, but a heavy defeat on the fifth day in South Australia remained firmly on the agenda.
Chasing a world-record 435, England reached 177 for three to keep the contest alive ahead of the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne. nathan lyon His return in 20 brutal balls was heartbreaking.
Spinner clean bowled harry brook And Stokes left them limping at 207 for six before Crawley was stumped. captain of australia pat cummins had already done his share of damage, bidding farewell ben duckett, Ollie Pope And Joe Root With an expert display of precise fast bowling.
jamie smith And will jacks were together at the end, knowing that the biggest escape would require a miracle of 228 runs.
As Crawley and Brooke were building together, the last embers of English hope began to glow again. The path to victory was narrow and dangerous, but it was just in sight.
Then Lyon played its game. The champion spinner scored 49 runs in the first 10 overs, with England deploying a steady flow of sweeps and reverse sweeps to reduce turn and prevent him from building pressure.
Australia had also turned to part-time batsman Travis Head for a change to hamper progress. But when England scored 13 runs in the sixth over, Lyon was called back to the stage and launched a devastating spell.
His second ball hit the back jackpot, Brook swung a credible reverse but failed to connect as it crossed the bat and went over the leg. He stood in his place for a moment, wrongly wondering whether a stumping attempt had been made, but the enthusiastic celebration all around made his fate clear.
Stokes was out, still 258 runs needed. It was a bridge – or several bridges – too far for a man who has done the unthinkable before and he was only able to complete five of that tally before moving into shallow defense and exposing his off stump. Lyon, despite being completely away from the left-handed batsman, did not miss.
If Stokes’ dismissal seemed decisive, the end of Crawley’s possession provided the perfect break. Notching what would have been a highly impressive century, even in a losing cause, he took three quick wickets as he was stumped by Alex Carey when he went down the track.
England’s task was looking almost impossible when home captain Cummins made two early breakthroughs, Duckett continued his poor tour by hitting his second ball into the slips and Pope took a sensational one-handed catch in the circle off Marnus Labuschagne.
Pope scored 17, which is his perfect average against Australia, and looks certain for the discard pile.
Root scored 39 runs and shared a 78-run partnership with Crawley to neutralize Lyon. But he lost to rival Cummins for the 13th time, feeling contact outside the off stump could have put him in the hunt.
Earlier, their pace attack had taken Australia all out from 311 for six to 349 for six.
two wickets fell passion tongueWho took four wickets for 70 runs and Brayden Carse took two wickets in two balls. Stokes took one wicket for 26 runs in a seven-over spell, being too tired to bowl on the third day, and Jofra Archer completed his sixth over of the match.
It was a brief reminder of how England had envisioned things going when they attacked, but it was hard to escape the feeling that too much damage had already been done.