Time to call stumps.On behalf of the Guardian’s over-by-over team, thanks for your company today and throughout this 2025-26 Ashes series.Over and OUT!Geoff Lemon pays tribute to player of the series Mitchell Starc.It was right that Mitchell Starc should clean up the last two English wickets of this Ashes.Right, too, that Travis Head should mop up a few more runs, but for all of the enjoyment that Head brings with his Jayasuriya-lite batting and his Boon-lite persona, the difference in the series has been the other left-hander.

The fifth morning of the Sydney Test took Starc to 31 wickets at 19, and crossing 30 is the stuff of great Ashes series,Here’s Ali Martin’s match report from this magnificent fifth Test,A few short weeks ago, England arrived on these shores full of swagger and with a genuine chance of winning the Ashes on Australian soil for the first time since 2010-11,Australia looked unusually vulnerable, particularly when captain Pat Cummins and his fellow paceman Josh Hazlewood went down injured before the first Test, leaving Mitchell Starc to lead a ‘second-string’ attack on the bouncy deck at Perth Stadium,And for much of the first two days, the Ashes was a dogfight.

Both teams ran from their corner and threw a multitude of punches, with 19 wickets falling on an incredible first day.But the turning point came on day two.England were on top, having cruised to 65-1 and a lead of 105 runs.Then Scott Boland produced some of his magic, triggering a collapse of four wickets for 11 runs in 19 balls.Ultimately, England lost 9 for 99 but set a total of 205, still had ascendancy in a Test where no team had scored more than 172.

Enter Travis Head.The maverick with the moustache straight out of 70s central casting wasn’t supposed to open but Usman Khawaja had tweaked his back so out Trav strode… and off he went.As a delirious crowd of 49,983 crowd cheered every blow, Head lashed the third-fastest Test ton by an Aussie as his side cruised to victory in 28.2 overs and won the first Test by eight wickets.It was to be the first of three centuries in the series by Head and it left England utterly shellshocked.

They never really recovered.Gervase Greene writes in with a tribute to Trav.I bow to no-one in my admiration for Travis Head (though I still think he should come in at 6 or 7).He has been extraordinary.But I do wonder at the buckets of derision dumped on Jamie Smith and Harry Brook for reckless shots - “lacking situational awareness”, most scathingly - while others are spared the sword.

Head was almost willing himself to get out this morning, and then charging 135kph Josh Tongue to hoick into a crowded leg side was hardly what a squat run-chase required,Aren’t we all being a little inconsistent?It’s a good point, Gervase,Ultimately, the most successful exponent of BazBall proved to be the man behind TravBall,This 4-1 victory by Australia can’t disguise the fact that their batting in this series has frequently been erratic and brittle,Marnus Labuschagne, Jake Weatherald and Cameron Green all had disappointing series and have a serious fight on their hands to hold their spots.

For a series that was won and lost inside 11 days, the 2025-26 Ashes has ended with a flare of hope for the defeated and a tremor of concern for the victors,England will bask in the wonderful innings of 154 by 22-year-old boy wonder Jacob Bethell,They have found a first drop who can lead them into the next generation,With young guns Harry Brook and Jamie Smith by his side, the future looks bright for England batting,As for thew bowlers, Josh Tongue was superb in this Test as he was in the two previous and looks certain to spearhead the England attack alongside Brydon Carse into the future.

Whether Mark Wood and Jofra Archer can recover to form a fastbowling cartel to rival that of Australia remains to be seen.The home side are a team in transition.They farewell 39-year-old opener Usman Khawaja from Test cricket today and have found a supercharged replacement in Travis Head.But Jake Weatherald has had another middling series and after the short-lived trials of Sam Konstas and Nathan McSweeney, they are still searching for an opener to complement Head.With Head up the order their middle-order proved the side’s soft underbelly.

Young allrounder Cameron Green may carry the can for that.He had another unhappy series, outdone by his direct rival Beau Webster, and may exit for selectors to experiment in the two upcoming duels against Bangladesh.With Australia to play 20 Tests in the next 12 months, the baggy green boffins have ample opportunity to mix and match.Australian captain Steven Smith has accepted the Ashes trophy (the urn itself sits snug at Lord’s) from Steve Waugh and is magnanimous in victory and grateful for the team effort that won the series.It was nice to finish on a high note.

We know the importance of every Test with the World Test Championship.It was a great wicket out here.It had a bit of everything.Everyone has stood up at different times throughout the series.Anyone at home plays better than away.

We’ve grown up here and we know how to play on them,Usman has had a wonderful career,I played in his debut,He’s grown as a human and a player and he’s certainly going to be missed in our dressing room,Pat Cummins has joined the team on stage and the injured Nathan Lyon is out there too.

They hold the crystal urn aloft.Big Ben now has five months off.With a leg injury he says “has been better… and has been worse”, he may spend a few of those months recovering from surgery.Will we see him leading another Ashes squad Down Under again? That leg will have a lot of say in it, I suspect.After giving his all in a doomed cause, England captain Ben Stokes has limped to the stage, battered but unbowed.

It was a great game to be involved in,We should have got 100 more and we allowed Australia to get 100 too many in the first innings,Australia are an incredible team,They had individuals who stood up,Full credit to them.

But we know we could have done better.Time for reflection is not right now.We’ve got a long time away to reflect on it.Come June when we next play, hopefully we can put the wrongs right.That knock from Beth was simply incredible.

Josh Tongue keeps going from strength to strength.He keeps impressing.We’ve got some unbelievable talent.Predictably, it’s the big quick from western Sydney who earns the ultimate accolade.He took 31 wickets in this series and led the Australian attack heroically despite the loss of frontline champions Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood.

Instead, Starc spearheaded a new cartel of Scott Boland, Michael Neser and Brendan Doggett and by bowling fast and long and fierce, inspired these second-stringers to glory.It’s a great group to be part of.I’m a little bit tired.Between Scotty, Nes and I, we’ve been told we’re not on the younger side of things but we’ve worked hard as a group.I’m glad I got a few runs at the start of the series because I didn’t at the end.

The partnership in Brisbane with Scotty was a big one for us,The maverick South Australian has done it again! No wonder, after his 163 from 166 balls – his third century of the series,Head receives his medal from another redoubtable middle-order genius, Steve Waugh,Typically, Head is humble in triumph, more intent on how to celebrate this series victory,Batten down the hatches, Sydney.

Head is in charge of the party tonight,God help us all…It’s special,I’ve always found it tough to bat here,Nice to face the new ball and contribute,I probably hold the couple of hundreds in the first three Tests when everything was on the line.

Nice to finish the series well.Man of the moment Usman Khawaja is talking to Fox Sports.This means a lot.So much has gone into it.The only thing I wanted was a win, as much as I wanted to hit the winning runs.

The whole Test match I found it hard to control my emotions.I found it hard to concentrate in the middle.I’m grateful I’ve had the career I’ve had.I have full gratitude.It definitely got a bit too tight.

You never count your chickens.We got the job done though.Lovely words, Uzzie.He finishes this Test with two single-figure scores but after 88 Tests, 6000+ Test runs and 16 centuries, his legacy on and off the field is untouchable.Four Tests to one feels a fitting a scoreline in the end.

Even without captain Pat Cummins and champion fast-bowler Josh Hazlewood, Australia were dominant from the outset,With two eight-wicket wins in Perth and Brisbane and and an 82-run in Adelaide, they had retained the Ashes inside 11 days,Sifting the Ashes of this humiliation, England coach Brendon McCullum claimed his squad had ‘over-prepared’ and that ludicrous claim will be put under the blowtorch when this touring party returns home,Whoever decided the perfect preparation to take on this Australian side on their home turf was no warm-up games prior to the first Test and then some beach soccer and beers when 2-0 down needs their head read,And yet, if England had swallowed their pride to conform to the orthodoxies of ugly-beautiful play Test cricket not Bazball, it might’ve been different.

Too often they succumbed to rushes of blood when cool heads were required.That commitment to chaos seeped into their entire game plan and sparked a sorry fusillade of dropped catches, iffy selections and blown opportunities.The silver lining on this messy maelstrom will have to be their fourth Test victory – the first in Australia since 2011 – and young No 3 Jacob Bethell’s emergence in this Test.32nd over: Australia 161-5 (Green 22, Carey 16) Australia are just one juicy blow from victory… and here it is.Carey strokes Jacks down the ground and a diving fielder cannot stop it.

The ball hits the rope and the visitors hit the wall,It’s all over now,Australia win the Test after an almighty scare by England,What a Test match that was,Australia looked ascendent for most of the five days but England refused to yield