Ashes | England dare to dream but clinical Aussies hold firm to seal Ashes 3-0 on Day 5 in Adelaide

Gantavya Adukia

ByGantavya Adukia,SportsCafe Editor

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Australia retained the Ashes urn for the fourth successive time, at the Adelaide Oval on Sunday, with an 82-run win in the third Ashes Test against England. Needing just four wickets for victory with over 200 runs to play with, the hosts faltered early but surged back to bag the result.

Pat Cummins led the Australia charges to victory in Adelaide upon comeback as they secured the urn after just 11 days of action by taking a 3-0 lead in the series against ngland

R‌esuming from an overnight score of 207/6, Will Jacks and Jamie Smith began the final day of the third Test by building upon their nascent partnership with patience and care under lights with overcast skies threatening to spoil the hosts' party. Skipper Pat Cummins chose to start with Nathan Lyon and Cameron Green with the new ball 15 overs away, and the English duo capitalized by taking England till 241/6 before the heavens finally opened to force nearly an hour's pause in proceedings. When play resumed, Cummins went further left-field with Marnus Labuschagne and Travis Head taking the ball, leading to three quick boundaries and the deficit falling to 170 runs when the Kangaroos finally took the new ball as soon as it become available. Smith responded to the challenge with gorgeous back-to-bac boundaries against the captain to bring up his maiden fifty of the series, and pushed the envelope further by replicating the effort against Mitchell Starc. However, the left-arm quick had the last laugh as the wicket-keepeer batter tried to play a shot too many and launched one straight in the air, with Cummins taking a simple catch to end the blundgeoning 91-run stand. With exactly 150 runs still to get, Brydon Carse joined Jacks in the middle and managed to survive a testing period including a bumper barrage to go into Lunch at 309/7, 126 away from the target.

England carried where they had left off before the break as spells from Cummins and Head failed to produce any inroads, the visitors now within a 100 runs of victory. With an unlikely defeat now on the horizon, the Men from Down Under looked to their wrecker-in-chief Starc to save them the blushes, and the southpaw required just four deliveries to have Jacks nick to slip where Marnus Labuschagne produced his second diving one-handed blinder of the innings to disaptch the battef for 47. The left-arm quick then lured Jofra Archer into a big slash a couple of overs later that ended straight in the hands of deep point, eight balls before Scott Boland nicked off Josh Tongue to seal a riveting 82-victory and the series 3-0.

Moment!

Masterclass!

Reatained!

Brilliant on field!

Pure dominance!

Just Wow!

On fire!

Flying!

Again!!!!

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