England fall short in record chase as Australia secure Ash’s win in Adelaide

England’s Ashes dreams were snuffed out as they succumbed to an 82-run defeat in Adelaide, where an injury to Nathan Lyon gave them hope of a miracle.

Australia followed up victories in Perth and Brisbane with an unexpectedly nervous success on the fifth day in the third Test, taking an unassailable 3-0 lead after just 11 days of cricket.

For England, a spirited attempt to chase a mammoth target of 435 – 17 higher than the world record and 57 more than any England side has managed – was too little too late to save a torrid tour.

They eventually folded at 352 all out and faced two dead rubbers in the Coliseums of Melbourne and Sydney.

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AUSTRALIA V ENGLAND THIRD TEST FINAL SCORECARD

Great escape

Incredibly, they had the chance to escape in a truly big way.

Lyon, whose triple dismissal of Harry Brook, Ben Stokes and Zak Crawley appeared to settle matters on the fourth night, pulled his hamstring in the field during the morning session and robbed the hosts of their biggest threat on a well-worn delivery.

Jamie Smith and Will Jacks tried to take advantage, with the score at 91 making the huge target suddenly look achievable.

But after hitting four successive boundaries with the new ball, Smith suffered a rush of blood to the head as he chased down a fifth, sending Pat Cummins flying into the leg side to let an increasingly tense Australia off the hook.

Lot

His departure for 60 could easily have ended the battle, with England now seven behind and still 150 short, but Jacks dug back in alongside Brydon Carse to keep the show going.

The pair hit another half-century as Lyon’s absence started to bite, but England’s habit of blinking under pressure reared its ugly head, with Jacks (47) giving away his 137-ball rearguard with a loose sweep to Starc.

Another brilliant slip catch from Marnus Labuschagne followed, another area where Australia have proven themselves vastly superior, and their fate was sealed.

Painful

Jofra Archer picked out a deep run and last man Josh Tongue picked it out, securing a hat-trick of agonizing defeats for a side that arrived Down Under with real ambition.

Instead, they tied the unwanted record of Nasser Hussain’s class of 2002-2003 by returning the urn in the shortest number of days for a five-day, five-match series.

England started with almost no hope, 207 for six and needing 228 runs to do the unthinkable, and it was a surprise that they even toyed with the idea.

Blow

Australia started with Lyon, but he scored a clean sheet in his first attack.

Jacks was confused once on the reverse sweep but survived when the ball hit his elbow, and two deliveries later Smith took a chance, sweeping the off-spinner over the long mid-wicket boundary for six.

On the other hand, Australia opted for the soft seam of all-rounder Cameron Green.

While the more feared fast players waited for the new ball to arrive, Green struggled to land a blow.

Given three catchers deep on the leg side, he tried to tempt Smith with a bouncer and saw the ball clatter all the way into the crowd.

That blow took the required runs below 200, still in the realm of fantasy, but enough to draw cheers from the endlessly optimistic Barmy Army.

Discomfort

There were more roars of approval as the rain arrived, with a light shower forcing the players to leave for more than half an hour.

When play resumed, Australia lost Lyon almost immediately, moving up immediately after the race to stop a boundary and leaving the field in obvious discomfort.

The new ball was just around the corner, but England conceded 17 from the last two overs with the old one, served up by part-timers Travis Head and Labuschagne.

Smith continued to shift through the gears, driving Cummins with authority for back-to-back fours, then taking Starc for another two with a tap of the pads and a glorious cover drive.

Real steel

When the momentum shifted, he got sucked in too far and swiped at a ball that wasn’t there before the hit.

Cummins settled for the catch and Australia’s concerns subsided.

England had once again failed to seize a key moment. Jacks deserves a lot of credit for the way he battled to take the match to the final afternoon and looks like a cricketer made of real steel.

But he couldn’t deny himself a little flash at Starc with a maiden Test 50 in sight. It was a rare error of judgment and one that cost him dearly as Labuschagne swallowed another screamer in the Australian cordon.

England had no real chance once he was gone, with Archer and Tongue making way for the Australian seamers, while Carse held on for 39 no.

England had finally found some resistance but now must dig even deeper to avoid the ignominy of a 5-0 whitewash.

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