Australia retained the Ashes after rain prevented any play on the ultimate day of the fourth check towards England at Previous Trafford on Sunday after weeks of blockbuster leisure within the closest and most fun Ashes contest since 2005.
Australia has an insurmountable 2-1 lead with one check left. England wanted to win the five-match sequence to take the urn off holder Australia.
A shootout for glory within the fifth check on the Oval beginning Thursday was on the playing cards if there had been sufficient time for England to transform its dominance in Manchester with Australia 214-5 in its second innings and 61 runs behind the hosts.
The fifth-day washout handed the urn to Australia as probably the most pessimistic forecasts got here to move and relentless rain meant the gamers by no means made it to the center in a depressing weekend for England. Solely 30 overs had been attainable on Saturday.
England arrived Sunday needing 5 wickets to recover from the road however left and not using a ball being bowled.
England has all however eradicated the idea of the draw since captain Ben Stokes and head coach Brendon McCullum ushered within the fast-scoring Bazball period greater than a yr in the past, however for the primary time in 17 video games on the helm situations lastly left them with no playing cards to play.
As a substitute, desires of a stirring comeback to beat its rivals for the primary time since 2015 have been swept away.
Australia was more than pleased to complete the job within the pavilion relatively than out on the pitch, however any post-match celebrations could also be barely muted after this slim escape.
There’s nonetheless loads to play for, with Australia bidding to say a primary outright win on English soil in 22 years whereas their opponents are in search of to stage the sequence at 2-2 and protect an undefeated streak below Stokes’ management.
England had made all of the working right here, piling up a 275-run first-innings benefit and taking 5 of the ten wickets it wanted to complete the job earlier than the skies turned towards them.
5 of the final six periods have been misplaced and not using a ball bowled.
The momentum of the sequence had swung when England captain Ben Stokes launched into a six-hitting rampage within the fourth innings of the second check at Lord’s, apparently sparked into life by Alex Carey’s controversial stumping of Jonny Bairstow, and though his magnificent century was not sufficient to save lots of that sport, it set issues on a brand new path.
England gained the third check at Headingley in comparatively comfortably vogue the primary of three must-win video games and spent the primary three days on the opposite facet of the Pennines establishing an much more dominant place at Previous Trafford.
Zak Crawley’s outrageous 189 and an unbeaten 99 from Bairstow noticed them pile up 592, England’s highest whole towards Australia in a dozen years, and a three-wicket blast from Mark Wooden tightened the hosts’ grip on the third night as Australia stumbled to 113-4.
That was nearly as good because it received for England, with Labuschagne making 111 and Mitch Marsh batting by means of what grew to become the ultimate session of the match to maintain Australian heads above water.
