With the third Test wrapped up, I’ll do likewise,Thanks for your company throughout five (!) thrilling days of Test cricket and see you all in Melbourne,Ali Martin has delivered his match report,And Geoff Lemon has written about Pat Cummins and his Ashes legacy,Enjoy!Having wrapped up the series in 11 days and retained the Ashes in ruthless fashion, Australia will have a very merry Christmas indeed.

Particularly pleasing for the selectors will be the fact that it has been an all-squad effort.Even with Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood sidelined early, Mitchell Starc was able to step up to lead the attack with Scott Boland a willing deputy and fringe quicks Michael Neser and Brendan Doggett making valuable contributions.In the batting, South Australia’s finest Travis Head and Alex Carey have led the way.Losing their champion batter Steve Smith on the morning of the Test was far from ideal but both senior men stepped up in style.Head’s 170 in the first innings, with Carey (72) in support, turned the match Australia’s way and Cummins (3-48) and Lyon (3-77) caused similar havoc with the ball.

We have five short days until the fourth Test in Melbourne,Given the ‘beach soccer and beers in the sun’ training philosophy before this Test has backfired so spectacularly on England, how do Ben Stokes’ men approach this period of festive rest?England gave themselves a sniff of a Christmas miracle here, whittling a deficit of 228 in half with the loss of just one wicket,But brain fart batting cost them dearly,Will Jacks holed out just when Australia were starting to sweat and Jofra Archer couldn’t replicate his deeds from the first innings, swinging for the rafters when Brydon Carse was well-set at the other end,Joe Meredith reckons: “If the English selectors want to start from a good place, then they should understand that the purpose of a system is what it does.

Australia understand that.India understand that.England don’t.”Here’s the wicket Australian cricket fans have waited for.THE moment! Australia retains the #Ashes after a brilliant ending.

pic.twitter.com/ZfOi2uOAPhRicky Ponting says the duel to replace Nathan Lyon in this squad is down to Victorian Todd Murphy or Queenslander Matthew Kuhnemann.Both have played Test cricket before with mixed results.The wider question is, will Australia play a spinner at all in the Boxing Day Test or go in with an all-pace attack?That may depend on the health of Pat Cummins who pulled up sore scooping up a ball in the field and may not be risked in the fourth Test.

If the skipper rests, will it be Michael Neser and Brendan Doggett who returns? Or will Jhye Richardson get another chance to impress on the Test stage after his impressive 4-35 against the England Lions earlier this month,A bigger decision is which Australian batter goes out when Steve Smith returns? Given Usman Khawaja scored 82 and 40 in his 11th-hour call-up, Josh Inglis looks the most likely to get the axe,And will Cameron Green’s poor form see him replaced by fellow allrounder Beau Webster who also bowls some handy spin,Decisions, decisions…Australia retain the #Ashes in a five-day thriller! Break it all down here: https://t,co/hpOH2iNVYU pic.

twitter.com/OHtexAI8DCAfter a 3-0 drubbing inside 11 days, Darryl Accone emails to say the baby and the bathwater are both in danger of being thrown out in the next few days.That there might not be a clear-out of coaches and players after Bazball has burnt down the house beggars belief.Perhaps the powers of English cricket, whoever they are, need to heed the words of the French general at the Battle of Balaklava watching the Charge of the Light Brigade:“C’est magnifique, mais ce n’est pas la guerre” (It is magnificent, but it is not war.)Bazball is fun and games, but it is not Test cricket.

Just like the men of the Light Brigade, the England cricket squad and team have been appallingly led, sent on a suicide mission to satisfy the vanity of coach McCullum (“Baz” being an amalgam of the careless, reckless cavalry commanders Lords Raglan and Cardigan), and destroyed because of their youthful gullibility,Wise words, Darryl,But who comes in? England have only one batter in reserve in young Jacob Bethell and he is yet to score a first-class century but will now be thrown to the Australian wolves in the formidable furnace of the Melbourne Cricket Ground,Nathan Lyon is back from the hospital on crutches and looks a long-shot to play in Melbourne on December 26,It’s another blow to Australia’s second-greatest wicket-taker after he missed much of the last Ashes with a calf tear.

Lyon is 38 years and 567 wickets into a storied career but after his benching in Brisbane and this injury, will he have the willpower to carry on?After five months out of the game, Pat Cummins returned to frontline cricket with customary style, ripping the heart out of England’s second innings with three vital wickets and and combatting the loss of Nathan Lyon from his bowling attack by swinging the bowling changes astutely under pressure.“Feels pretty awesome.Been thinking about it for a long time.Wasn’t easy today but got it done.Exciting changing room.

The last two months have been a bit of a grind, but all worth it for days like this.That’s when we are at our best, you can’t really rush things in Australia...it’s good old-fashioned grind, and love the toil from all the guys.

Got a bit closer than we’d have liked.First of all, you need more than 11 players in an Ashes...three Tests in, we’ve shown that.

It’s focusing on what we do well as bowlers, not getting carried away by the opposition,There’s always things that crop up,,,the boys crack on and say what’s next.

Incredible, think [Marnus] and Steve might have a fight over second slip.Marnus manufactured a couple more for us.Packed crowds, all five days, to see two homegrown heroes was awesome.”Ben Stokes and his men arrived with a dream and are now 3-0 into a nightmare.The dream is now over, which is incredibly disappointing.

Everyone is hurting and quite emotional,It hurt… it sucks,But we aint going to stop,Australia have just been able to execute things more consistently than us,We’ve shown it in passages [and I] thought we were on for another heist when Jamie and Will were going.

Losing the toss, bowling, keeping Australia to an under-par score and not being able to respond with the bat when we had an opportunity to put a big score on the board...We were confident we had a good chance of chasing it down, it was a very good wicket.Losing those three wickets at the backend of yesterday set us back.

That stuff I wanted to see, I’ve seen that this week.Think we can take a lot from this game.We’ve got so much more to play for.Australia win by 82 runs and retain the Ashes.pic.

twitter,com/YtIf1CzmmUA popular choice too! Adelaide-born and raised, the Australian wicketkeeper-batter has had a wonderful series and iced it with a masterful performance on his home ground, striking an emotional 106 in the first innings and 72 in the second,Add to those feats his six catches and a stumping and Carey is an easy choice as best afield,It’s been a lot of fun, this Adelaide crowd has been something special,Very special moment, having the family, to score a hundred and look up to the heavens was very special.

Ashes retained, records broken ✅Thank you to Adelaide for an amazing five days of #Ashes cricket 🙌 pic.twitter.com/5CYBHPMaHzAustralia have a reckoning of sorts to contend with too.Nathan Lyon, their 567 wicket champion spinner hobbled off today with a hamstring injury that looks likely to keep him out of the Boxing Day Test.Cameron Green and Josh Inglis are also on the verge of being dumped from the lineup, with Steve Smith to return and Beau Webster the next allrounder up.

And what of Usman Khawaja? Not picked here but delivering a valuable 120+ runs in his last-minute call-up,Does he return? Or do the selectors blood youth into this ageing-but-still-raging Australian side for Melbourne and Sydney?Now comes the reckoning,England arrived on these shores with the BazBall juggernaut in high gear and their best shot in decades of snatching back the Ashes and breaking their wretched run of series defeats in Australia,Plenty thought the Australians looked vulnerable to the ambush too,They were without their captain Pat Cummins and another pace ace in Josh Hazlewood.

Their batting was also under heavy scrutiny with Usman Khawaja in his 40th year and Travis Head out of form.Instead, the men in the baggy green caps have crushed the pride of England in just 11 days.Ashes to ashes, dust to dust…The home side have taken the series by 3-0 and the Ashes stay with Australia.England were brave today – they clawed their way from a deficit of 228 to get within 84 runs of the greatest run chase in cricket history – but Australia have utterly outplayed them in this Test and the two prior and are deserved winners today.“They never come easy,” Marnus Labuschagne tells Channel Seven.

“It just felt like everything stuck.”Boland tempts the edge.Tongue takes the bait.Labuschagne grabs the catch.Australia win the Ashes!103rd over: England 349-8 (Carse 37, Tongue 0) One wicket to go for Australia now while England need 84 runs.

Their hopes of a miracle were alive just half an hour ago, but Mitchell Starc has stomped on their dreams yet again, coming back into the attack and quickly removing Will Jacks and Jora Archer.Carse turns Starc for a single but there’s an ill wind blowing for England fans in Adelaide and the Barmy Army have gone deathly quiet.Archer slashes wildly as Starc hangs a juicy ball outside off.The big English quick, fresh from a maiden half-century in the first innings, couldn’t resist temptation and gave it the cart and the horse.Weatherald stood firm on the third man boundary and took the catch down low.

Starc strikes again!102nd over: England 349-8 (Carse 37, Archer 3) Starc to Archer,A duel between the two fastest bowlers in the Test,Jofra slashes at the second but misses,The crowd sighs and Australian hands go to heads,Josh Tongue is the last man standing and he walks to the gallows as the green caps gather like wolves around a felled deer.

101st over: England 349-8 (Carse 37, Archer 3) England start this over needing 88 runs for a famous win, Australia require two wickets to snatch the victory and retain the Ashes.Scott Boland has the ball to Brydon Carse and the visitors pinch another run with a push to the off.Easy runs all morning for the batters as Pat Cummins started the day with the twin spin of Travis Head and Nathan Lyon.Is that an edge? No, it’s off Archer’s elbow.Carey, standing up to the stumps, doesn’t glove it anyway